I think people are taking this thread the wrong way.

I don't think those that know shaders and have contributed allot of work to the community know just how appreciated they are for thier efforts.

being said though, since I don't understand shaders, I havn't went and bought the books on shaders ( nor can afford to), and I don't want to have to play 50k questions and pester people just to do some minor tweaks ( like change how a light source effects something) to amke a shader fit my projects, I don't think I can justify the right to useing them.

Using a preset library of effects are also out of the question for the same reasons above.