Well I know some previous Hacks she released people removed the copyright without approval, as well as some started releasing it on other sites saying they made it.

Personally I have no problem with this.

vb.org is a UK site liable to UK and European's communities laws. The same laws applies there. Actually this is an international law. As for the Email in this case replaces the phone nbr.
Finally what's your problem? I'm placing the rules and you can accept or reject them. Commenting them has no sense. Have I pressed you to use it? No. Then keep your big mouth closed.

Maria

1. For statistic reasons (it's the only way to know the actual installations).
2. To see how many are honest out there, by not removing my copyright. This will help me to decide if I'll continue offering free modules or not.

If you remove it, it assumes that you use it illegaly, so please dont try something like this. Finally I was honest saying it straight while it was so easy to keep it secret and place the code in a place that nobody could understand where it is, by breaking it in multiple lines and variables.

I don't want to hijack your thread but i don't think that the way you follow is the correct route. As it is 100% sure that you don't trust anyone who wants to install this mod. So why shall people trust you and send you their personal information. vB.org is a special site. So if you release a modification here then you shall trust other people otherwise you can release your modifications at your site. If in past people removed your copyright information , i am really sorry for you but that people will remove the code which transmits the information to you so again you will face problems. I totally respect you to protect your work but i don't trust to a person who doesn't trust me without having any information about me. I will also report this modification and ask it to be removed from site.

So, you don't respect that someone was honest with you informing about this "black hole"? Did you prefered to keep it secret and place in 50 different parts of the code un-understandable variables doing the same?

My dear, it's not only the copyright removal. That's the minimum. Next comes that some of them are publishing it as their own mod (usally in local country sites) and a few of them are selling it. There was also one (for vbMates) who was selling it and sent his clients for support in my site!!

My action is not illegal. Posting something for free in a community like vb.org is, is just a donation to this community. And as you, when you're doing a donation you've the right to know where you money went (be careful ...you've the right, not that you're obligue or responsible to know), the same exactly applies here.

It's like the guarantee that comes with any product wordwide. You can read them and then decide if you accept it or not. But you can't change it.

thanks for your understanding
Maria

And because I believe that this is a topic that needs a lot of discussion I want to ask you something very simple. In one of my other free mods (vbArticles) there are at this time 187 dowloads with 121 installations. Can you tell me what the rest 66 members who downloaded the product wanted to do with it if they didn't installed it? Because is diffecult to believe that they downloaded it just because they have free space in their HD.

According to our rules it is not allowed to add hidden code.

With this modification the author clearly states that she is collecting information and what information she collects before you install his modification. This is not breaking our rules, and it is up to each member to decide if they want to use this or not.

Have you put this in your other mods or just this one?

No, Just this one. You can check vbArticles too. As I wrote I'm using it for statistical reasons. I choosen vbPhotoVote because it's already a mature module with all known bugs fixed. So, it's the best way to see how the users reacts on something that is working well.

Also in a Donation module that I'll post tomorrow there is no such code.

Maria