Regularly  I read articles about this subject. Sadly enough this is something from all times and is increasing in this computer era. I gave it some serious thought, but I know the fact that I still live, instead of dying 4 years ago, gives me another perspective of the matter than most have. My energy is now very limited.
I hope my English is sufficient to tell you what I want to tell…

A letter to the artists:

It is a sad thing if someone steals your work. It can make you angry or give you a lot other negative feelings. No, there is no excuse for someone to take your work and use it, or worse: to claim it as their own. I know how this can feel.
It can be hard to see that someone else took your hard work, your ideas, your feelings, and take the credit for it, or even sell it, without doing anything for it. You will have heard the most creative excuses if you confront the thief with the theft (as I have heard so many).

But realize this: YOU are an artist. YOU have a very precious gift. When you create something it makes you happy. It can take hours or weeks or more to finish your work, but it is yours. You have the memory of creating it. It is something the thief wants to have, but will never have…
It will eat your energy to fight a war you will loose. You can only win a battle. This energy you can also use to create beauty.


A letter to the art thief:

It is a human thing you like to be admired by others. It is a human thing you want to be respected by others… Obviously you admire the work you have taken and use without permission… but this is not the way to admire yourself or respect yourself. You yourself will always know the work is not yours, so, the admiration and respect is not for you.
Stealing work is something that really hurts the original artist deeply. Do you realize that? Is that what you really want? If this is not something you really intended: stop doing this immediately!

Several art thieves will think this doesn’t apply to them: they only upload the art of others to a site with free wallpaper or somewhere else. They don’t claim the work as their own and they don’t get any money out of it. Well, this kind of using someone else’s work is also art theft. It also hurts people very, very much…



I learned so many lessons in this life. One of them is: it eats energy to fight this war.
But I can only speak for myself, maybe you think different. That is OK, I only wanted to give my view. Maybe my words are something to think over.

For many years now I have a lot of fun with the freeware fractalprogram Fractal Explorer... and many people more.
Fractal Explorer has proven to be an excellent fractalprogram.
But there is a problem now...

Arthur, the creator of Fractal Explorer hasn't got the time anymore to update the program.
It has to be made compatible for Vista (and later). Some people can still use it, some can't, or there are problems.
I asked Arthur about updating it. He wrote:

"Probably it is impossible. Or may be very difficult...
FE was created with Delphi 3, which was released in 1997 or 1998 year...
It was not simple to get compatibility with Win 2000/XP because
Delphi 3 not have some declarations for this OS...
To get compatibility with Vista FE needs much never compiler. May be
Delphi 7 (at least), may by more never...

But moving from Delphi 3 to another version is very difficult, because
FE uses many additional components and controls. And some from it
has no compatible versions for never versions of Delphi.
So, it needed to rewrite at least 60-70% of UI code and design..."

I don't understand all this, but I understand I and many others soon can't play with this toy anymore.
Is there anyone around here that is able to update Fractal Explorer for the future?

I was writing a tutorial, but the motivation is gone now, because probably there is no FE anymore to play with

Please contact me, and I will contact Arthur.

Some time ago I gave away several of my files ( and from my friend Arend Nijdam) to use as starterfiles...
[link]
But....I noticed several people don't use them as meant. They just used them as they are, just add a layer, just changed some coordinates,  or changed only the color...

This makes me very sad.
In the comments of the artist I read even things like: "this took me many hours, but I'm satisfied with the outcome".

I don't have to mention names...you will know.

I am not after credits: I gave those files because I wanted people to play with them and have the satisfaction of creating.

The best way to use starterfiles is: change the formula first. After that you can call them your own.
If you don't do this, please change them considerably.

Dear friends, you can't fool yourselves. I can let you banned from DeviantArt for doing this. But I don't want that.
So: please, really change the starterfiles. It would be nice if you still gave me credit (as several of you also did) for the starterfiles, that would be sweet.

Can I count on you (who concern this) in the future ?

love,
Titia