RE: vb3 Call To Home

[moethelawn]

Originally Posted by BarHopper

I dont even know what this hack its.

It's not a hack... it's a part of vB that Jelsoft (makers of vB) checks to see if you have a legal copy of vBulletin

It doesn't bug me one bit.

Originally Posted by Mr. HillBilly

I want to know what the call home stuff sends you guys, don't tell me the "It just checks the version number crap." If it would only do that then it would only be needed in the AdminCps index.php file, but theres other call homes, too. (Ex: adminfunctions.php, $ratval should be a hint)

That's good... Jelsoft is making it harder for pirates to protect themselves.

Say if you make a software and you want everyone to pay for it who use it... Would you want to make it easy for pirates to steal your software? I'd think not. So you make it harder for them to steal it.

Does that make sense?

[MPDev]

- as doing so increases your standing with vB users across the world (pirated as well as legitimate). In effect, you are improving your PR immensely.

The sheer ignorance of this remark alone makes any other argument you made worthless.

"By helping criminals, you improve your image by encouraging more theft simply by offering support that is subsidized by those who actually pay for the product."

Anyone who thinks the percentage of illegal sites is insignificant has never run a software company.

[filburt1]

This has turned into personal attacks so thread closed.

Closing remarks:
1. Be nice to people.
2. vB does send information back to Jelsoft servers, limited to HTTP protocol stuff and your license number, not usage statistics, for piracy reasons.
3. It is allowed to remove this call-home code, but it is not allowed to be posted on official Jelsoft sites, of which vB.org is one.
4. Piracy always hurts a company, no exception. Piracy is not a form of free advertising, it is felony theft.