too many i would suspect, its a slap in the face to all the people who had to buy there copy..

Oh well at least they cant download hacks without a license :o

There are a lot of pirateted vbulletins but, the good thing about it is think of how many have bought vbulletin due to running it illegal for a bit.

I would also be willing to bet many here have ran one illegally before buying, coming here asking for hacks and hearing the famous post of you are showing up as not licensed.

Although many run them and not ever pay I would bet a great deal in time do.

If that guy was smart he would dish out the 160 and have all the hacks in the world. And one never knows in time he may just do that. If not lmao then no hacks for him :)

I did run mine illegally before buying it, and hell, I ran it for a good 6 or 7 months before making it legal. I tried to get hacks, but naturally I couldn't, although I was actually smart enough to post nothing at either vB.com or vB.org, and I wasn't going to tell someone that I run an illegal board over AIM or anything, so I just bought it.

i think a lot of users ran an illegal vb before buying the license.
no, i don't say that's ok, it's just a fact i think.

I ran illegal for about 4 months or so. Then I made a site I cared about and put the money in on a vb.

I now own 2, but if I had not ran illegal ones I would never ended up wanting pay that money. NowI would run nothing else.

People don't like to invest big bucks into products they can't evaluate before hand. So thinking most users having an illegal vBulletin prior to buying is probably very accurate.

Maybe if vBulletin had some sort of evaluation period, where after 30 days of testing you have to purchase.

Good idea.

You can't really do that with web-based software. If the user is experienced in PHP, then they could easily hack their way out of the trial

Or am I missing something?

Well, in order to receive the trial, they would have to register certain information (such as a valid email address, perhaps name, or even a temporary account, etc). That way, vBulletin has record of them having the trial, so that after 30 days they can check up to ensure the person is not using the software anymore.

It's no less or more foul proof than say, Adobe Photoshop. You just give people who might regularly use an illegal vBulletin before buying a chance to evaluate it legally, placing more emphasis on them to buy after 30 days.