Why are vb.org's mods getting ripped/redistributed?

[Ziki]

Originally Posted by Brad

Last but not least; People that use warez software rarely pay for commercial software anyway. So even if one of your commercial modifications is on a warez site you probably didn't lose any money. Heck you might even make some money. A lot of people use warez software to try out things before they buy them.

Very good point Brad,I never though of it that way.I knew they would download it for free,but you are right,they wouldn't buy it either

[Brandon Sheley]

no mods or styles are safe if added to vb.org
if you look down the member list, you'll even find members that have the word "warez" in their username

and ya wonder how the hacks get out :erm:

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Just to clear 1 thing up: regardless if Jelsoft would want to address warez sites offering modifications. They can not. They are not the copyright holder of the work and have no say over the sites it is distributed on. The only person who can take any (legal) action is the copyright holder.

There are thousands of sites that offer warez content. Posting the link of each such site would only end in endless postings of links to warez sites. This is not soething we want or need. Of a coder doesn't want his work on warez sites, do a simple search on google or such for your work, it will result in a better list of sites distributing your work then any links posted in a thread on vB.org will have.

[Marco van Herwaarden]

Originally Posted by Loco.M

if you look down the member list, you'll even find members that have the word "warez" in their username

You are more and more acting like a troll. You are now posting messages about this, reporting posts, complaining to jelsoft that we allow such a username, PM'ing staff for at least 2 months because there is 1 member with the word "warez" in his username. There is nothing in our rules that prevent such a username and we will not remove it only because he has such a name. So please stop your trolling behaviour as it won't change anything.

[Brandon Sheley]

Originally Posted by Marco van Herwaarden

You are more and more acting like a troll. You are now posting messages about this, reporting posts, complaining to jelsoft that we allow such a username, PM'ing staff for at least 2 months because there is 1 member with the word "warez" in his username. There is nothing in our rules that prevent such a username and we will not remove it only because he has such a name. So please stop your trolling behaviour as it won't change anything.

was that a joke? a troll being passionate about anti-pricy or stopping scammers.... k guess you got me
You know darn well there are several members here that have warez sites.
I have had 100's sign up on my site, show me a link to their profile here on the ORG and they show me a link to this website and GUESS WHAT!! They have pirated wares on it..

Glad you can sleep at night knowing that YOU LET the company you work for, lose more and more money. I guess I just carry a bit more respect and honor for the work I put out, and the companies I've always worked for. Don't worry.. I wont waste my time reporting scammers and wares owners. I know nothing will happen.

I ban these users, without a second chance to steal any styles posted on my forum.

Don't even get me started on the way's this site lets scammers and pirates get away scott free.

scott towels ?! FREE ?!

i want some, i want a ton !!!

[x3lite]

Originally Posted by lasto

we`ve all seen vbull pirated and running - is it the end of the world ??

I used to use a pirated version to test out when someone sent me it when i was looking at which board software to use.I liked it,so in end when i wanted to go legal i paid for it,and ive paid for it ever since.

LOL, and I thought I was the only one.

I tested out a nulled vb and paid for legal one.

The only thing that sucked is paying money for "something that you already had."
It may sound stupid but it hurt. I had to also buy vbseo.. so $350+. I'm glad to have done the right thing. I love VB and I'm glad that I can help support it.

[CodingMonkey]

Brad, just because you think there is no backholes, that isn't quite right. There's always a backhole in every script that has some kind of advanced processing system...

If it's nulled, chances are the script kiddies that nulled it left a backhole to hack their own software and gain control of the board that they didn't make. I've seen it numerous times.

[high]* CodingMonkey will not be replying anymore to this topic - it's becoming stupid.
[/high]

Originally Posted by Brad

Where are you getting your nulled vBulletin from? I assure you there are plenty of copies going around without backholes. Just because it's warez doesn't mean it's automatically not secure. I've personally seen copies without back holes going around..I know because I've downloaded them and compared them line for line with a legit version. All most of them remove is the .js call home in the admincp and the step during installation where you have to input the customer number. I've even seen copies floating around that supply you with a customer number to use during installation..I assume whoever released it just modified a certain constant in a .php file.

My point is vBulletin is easy to nullify and anyone that can read the source code can do it in a couple of minutes. Yes there are warez copies with backholes floating around the internet but they are the minority. Most warez groups pride themselves on releasing good software, not crap.

Getting back on topic; I stopped caring about my modifications begin on warez sites ages ago. If it bothers you I advise you to send a DMCA notice and hire a lawyer because you're going to have to do it yourself.. it is your responsibility to protect your own IP if you choose to do so.

You'll never stop the warez scene so your best bet is learning how to work with it. Keep in mind that someone using a pirated copy doesn't automatically mean you lost a customer (assuming you code for money). Most people that pirate wouldn't have bought your software anyway.

[Sp32]

Originally Posted by lasto

we`ve all seen vbull pirated and running - is it the end of the world ??

I used to use a pirated version to test out when someone sent me it when i was looking at which board software to use.I liked it,so in end when i wanted to go legal i paid for it,and ive paid for it ever since.

I did the same thing and got caught... But my intention was paying for a license I just wanted to run it for a month and see if I could get everything working properly



but who cares about piracy considering if you have pirated mods/vbulletin half of them are bad code which can mess up sites and the support for pirated vbulletin on the internet apart from vbulletin sites is so poor so at the end of the day they aren't really getting anything


and then they have to request everything from someone who has a license, I think there should be a more secure system so people can't do things like this, like enter customer number to install mod


at the end of the day it is always going to happen so there is only so much vbulletin can do

[Shelley_c]

And what about the people that you've added to your licensed account? For them to have access to the scripts here they would need to know the license holders acount id which poses extra sercurity risks to the software you've bought.