Mac users are in uproar today about yet another company, in search of financial gain, leeching from non-profit making individuals. Mixthepix.com, owned by Hein Mevissen, is a veritable Mecca for Windows and Mac users in search of great icons. However a commercial company named FWB has instilled anger in the Mac community due to its underhand and illegal use of Mevissen"s icons.
FWB has poached icons from Mevissen"s site and packaged them into a product named DriveTest at a retail price of $24.95. In apparent retaliation to this move by FWB, Mevissen has stated on his site that there will be no more updates of any kind.
Xicons, a similar site, has also fallen prey to FWB"s shady tactics.
When questioned by a concerned user a company representative replied with this email :
We have first been made aware of this by an email we got from someone else yesterday evening at 6:00 pm on April 5th.This email suggests (assuming it"s authentic) that FWB are aware of the situation and are hopefully doing what is necessary to resolve the potentially damaging problem. We"ll keep you posted.Mr. Mevissen has never contacted FWB that I can find in our archives and we give credit to him on our website.
He is now in contact with me and we are trying to determine what the issue is.
I can honestly say that since I joined FWB this year, that no one has ever tried to contact FWB about this issue until this weekend.
Mr. Mevissen is using the web to his own gain, without giving us a forum to deal with this.
We, to my knowledge, had no idea he wanted compensation for his icons. I know that our company policy is one of a very high ethical standard and the CEO will be shocked to hear about all this. If we used his icons without his permission and he deserves payment, I am sure he will get what is coming to him.
If this is a scam, we will also find out and make sure that everyone knows that too.
Mark Prewitt
VP Sales
FWB Software