Hey guys,
First off, I would like to thank everyone who has supported me in commenting on my website, sending me emails, or twitting about my themes. Most of all, I would like to thank everyone who has purchased my premium works. Your support is the main reason why I continue to theme and to be involved in the S60 community.
Thank you.
Today, I was tipped off by an anonymous person (thank you again) that my Seven icon set was extracted. Unfortunately, this is not new nor surprising. However, what was surprising was that this person claimed to have create the icon set, and provided credit to me as being the “inspiration”.
This person goes by the name of “Illi” or “Ille.exe”, and has created a website to showcase their future theme plans.
Let me start off by saying this:
I knew for a fact that my icons would eventually be extracted. However, I did not expect others to change a few vector points and claimed it as their own. I have personally created hundreds of thousands (possibly one million+) of vector points. I have spent possibly over 300+ hours of work on creating the 500+ unique icon set.
Not only has this person violated my icon work, but check this out:
As my favourite themer, tehk7, i want my future themes to feature various highlight colours, which i will name Spot colour, and here is the spot colour pallete:
-Transparent (glass)
-Black (cold)
-Green (vienna)
-Blue (ree)
-Red (vu)
-Purple (aurora)
-Brown (tow)
-White (clear)
-Orange (sole)
-Gray (hue)
Zen, Vista, Solace, anyone?
In addition to Ille’s work, not only are my icons available to download (various forums), but there are also instructions on how to extract them! (This URL I will not share, but I have bookmarked it).
I’ve been semi-reluctant to create a rant post, but this one has forced me to. The cold hard truth is people will probably download and use Ille’s work, because they care more about the .sis file than the artist. I cannot do anything about that.
Some of you may recall a video I have created recently entitled “Inbox of a Nokia Themer”
This highlights some of the emails/comments I have received, which is portrayed in a comedic manner. However, I assure you there is nothing funny about what has happened.
What’s Going to Happen Now?
It has been impossible to track the totality of my theme downloads, as they have been shared so freely and openly. However, I estimate that my themes have been downloaded at least 1.2 million times worldwide (various forums + websites like Zedge provided huge download amounts). Granted, some people will download the file multiple times for backup/re installation purposes. Out of all of those downloaders, only a handful of people genuinely respect my art. The rest will bombard my inbox with requests and obvious questions. Most of you will notice that I have installed the new Disqus comment system on this website. This is purely to control the amounts of random comments/requests I receive.
So the big question is, why should I continue investing hundreds of hours into work when the majority of my user base couldn’t care less about me? I honestly don’t know. For too long, I have had to put on a smiley face as others blatantly disrespect my work and disregard my opinions. I have always wondered why most of the top S60 themers appear reserved in regards to commenting and posting on their websites. Now, I know why.
As of now, these will be my plans:
Any and all plans of promised themes/updates will be canceled until further notice. (ie. Enterprise One update).
The Seven Icon set will no longer be available on free themes (unless it is for special projects, like the Symbian Planet theme). Themes will be released with default and Ovi icons only. A Seven icon version will be available, however there will be a small download fee (Maybe $0.99 USD or so).
I will finish my work on the Symbian Planet theme, as well as my work with Evo.