Hmm well if someone did want to go to that much effort to edit a skin yes it is possible
I just don't think Patchou will want to spend the effort in adding in advanced content protection systems in just for skins. I'm sure he'd rather spend his energy trying to figure out better things.
I am just hopeful that what I will do will help the situation. I know it won't totally stop it, I'm not a fool.
So here is my goal:
Get Windows Live Messenger to a state where it was like in MSN Messenger 7.5. Where all main images were pngs, no MSNRLEs, no vista only images, no 4006 group dependency.
I will simplify changing text colors by making it controlled via skininfo so that you don't have to open multiple files to edit the one thing. The same goes for the min max and close buttons.
If people don't want that, well too bad
I'm doing it because it benefits me to get something that efficient going as well, not just newbies and other skinners.
/ 
