Shoutbox

Skin developers who want to "hide" their files can use resource DLL libraries, it's entirely supported by the system.

That being said, I understand your point and we had similar discussions when scripts were introduced. It's the nature of this work: many people will probably just prefer modifying an existing skin rather than creating a new one from scratch. As ipab said, "imitation is the sincerest form of flattery". However, this kind of copy won't be blindly tolerated in the official skin db, like it is not tolerated in the scripts db. As a general rule, people should always credit others when appropriate. If they just copied your stuff and don't mention your name anywhere, you have the right to complain and the skin could be removed from the db as a consequence. It's generally better to contact the other skin develoepr directly as more than often, this kind of problem can be resolved in a more appropriate way like that.

I'm the first one to recommend people to check existing skins and scripts to learn how to do it. Many of you already did that while beta testing and this will never change. Still, you are entitled to some recognition so if you have a specific problem with someone, let me know (or actually, let MenthiX know as he's in charge of the db).