I think the point that Austinknight is making is that other than the earth being in the center of the screen, Desktop Earth is very different from his video loop (and mine for that matter). Desktop Earth does so much more (as Zoomba has already specified) and that is what makes it much better and worth paying for. Videos of the earth spinning are repetitive and if people want something more than a 40 second loop, they can buy Desktop Earth. What's wrong with having a poor mans version of the earth dream?

Anther point being made is the reason for rejecting a dream. If the reason for rejection is that it looks too similar to another dream, then WinCustomize should start rejecting waterfall dreams and dreams with rippling water in front of a mountain/moon/city. Don’t you think the Early Morning dream by candiedbug with the waving field of grass is just as similar to Blissful Sunset (a premium dream) as ours is to Desktop Earth? What would have happened if Austinknight or I submitted our dreams before the announcement of Desktop Earth, would Desktop Earth been canceled because it would have looked too much like our creations?

Great Points,, We just want to share our hard work with others, so that they may enjoy it like we do..  

As was said before, "Stardock reserves the right" If it was going to interfere with the profitabilty of something I was selling I would deny it too. Everyone doesn't always get what they want. Sometimes business prevails over a group hug. I would agree with Frogboys arguement in the fact that the Stardock dream OBVIOUSLY have a lot more man hours than a looped dream, perhaps the majority of the community would not have realized this and compared at first glance it may have rendered the premium dream not as valuable as it would have not compared to a similar but inferior dream. It's just business, people shouldn't take it personally...It's a dog eat dog world.
My suggestion for dream makers is to conceptualize Dream's that no one else could possibly have thought of instead of jumping on the Planets/waterfalls bandwagon. When I design a WB I wanna know DAMN well that its going to be something someone hasn't already done or would have even thought about pulling off.

What stops Stardock from seeing the creativity of the community and making a dynamic version of it for them to sell and cancel out the original creators idea's.. If I'm going to upload any more dreams I would like to know that it isn't taken advantage of. For example my post of EarthEscape was posted day's before the release of Desktop Earth so it was new and exciting for me.. Then the rejection It has been OK Since I have been getting private massages for a Download location, but what a bummer the rest of the community will never be able to see it and it's FREE. The SDK for creating a Dynamic dream isn't even released.. Confusion.. Leaves a lot of room for Speculation?>?>? Oh well enough of my BITCHING.. I have another Idea in the works.. Hope You all will be able to see it.. Fingers Crossed.

vSkyler, I agree completely with your statements. I really have no problem with them denying my Orbit dream because it looks too much like Desktop Earth. I understand where they are coming from. My only complaint was that they accepted a version of my earth dream, then, mistakenly set the creation date to the 4th oldest submitted dream causing it to drop to the bottom of the “Newest Dreams” list. In fact, it’s still there, doomed to obscurity because people coming to look for new dreams won’t see it because it never had its day on the main page and never showed at the top of the "Newest Dreams" category. Actually, I take that back, it had 5 minutes on the main page before it disappeared. I asked to have it fixed by posting a thread on this forum, but got no replay in two days. It wasn’t until I posted this thread that someone responded only to have the update date changed and not the date that affects the “Newest Dreams” list. I may have jumped to the wrong conclusion when it happened, but I don’t think I had far to jump.

Intellectual copyright.

To do so, just as with any other skinner, artist, individual, they'd be required to seek prior consent to use another's idea/image/work.

You did.  With time, and experience/interaction with Stardock/Wincustomize you will come to realise this....

I look forward to it.

I just want to point out that WinCustomize has rejected many skins in the past which looked too similar to what someone else had released.

If looking at screenshot A and screenshot B, if both look nearly identical, just based on the screenshot, there's a good chance it'll get rejected.  This isn't reserved to Dreams.  Any long-time WinCustomize user would already know that. 

This sort of discussion has been battled out for years in skinning. Winamp, wallpapers and WindowBlinds skins in particular  have been rejected because the screenshot looked too similar to something already uploaded.

It is up to the person who comes later to make their upload look sufficiently distinct. 

I was curious if it's OK to upload my Orbit dream into my personal page only, even though you denied it because it too close to Desktop Earth?