most of the forgery's i've seen have been mobile phone sites

Version number is *not* a dead giveaway, its just as easy to get a recent version of vB as it is an old one.. In fact easier. There are versions running about same day as jelsoft releases.

Sometimes an old version just means "I've modified this board a lot and I'm too damn lazy to upgrade."

I'm not sure myself how I feel a forum is illegally running, I think sometimes you can tell from some of the posts, but I think a lot of the time, I can just 'tell', I'm sure there's logic behind it, but I don't know it :p

Well, I guess I will be the first to step up and admit this. At the beginning, I didn't go the legit way and purchase a license. I was downloading some stuff off mirc one day and saw vbulletin 2.2.9 on there. I heard about the forums from other sites that I frequented and was currently using a custom hacked phpBB board. I installed the downloaded version of vbulletin and within a few weeks, nukepirates.com sniffed out my sites and emailed me asking for the license number. I didn't know when I first downloaded the board that a license was required, but after a couple weeks of running it, I learned it was. So when I got the email from nukepirates, I immediately purchased a license from jelsoft.

Anyways, the point is.....

I'm living proof that jelsoft has a company working for them sniffing out these illegal unlicensed sites. I am now a proud owner of a licensed vbulletin board :)

Definately beats phpBB

lol, that would be me then

But like I said, it all comes down to suspicion. Better to be safe then sure. ;)

i know for sure that a site is using illegal vb. reported, and nothing was done to it. i know because i have admin priviledges to the forums.

You could always take the law into your own hands. ;)

This post was made in jest and does not in any way mean you should go out and delete thier forums

Just as with anybody else, the contractor that Jelsoft uses to handle pirated installations cannot take a site offline with its own free will. It requires the cooperation of the hosting company, especially for non-US-based sites where the law is not always helpful.

You could stop it yourself you know.