Comments on: Now here’s something interesting

By: EliHorne » What a link from Shaun Inman looks like

EliHorne » What a link from Shaun Inman looks like — Sat, 26 Jan 2008 15:58:28 +0000

[...] What a link from Shaun Inman looks like Back in September I spotted something fishy over at desktoptopia, and managed to get a link from Shaun Inman. While the whole situation [...]

By: Desktoptopia Team

Desktoptopia Team — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:51:04 +0000

Hi Guys,

A big thanks to AJ for making us aware of this.

Unfortunately, it’s not the first time someone has uploaded a background that they didn’t have the rights to. We have someone physically look at every desktop submitted for quality control, we attempt to make sure everything is on the up and up copyright wise too, but it can be tough. This user used your name Eli and linked to your Flickr page (probably a fan trying to give you credit), so things looked kosher.

We’ve removed the photo that belongs to you, and blocked the user from future uploads. We’re also brainstorming ways to better protect artists rights at upload.

We’re also embarrassed about Shuan’s “Required” icons that are clearly the same. It’s a glaring example of unethical web designers. We plan to change it first thing on Monday when we’re back in the office. Sorry Shaun.

By: Eli

Eli — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 17:10:52 +0000

@joshua – Holy crap, thanks for the compliment. I’ve been an admirer of your work for a long time.

This current theme came to life in an odd way: I was redesigning my resume in anticipation of moving to New York, and really liked the layout. So I cobbled it together into a WP theme as well.

Its still rough around the edges (missing a footer, not all pages have even bottom margins), but it works! I’m planning on cleaning up the code/css and then releasing it to the public, but I think I’m going to wait until WP2.3 comes out with native tag support. Either that or swap out the tags for categories.

By: Greg Hoy

Greg Hoy — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:28:17 +0000

I saw the original post to this site on Shaun’s site, and subsequently tried the Desktoptopia app out. I may have even paid the $10 for the thing (by the way, it didn’t work too well). I assumed they were smart enough to get consent from the content creators. Wow. They not only stole from the content creators, but kicked them when they were down.

By: Eli

Eli — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 14:06:43 +0000

@eric – thanks for the heads up. I’ve updated the post to include a screenshot of the profile page before they changed it.

By: Eric Meyer

Eric Meyer — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 13:49:59 +0000

And now the profile you linked is “Unknown” with no associated backgrounds. It still has the same join date, though.

By: AJ

AJ — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 11:41:43 +0000

I’ve reported the link to Apple as a distributor of stolen content. It should actually be removed by Monday. It’s not Apple’s policy to post downloads that distribute stolen content.

By: GÃ¶ran

GÃ¶ran — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 05:40:38 +0000

That is sad! It would be great to read about the follow up, if thereÂ´ll be one!

By: Ian Smith

Ian Smith — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 03:29:40 +0000

Huh. And I was just trying out their software yesterday… interesting development, hope you get it all sorted out. I hate it when people pretend to be you so they can get authorization…

By: Joshua Bryant

Joshua Bryant — Sun, 09 Sep 2007 02:41:26 +0000

Shaun, I’ve noticed that they’ve been using your code and design since the site launched quite awhile ago. I figured since it was linked to so many times, you’d find out about it faster than if I emailed you. Sorry!

I like the idea of their software, and think it could be really cool. But artist attribution is a huge flaw of it. I remember seeing some really cool desktop pictures on a roll of the demo, and it was impossible to find the original author.

Eli, I hope it gets worked out. And that’s a great photo by the way. Also, this is by far the best blog design I’ve seen in a long long time. Absolutely loving it!