Guest edgecrush3r Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Hello everyone, I am currently setting up a small business for "semi-professional" Theme creators to be able to re-sell their works of art to a commercial audience. As am not willing to steal ANYTHING from anyone (i'd actually credit the Author unlike the Celluloco.com story), please share your comments or about it. With regards, Edge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest crafty Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Out of interest why would people want to buy themes when there's so many great themes available for free? Do you plan to offer anything that people can't get elsewhere? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest edgecrush3r Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Out of interest why would people want to buy themes when there's so many great themes available for free? >>To be quiete honest I have no idea... There are plenty of good skins out there, but I guess a major gross is too lazy to cross-copy files over to their phone. I have been working in the ringtone+wallpaper industry for quite a while, and the revenue for this is still growing strong on other handsets like Nokia etc. I normaly always donate via PayPal, if option is there and I downloaded some skins I realy like for personal usage. >>Do you plan to offer anything that people can't get elsewhere? Yes, else I would have to call it fraud... The sites I am working on, will just provision the customers via SMS, or direct-download. I am not sure yet, wheter I pay the artist a fixed fee or per download basis.. On other handsets its more easy as a content-provider can buy exclusive/unique re-seller packages. regards, edge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Dale1313 Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 I have been contacted by several companies to provide this type of service...while I would love to get paid for what we do I do not think the market is strong enough yet to support the idea...well pointed out is the "free" themes you can get here. A few problems though..the skin if paid for would have to worrk on their phone..has I have seen themes will work differently on different phones either they do not line up or for some reasons the colors seem to be off somewhere in the program...So I would wonder how would you jusitfy someone downloading a skin and then saying it did not work right and they wanted their money back? Maybe you could set up free download sections with a small monthly or one time fee...I could see that working...but like everywhere else the artisit would get almost no money to justify their work. You could offer custom company logos designed for company phones...you could offer an adult section...you could offer sports themes etc... Then there is copyright materials and of course the USA is pushing a "no nudity" type of approach to items being sent via phones. While cell phones are the media of the future your idea is great but how much thought have you put in it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest edgecrush3r Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 thanks very much for your thoughts, Dale1313.. However I can not answer everything in detail (as it will kill my current NDA with some corperate channels), I will explain a bit more about the basic idea. First of all the site will be accessable through the handset itself and thus "Browser" detection is used to show the supported skins.. If a download fails: we send a link through SMS, or refund. It will indeed have certain catagories, like abstract, babes, cars, computer etc... For the copyright issues,its kinda grey: because it basically is said that you have to add "enough" modification for the picture to be yours... I have tried to contact several organisations dealing with copyrights, but no one could give me a straight and clear answer. Any1 out there having the same issues ?? With regards, Edge Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest drblow Posted December 8, 2004 Report Share Posted December 8, 2004 Basically there are no rules about copyright issues. Copyright law is a quagmire of random events & cases, very few of which ever set precedents for other actions. The basic rule is that the owner of copyright has the right to object to modification or misrepresentation of their work, or "passing off" - which is when one thing is marketed as if it was actually something else ... you know what I mean!? As you can see from the vaguaries of my answer, it's not an easy thing to describe! :( I'm a musician, and I have to deal with copyright issues alot. To put it into context, if someone uses an image/text/design etc that is copyright owned or trademarked by someone else, then that person/organisation has the right to object to it's use, and potentially sue over any financial rewards that resulted from it's use, and of course stop any future use of the offending thing. :( If they can prove that they own the original design, they can potentially sue if you directly copied it, or altered it in a way they did not approve of. The burden of proof is on both parties to prove original ownership. Of course, if someone redraws/rewrites something themselves that is very similar but slightly different to something else, then it's a very difficult thing to prove, and most cases would never see light of day unless large sums of money were involved. All this effectively means that if you are going to copy/alter something that belongs to someone else, it's best practice to ask permission, and if reasonalby large sums are involved, then sign a contract. As for the original question, my personal view is that the idea of selling themes or skins for smartphones is questionable. There are 'theme packs' available to download at handango & elsewhere that are basically a bunch of background images with the default windows xml layout. They do sell in small quantities it would seem, but they are clearly aimed at very low level smartphone users who do not want/are not able to customise the phone themselves - not the kind of people who would frequent modaco in the main - so I would be pretty sure that the forum in general will seem fairly negative towards the idea of paying for something which is currently available for free. Take a look at this thread HERE for a similar subject. I think another factor may be that some users may not like the idea of installing things they download from the internet. Just wait til the first smartphone virus comes out!! :) I think really that of course I would love to make heaps of cash out of selling smartphone themes, but TBH I'm not sure I would be into it even if the opportunity was there. The whole customisation thing has been going now at modaco for a couple of years, and it's been a great community to be involved with (DrBlow goes all misty eyed ... :cry: ). Part of that whole community spirit has been because people have dedicated time & effort to doing things, and then shared them with the community for free. I don't see the forum here being bothered about themes/skins for sale. There will always be people coming here who want to customise their phones, learning how to do it, and then uploading their work for people to see/comment upon/slag off :( ... for free. I know for myself, I spent a great deal of time messing with my phone's homescreen, and when I upload something I've done, I'm just hoping someone will like it/get some use out of it, and maybe hopefully some people can pinch ideas from the code to make their own great homescreens, coz thats what I did! That said, I believe that the modaco community only represents a small percentage of the total smartphone users in the country/world, so there may well be a reasonable market for them among low level users who just want to download a new background/theme. I guess price would be a huge factor for the buyer, but if they were cheap & easy to install/use then it might work!? :shock: I reckon thats my tuppence worth! :D Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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