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Why does vBulletin not give rewards out for people reporting sites that give away large amounts of pirated copis of VB? There are COUNTLESS sites that have a tens of thousands of members each that give away Nulled versions of the board including all hacks/mods from this site as well as ways to make it look licensed, FOR FREE. Yet VB does nothing. If you want people to come forward you have to give them something. I'm not saying one must always look for a reward before doing the right thing, I am just saying it doesn't make sense to think everyone will stick their neck out for nothing. I bet if you gave free copies away, you would get A LOT more reports. What's worse, thousands upon thousands upon thousands of illegal copies, or few hundred of legit ones?

Pirated versions of the software are posted everyday, if Jelsoft gave away free copies of their software to everyone that reported these sites they would likely be out more money then they are now.

We report it because we feel that vbulletin offers a great product at a reasonable price and its a small way of us saying thank you for not rasing rates in over 5 years.

Does that really make sense to you? If one person reports a 60,000 member warez site, does that not meant a lot to you? There are sites that give out thousands upon thousands of illegal copies. If a few thousand illegal copies are worth less to you than giving 1 legal copy to someone who gets it shut down, then I have nothing more to say.


I think they offer an amazing product. I for one can not afford it because I am only a college student so I had to look for alternatives. I do not pirate the software because I view intellectual property with the upmost respect. It is just that vBulletin's business/legal sense is very strange to me. You have to also understand that not everyone will stick their heads out for everyone. If that were the case then most warez sites would be gone. You scrath someone's back and they'll scrach yours.

Most warez sites operate in places where copyright laws are not enforced at all. In your example a site with so many member is likely operating in one of these places, and is widely known. A site like that is going to be reported multiple times, which means Jelsoft would be giving out multiple free copies if they were giving one away to anyone that sent in a report. Mean while the site is still online, more people are finding out about it, and jelsoft is giving away more copies of their software everyday.

Obviously, we have to use logic. They would only get the free copies if it resulted in legal consequences.

On a side note. It is the end of the academic year and I have just enough saved up for the $185 vBulletin. Do I own that copy for life with $30 upgrades? I would say yes, but I want to be 100% sure. Also, if I install vBulletin on ONE domain and later on I want to move the entire forum to another domain (Still one installation) can I do that? I might just move the 1 installation around. Also, I have seen about 20 or so mods that may be useful to me. Can I use a pirated version of the board (Still buy a license- 1 board) that has pre-installed mods? I think it would be easier to use a pre-modded forum than install each mod one by one.

Thanks.

vBulletin is 160 USD for life (plus vat depending where you live) It allows you to run one instance of the forum regardless.

I highly do not recomend using pre-modded versions, most of them are old versions, are not supported and have builtin security exploits.

Its easier to add things to vBulletin than compared to phpBB or similiar.

Well, for one thing, you could setup your own warez board, report your own forum and get a reward for doing something illegal.
Besides, I always report vB boards that look suspicious to me, why should some low life get something for free that I legally aquired by paying for?

Yeah, that's right. I recently purchased vBulletin and I am simply drooling at the features it offers. Certainly to customize and mod it is quite easy. Within hours I could get it to look like my old board.

With phpBB installation of mods is painful. With vB, first you won't need that many mods and secondly the plugin system seems to be a great way to painlessly install small hacks. That said, I've yet to install plugins, but I've had the license only for a few days.

I will report piracy, if I find sites that run pirated copies. How does it benefit me? Maybe if more people purchased vB legitimately the price might come down for future users and upgrades... That's how I see it. Minimizing piracy cuts down costs for the programmers and developers and they will be glad to pass on that benefit to us, the end users.

A better question is how can you determine if a site has a pirated version?

I think it has some "nulled" string or something. Not really sure...

Theres no 100%way to tell, however if you think it might not be legit just submit it to www.vbulletin.com/piracy

That is so fallacious it makes my head hurt...:ermm:

Yes. Exactly. There needs to be more people like you around. The thing is, not everyone will stick their head out for nothing.

Back to the point I have been doing some more research on vBulletin. I have 2 smf forums. One with 10,000 members and one with 5,000. I also run a small phpbb forum with 1,000 members. Can I combine all of those into one big forum with vBulletin? Or do I have to mess with the databases manually?

EDIT: I have re-read my prior posts in this thread and I have realized that my posts can be interpreted as being rude. I apologize if I come off that way.

Dude, its their software, their work, they have all the right to distribte it anyway, you cant question them ..

do you have any slight idea that how much work, time, money, effort vbulletin has to put in order to make this software? And then give it for free? 160$ aint big.. plus u can get a leased version for 85$ and then earn money through adsense for next 1 year.. and pay then upgrade.. or somthing.

What if you were working on some cool roller coaster, and then people come asking for giving a free ride? This is not how it works..

Plus you reported pirated vbulletin, you obeyed the LAW, you didnt do anything COOL. We have to report piracy when we see its voilation. So its nothing big thing you did there....

I reported a guy who nixed 10 vBulletin licences.

I got screw all in return. Absolutely nothing. Not even an e-mail of thanks.

Now, here's my point. I didn't do it because of some greater need for reward, I did it because I imagined myself as the person who spent countless years working on this software, for some idiot to download it in two minutes and completely rip me off. I could have let the thievery continue, and the owners of vBulletin would have been none the wiser. But I reported it, and those sites are (to my knowledge) down.

I didn't even get an email of thanks though. That's what sticks in my throat. I am sure the 80,000-post members on vB.com could take one minute out to be grateful. I know I haven't been their best customer, but damn...

I doubt they even get many piracy reports. Not as many that they don't have the time to reply to me... it's a lack of courtesy. I'll probably get my licence taken from me or something (I've heard worse things happening to vB users) but I stand strongly on this. If you want to remain a user-friendly company, things like that help.

EDIT Reason: poor grammar.

We send thanks for anyone who reports a piracy violation via email, and we tell you thanks using the piracy form. We get tons of piracy reports.

Indeed you do.

From what I understand, followups and status reports are not given due to privacy reasons.

Probably also has something to do with Howard not having much time left to thank people when he has so many pirate reports coming in every day. :)

I am not questioning their business sense, I was merely trying to better understand.
Yes, I do know how much work it is. Which is why I do not understand why they don't give one copy away for free legal version to stop the distribution of hundreds of nulled/illegal copies. getting out
If that person happened to show me how people were getting on the ride without paying then I would let them get a free ride because they helped me SAVE money.
Eh, you are assuming people will generally stick their heads out for nothing. Which is NOT true.


I don't do it for a reward, don't think I am looking for a handout. I am saying in general, people will not stick their heads out for nothing. Like I said this is a "scratch my back and I'll scratch yours " world.
Whoa, that's just terrible. Rude.
Amen.

Back to the point I have been doing some more research on vBulletin. I have 2 smf forums. One with 10,000 members and one with 5,000. I also run a small phpbb forum with 1,000 members. Can I combine all of those into one big forum with vBulletin? Or do I have to mess with the databases manually? Is there a mod that merges forums for me?

No mod, we have a import software that does it for you. Part of vBulletin.

ImpEx. Simple program to use. I will help you for free if you contact me about it.

And can I ask what the name of the company vBulletin works with in regards to piracy is called?

AHHH thanks! I will be a vB customer REAL soon. Just figuresd out I have to pay for the skin I want as well as vbseo...I have to spend money I don't have lol. I'm getting it all, just doing a lot of research.

vBulletin's piracy is handled by Pirate Reports

vBSEO is free on here, I'm pretty sure.

And it's very easy to replicate a skin, or find a better one.

And thanks Kerry-Anne. I needed to report something else, and this seems the place to do it.

The vBSEO Google/Yahoo Sitemap genrator is free, yes.

It is the actual vBSEO - vBulletin Search Engine Optimisation product that is a commercial product available at www.vbseo.com.