There are many applications that are distributed "as it is". I'm just thinking about the ways to hide vB code. Nothing serious :p

The general consensus was that we did not want an encoded version. I like being able to see and tweak the code. Its part of the reason why I enjoy my liscence but anyway..

what they need to do is crack down harder on the people that are giving the software up on the first place. They have to be more easilly identified.

Yes I would have to agree. When I ran a IPB before it went to a piad service. I use to do hack installs for people. the sit policy was to check and see if the licence was valid. The only 2 ways to check is in the code where the IPB licence number is or an IPS check via the browser. and when I knew how to do the check on the bwoser I knew it was a pirated version because instead of a product number I would get

"This script has been pirated by WYDZ" or something like that in the script.

There is also an easy way to fix the copyright ov a Vb all you got to do is delete it and say its another board syste that LOOKS like vB.

They don't have any real copyright protection against people pirating the boards.
let alone the man power to report and stop all of the pirated versions. I recent'y reported a site to vB and IPB about this one site.

Had free downloads of IPB and all its flagship componets such as the blog and gallery.

Also had vB 3.5.3 AND all the 3.5 hacks from this site on the board. So someone with a Valid licence is giving all this stuff away for free. its vB.com and vB.org need to find a way to hide say a call home fetuer in the code so they can find out who is giving out this info and free stuff

You can't fully protect open source code. You can only put different functions that will "call home" in many places, but it's not secure enough.

Ps. Open source != GPL :p

I run a torrent site, dunno why torrents and warez always seem to go hand in hand but whatever...I bought my copy, and I recomend the same to everyone I talk to! I know plenty of peeps, including personal friends running "nulled" copies of vb3 who have been caught and had to switch to IVPB :D so ya! somebody is doing something right.

Nice mod
but IMO this hardly works
i know sites that are running illigal pirated vbulletins..the admins TOLD ME that they r running illigal ones and i reported it to vbulleitn staff and nothing happened, i reported it about 3 times and the sites are still up and running

good intentions... but this is a little behind the times

Not to be contrary, but it must do something... I'm sure the callhomes weren't added just to slowdown the homepage of the admin control panel a little bit :tired:

--yes I'm feeling grumpy because I just finished my taxes after working all day on them

Sometimes when a site is still up, they could've been offered to purchase a legal license or located on a server that's in a country that doesn't respect copyright laws. The sad thing is if even vB was $10 or even $1, it would still be pirated like crazy.

Not to mention that Zend and Ioncube can be broken now!

So, all those devs that paid $$$$'s for Zend or $$$'s for Ioncube because of the encryption might as well saved their pennies and used base64 instead!