Update a hack and distribute it without permission ?
 

Hi,

I've seen that some of my hacks (under Vbdev username) were modified and updated to work for vb 3.5 without my permission and the hacker hasn't asked yet to know if I want of it !

Is he right having done this ? Is it allowed ?

I wanted to update this hack by myself, what do I do ? I don't ?

Thanks for replies ;) (and sorry for my english :nervous: )

Have you tried PM'ing them to find out why you were never contacted? I would start there and see what happens and we can go from there. ;)

I shouldn't think that it is allowed to port a hack without permission of the original author.

I don't know what can be done about it though. If the staff remove it from the site then there are still going to be people using it on their sites.

It is NOT allowed and if we find out that is has happened, it will be dealt with accordingly.

Boofo, the problem is that these (this ?! I'm only sure for one of my hack ;) ) hacks were created by me (grog6) but posted with the username Vbdev (when we had the site vbulletindev.net

It doesn't make a difference. If it is your hack and it was knowingly converted without your permission, then it is wrong. ;)

PM me with the details and I will check it out.

Depends really if the same code has just been rewritten and updated, or if the idea has simply come around again and the code is completely different. It could be a genuine mistake, and the coder simply didn't know that you had written something similar for vBulletin 3.0.x.

Personally, I generally don't believe in coders owning an idea. They do however own the code written for that idea.. However, credit should still be given where it is due.

Have to agree with andy, to a certain extent.

Are you 1000% positive that they really took your work and ported it? or did they write new code, to accompish the same goal and found that you had also made a hack.

It seems more likely a new hack was created that fulfills the older hack's purpose.

While I agree with the idea of a coder not owning an idea, I think that the phrase "ignorance is not an excuse" should be effective...

People who code modifications are obviously of a technical skill allowing them to use the tremendously powerful yet forgotten forum feature: THE ABILITY TO SEARCH

Anyone who has the time to code something surely has the time to make a common courtesy to search a few key phrases about their proposed/coded idea and see if a hack exists for vB2 or vB3 before coding/releasing it for vB3.5...

If the code is generally different or the hacker didn't know, up until this point it has been taken as "fair enough they didn't know"...

As a matter of common courtesy to the original hack author they should at least inform them they have released such a hack and that they seek endorsement for re-releasing/coding the modification for the latest version...

Chris

I thought of Windows first :p..... Linux is using the same idea as Windows but coded differently......Hmmm.

Are there any references in his/her hack made toward yours?

i've seen some guys porting 3.0 hacks to 3.5, and in their credits, they write that they asked permissions but never had a reply, so they took the right to do the release anyway...

i think that something needs to be done about that... make solid statements in hacks release rules, where you indicate that if you did not have permission, you can't release an update.

i would find this funny myself, i've recreated a lot of vB 2.0 hacks for my personal uses, and i would be happy to release them as 3.5 hacks, i would have a list of about 150 hacks right now, with all the prestige that it deserve... but i never asked the permission to rewrite and release updates of these hacks, so it would be like stealing the effort of someone else, and the credits... (90% of the guys never rewrite credits!)

same way that we had to discuss how to offer our own releases for the market,.. if someone wants to play with my hacks and upgrade them, i just want the guy to ask me permission, and i would be pleased to see my work rebuilt... but if i see one day that my code was overwritten and the guy state that he contacted me (and i was not aware of), for sure i would be very upset about that, like grog6 !!!

I think its beneficial to have more than one hack that does something. Let there be 5 hacks that do the same thing or almost the same thing in the end but done differently. No harm in that. No idea is truly original. There's multiple home page hacks, arcades, shoutboxes. The more the better. Gives people more choices.

no problem with that Jenta, we talk about releasing the work of someone else, not doing a different one...

What hacks are you referring to ? (and why have two userids ??)

I ask the originally coder for permission to port over their hacks, I would wish someone to do the same if they're porting my hacks.

I agree with the post that said if there are five ways to do a hack, all five should be welcome if the code is original. No one owns an idea.

But that's not what the thread is about. I agree, there should be a chain of permission when reusing code.

Yeah unless someone has a patent or pending.......

He had this hack : https://vborg.vbsupport.ru/showthrea...lay+statistics

I ported it over without releasing it and was wanting to release it pretty bad. I redid the template and turned it into a product. When I went to contact him over releasing it he didn't allow e-maisl to be sent to him, pms were disabled by him, and his site was down. I had no way to contact him. Pretty annoying. Perhaps this person tried the same thing? I'm not sure.

As for the whole can a proted hack be released thing: If the hack is all original code it should be allowed even if it does the exa t same thing as anohter hack.

Sorry, I had no time to answer before ;)

The hack I'm speaking about is Thank you Hack

I've looked at the code, it's not the same, but admit that the idea was "stolen" ... It's not a shame, sorry for troubles ;)

@TruthElixirX : I hadn't ever seen you updated one of my hacks too ;) (some were created by Mtor under vbdev username, but this one was created by mee too)

For PMs, they are disabled coz we have no valid licence for this account, our site is "dead" and so we cant' use PM coz we are unlicenced with this username on vb.org

I never released that hack because I couldn't contact you.

There definitely needs to be permission asking before using the idea of someone elses hack or similar code. Eg. From 3.0 to 3.5 hacks. However, PMing someone on vB.org only asking for permission isn't exactly going to all reasonable lengths to contact the author.

Maybe that should be defined?

The idea behind distributing software for free on the internet should be about the sharing of knowledge not the power or grip over an idea.

Trying to lock everyone here into being able to only code a *new idea* or *new hack* is quite frankly counter productive to this community. If you're toing to start touting that people need to ask permission to use the idea of someone elses hack you are effectively cutting the hack community off at the knees.

If someone wants to retain the ownership of a hack then they shouldn't post it out here for free. They are in essence giving away the hack for nothing... I do believe in giving credit where credit is due but the idea of someone owning the concept of a hack is ridiculous.

"There definitely needs to be permission asking before using the idea of someone elses hack or similar code. Eg. From 3.0 to 3.5 hacks"

I disagree -- alot of vb2 hacks have been rewritten by other people to accomplish the same functionality in vb3. Alot of hack are directly inspired by hacks and/or default features of other forum software... where do we draw the line of "idea"?

As for updating others hacks to work with a new release,... well, most people code a hack to accomplish something that they need for thier own site and not every author sticks around or can even be reached to update thier hacks.

People are very possessive about thier hacks - its thier vb e-peen. I can understand that they dont want thier code used in hacks released outside of vb.org or thier code in releases for other forum software, etc.

At the same time, alot of hacks use functionality from the vbulletin software - if not in whole then deffinitely in part. In the same spirit we should be allowing people to extend upon and update hacks -- just make sure that everyone gets the credit they are due.