Metro - "Hey! I made a skin with a flat coloured box first!"
What I always worry about with my books, especially the names of the characters in them, is that someone else would have used it first. I suppose I could stick with James, Fred, and Sally. I did an internet search for the name of my protagonist before I started using it. There were none, not even the porno sites. Now that two books are published there are several out there, both real person and fictional. I didn't even know it was a real person name... At least with documents if push came to shove you can simply do a word replace and be done with it. (and cry for the lost of a terrific name)
I don't think I'll ever share any of my creations once I get some done. I tend to grab a little from several places and then forget where I found them. Then I edit and recolor and use them to figure out just "how" to craft things. What I finish with I hope looks like my own - but is it? Like skinning it is easy, you start with a skin you like and methodically change the graphics, colors, and texts. But you might leave how the things line up, or how the start button animates, or perhaps other animations. Is that ripping or theft? What's the difference between ripping and borrowing an idea? Right now my skins are all kinda ugly and don't work right half the time, but they all started with another that I tore apart and changed. Most are Stardock (which I assume you are allowed to do that with?) but a couple of my favorites that I'm trying to copy are from others. Am I borrowing, ripping off, or when my creation is finally functional, would it be considered mine?
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