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This is a case of potential piracy, but it isn't theft. And it isn't 'over $20,000'. If would have been over $20,000 if the number of downloaders that the autho

by Blahah 13y ago

This is a case of potential piracy, but it isn't theft. And it isn't 'over $20,000'. If would have been over $20,000 if the number of downloaders that the author guessed downloaded the pirated version would have definitely been going to pay for the paid version, but of course that's not true. Call it what it is, and by all means get mad about it, but don't call someone a thief when they're at worst a pirate and don't pretend pirated downloads equate to lost sales.

zeidrich 13y ago
That would be the case if stampready were selling it and emailonacid were giving it away for free. Instead, Stamp Ready is a mac app which sells for about $30. Emailonacid is a subscription based service that goes for free to $70/month. Neither simply offer the theme on its own. Both require some sort of purchase or subscription at which point the theme is made available. That said, I agree that it can't really be considered lost sales. If I wanted to use StampReady I can't in general because I don't have easy access to a Mac, and the only build they have is a mac app. Likewise, without this blog post, there is no way for me to know that either stampready or emailonacid host that theme. Neither of them advertise it on their site. I wouldn't ever choose one over the other because of the existence of that theme; I don't even know it's there until I've already got a subscription to one of them. In that way it's even more ephemeral. I mean, sure, there is IP theft going on, but the actual impact is really hard to gauge. You're not losing customers; you're not losing sales. You're providing the other company with some marginal perceived value that they didn't have to put the same effort into building. However, the most ironic thing about this is: without your blog post, I didn't know about emailonacid. It's actually a service that I haven't investigated and looks like it can solve some issues I've had with other mailing services. I can't make user of StampReady as I said because of the limitations of being a mac app. I can't say I'm going to use emailonacid, but you've definitely increased my awareness of the brand, and provided an amount of free advertising that I would have never got before. I've hunted around their site looking for evidence of that theme and actually got a bunch of information about them. If this was a ploy to advertise for them, then it worked very well. If not, then I think it was very counterproductive.
- gojomo 13y ago
  The claimed original work sells as a template separately from the (optional, Mac-only) StampReady app.
jt2190 13y ago
> This is a case of potential piracy... I think you're correct. As I understand it, one can not legally protect a page layout. (Imagine how difficult it would be to publish a book if people could protect things like "black times roman typeface on white background with one inch borders.") The description of a layout to a computer can be copyrighted as a form of expression, so one can copyright their specific CSS description of a page layout. It's interesting to note that the benefits of even this form of copyright protection is contentious: If a layout can only practically be expressed to the computer in a few different ways, then the odds of accidental infringement are very high.

by Blahah 13y ago

zeidrich 13y ago

That would be the case if stampready were selling it and emailonacid were giving it away for free. Instead, Stamp Ready is a mac app which sells for about $30. Emailonacid is a subscription based service that goes for free to $70/month. Neither simply offer the theme on its own. Both require some sort of purchase or subscription at which point the theme is made available. That said, I agree that it can't really be considered lost sales. If I wanted to use StampReady I can't in general because I don't have easy access to a Mac, and the only build they have is a mac app. Likewise, without this blog post, there is no way for me to know that either stampready or emailonacid host that theme. Neither of them advertise it on their site. I wouldn't ever choose one over the other because of the existence of that theme; I don't even know it's there until I've already got a subscription to one of them. In that way it's even more ephemeral. I mean, sure, there is IP theft going on, but the actual impact is really hard to gauge. You're not losing customers; you're not losing sales. You're providing the other company with some marginal perceived value that they didn't have to put the same effort into building. However, the most ironic thing about this is: without your blog post, I didn't know about emailonacid. It's actually a service that I haven't investigated and looks like it can solve some issues I've had with other mailing services. I can't make user of StampReady as I said because of the limitations of being a mac app. I can't say I'm going to use emailonacid, but you've definitely increased my awareness of the brand, and provided an amount of free advertising that I would have never got before. I've hunted around their site looking for evidence of that theme and actually got a bunch of information about them. If this was a ploy to advertise for them, then it worked very well. If not, then I think it was very counterproductive.

gojomo 13y ago
The claimed original work sells as a template separately from the (optional, Mac-only) StampReady app.

jt2190 13y ago

> This is a case of potential piracy... I think you're correct. As I understand it, one can not legally protect a page layout. (Imagine how difficult it would be to publish a book if people could protect things like "black times roman typeface on white background with one inch borders.") The description of a layout to a computer can be copyrighted as a form of expression, so one can copyright their specific CSS description of a page layout. It's interesting to note that the benefits of even this form of copyright protection is contentious: If a layout can only practically be expressed to the computer in a few different ways, then the odds of accidental infringement are very high.