Site Stealing Hacks from vB.org and vBh.com
 

I know that they did not get permission to take all those hacks from www.vBulletin.org and www.vBhackers.com.

Is there anything vB.org can do?

URL in code so guest can't see.

Just report them to piracy at vb.com.

It is however very difficult to do something about sites in China :(

PS I removed your link. No need to promote them. ;)

Aaarrgg. I wish people would not keep removing these links, I never get to see if they have nicked one of mine.

Yeah, same here :/.

I'd also like to give them a piece of my mind if so, hehe.

I don't know why you would take the URL out, I'm not promoting the site. I acually added the link for the purpose that Paul M and Deaths has stated. And since the URL is in the code block then only license users will see it. I doubt Paul M will register to download hacks there or any other license holder. lol

I remember seeing someone post a long list of sites stealing and then distributing vb hacks on his site before ... cant find the URL now though.

You could PM them the link.

PS The site is already under investigation now and is reported.

Besides, even though us hack authors want to see the sites to give them our warm flamings, other, not so honest licence holders may tell their mates about this site. Technically they wouldn't be breaching the ToS because they aren't giving away licenced material to unlicenced users, per se. They are just giving away a website url...

Also, some licensed coders have been uploading our work at these pirate sites in an attempt to earn credit for downloading other warez. Not every person who has access here is honest.

True Amy, already have some doubts about certain people.

And one more thing. These sites have access to our hacks here. There is someone with a license (or on the support list of a license) who is downloading hacks from here and reuploading there. This means there is someone who CAN see a link posted in the code block and will be warned like this of things to come.

It is just better to handle these things in private.

There was a thread here where this topic was discussed previously with suggested solutions, but it came to no avail.

/me wonders who MarcoH64 has doubts about

good point amy.

There are a lot of sites like this who are hosted on china and russia. You will be surprised. When someone releases a hack here next day you can find it in that sites. I reported lots of sites but nothing happens because that countries donor respect copyright notices.

In such a case Marco, wouldn't it be prudent to have a forum like for the style submission competition, where you can post about things like this, and only you and the mods can see it - That way you can discuss anything about that site, such as your suspicions about who the mole(s) might be, and the mole(s) would be none the wiser ;)

It would also allow for staff to reply, saying how or if it is being dealt with :)

Satan

That sounds like a good idea, but there are some difficulties here. First some scenario's:
- A site uses an illegal copy of vB:
Nothing to do with vBulletin.org. This can already be handled by and reported to Jelsoft at www.vbulletin.com/piracy.php. Jelsoft will let a professional company specilized in internet copyright issues handle this. Why they don't do it themself? Simply because it take a lot of (legal) knowledge to handle cases like this.
- A site distributes illegal vB copies:
Same goes as above.
- A site redistributes hacks posted here at vbulletin.org:
This is the one that could be interesting to us, but here we also have a huge problem. The copyright of the hacks posted here are not a property of vbulletin.org/Jelsoft. The copyright lies in the hand of the coder. Each coder can do with their hack whatever they want, under conditions they want. Ok we are limiting the conditions a litle (ie. you can not ask money for a hack posted here), and we are providing a common platform for coders to post their hack, and for coders/users to meet and discuss. We provide the means for coders to make their hacks only downloadable by members who have a valid license. But here our responsibility and service stop.

Now back to the site posting hacks from here. The only one who could take legal action would be the coder, he owns the copyright. And as far as i am concerned (playing devils advocat now) it could be posted their with the coders concent.

Maybe i don't know all the legal details, but it is a difficult thing to take action against. And not even talking about china. Then there is also the privacy aspect, this is the reason you will never get feedback from Jelsoft if you make a piracy report.


PS Got interupted while writing this, think i forget half of what i wanted to say. :D