Thread: PT wALTERED
View Single Post
Old 12-20-2010, 05:17 PM   #113
WYSYR
Human being with feelings
 
WYSYR's Avatar
 
Join Date: Jan 2010
Posts: 3
Default

Quote:
Originally Posted by White Tie View Post
> Just my personal uninformed opinion <

It seems clear to me that if you're taking images from another DAW and using them to make a theme, you're infringing copyright material. I don't really see how there can be any doubt about that. I would certainly hope that, at the very least, if the owner asked you (or anyone doing likewise) to stop, you would ...even if it were for no other reason than being a gentleman about it.

Being realistic I would expect that, sooner or later, someone's going to get upset or someone's going to get in trouble. So, there's value in avoiding that.

I also have (quite unscientifically) done a couple of tests with pre-walter 'tribute' themes and users from other DAWs, to see if they found the transition easier. I found that they indeed made the user initially feel much more at home and engaged (good) but ultimately were counter-productive because they seemed to expect the controls (which looked as they were used to) to behave exactly the same way as they did in their DAW, which of course they didn't, because its Reaper. And confusion ensued. There's definitely a crossover point on this... matching comparable shortcuts, for example, is a 100% effective way of easing the transition to Reaper. So the 'matched theme' thing seems a grey area.

It appears apparent to me that the obvious solution to both situations is to create 'other DAW similar' themes - elements look similar without being directly stolen, positioning done much the same wherever it is appropriate but NOT when the functionality is radically different, bundled shortcuts that are as close as makes sense. Thereby the transitioning user could feel 'at home', get their work done more comfortably, but not get led astray about the fact that some things in Reaper area just going to be different and will need learning and the benefit of a little bit of experience. And no one gets in trouble. I appreciate that means you have to draw your own graphics, which is quite a task, but worth it I think.
I have always wondered about this aspect of Reaper themes but I definitely agree...it is better to be safe than sorry. :-)
__________________
Whatever you sow you reap.
WYSYR is offline   Reply With Quote