[Reeve of shinra]

Fasherman,

If this legal endevor took place here in the states, the DMCA (as much as I hate it) would make it even easier for Jelsoft to get it shut down. Yes, Jelsoft can enforce this because only liscenced users are able to view the code alterations here at vb.org. Joe off the street does not have access to that copyrighted information as they would on a third party hack site. This is trivial. My arguement was simply to proove that in a court of law, Jelsoft would have a leg to stand on.

Now, if this made it to a court of law, would that really benifit anyone? No. Thats untold amounts of time and aggrivation for everyone involved. Ultimately that hurts us because thats time that could be better spent making vbulletin better.

My final thoughts on this is that there needs to be compromise.

I think we all recognize vbulletin as a quality product since we've all purchased it and are using it. What makes our forums better are the hacks we're now using for it, some of which we've probably obtained here at vb.org.

If we wanted to draw a hard line in the sand and not give an inch, then Jelsoft may decide a site like vb.org is more hassle than its worth and close it down. Would that hurt thier business? Yes. Would it hurt us? Yes.

Obviously there is mutual benifit to having an active and growing hacking community since it promotes thier product, making it more desireable, and makes our own lives easier or better with the add-ons we find here. Its a symbiotic relationship were all benifit.

If they decide that out of the hundreds of hacks that have been created and posted here, that 1 should be revised a bit so it complies with the spirit of the liscence, that is not a huge compromise to make. In return, we have had Jelsoft listen to our feedback just days before this started about the changes we felt were needed here on vb.org. Thats compromise.