Piracy - The Battle

[Forsaken]

All I'll say is as someone newer to selling styles it's honestly gut-wrenching with some customers who contact you not knowing whether or not it'll end up on the usually sites we all dearly love.

Anything that is reasonable to help us make wiser decisions is a plus in my book of course as we need to do our best to protect our work for ourselves and our existing customers.

Honestly, I would write off stuff being pirated as inevitable and focus more on chargeback prevention as that's just adopting an approval process.

More than being pirated chances are your styles are more likely to be ripped, which to me is a bigger issue than having my work pirated.

 

[tenants]

You want to deny people....do it with your own tools...

This is something that all devs can do, you can figure who is sharing your add-ons, you just need to be a little bit creative. Once you know who they are, make sure they don't get further access to updates / (or even nastier, deliver buggy products to them... this sends a message to users using warez).... I've tracked users down, and most of them are just kids... but don't underestimate kids... wading a private war on a bunch of kids can cost you more time than it's worth

I don't disagree with this part... but I'm not against fighting piracy using other methods.

It will be interesting to see what XenForos next move will be for their own pirated software (no just plugins) I'm sure they have a trick up their sleeve

 

[Blackbeard]

The more you fight, the more people pirate.

 

[Shelley]

The more you fight, the more people pirate.

Very true and what is ironic in all of this it's the legitimate people that'll suffer.

 

[Sheldon]

Here is the example.

User A registers at Developer A's site.
Developer A asks for verification of license, checks out individual, found out is a pirate.
Developer A refuses to sell to pirate.
User B registers at Developers A's site.
Developer A asks for verification of license, checks out individual.
User B posts in here: http://xenforo.com/community/threads/manual-customer-verification.34054/
Developer A sells to User B, based on that sole info, because that is all that is actually available.
User B pirates said add-on, and is caught redhanded, due to ignorance of using same details here as on other sites, or dev gets nulled copy and can identify by certain files, etc.... User B banned.
User C registers at Developer A's site...
repeat process.

Now.... if this "User B" is listed under another license, the license holder is never effected by this. Why? Hell, who knows. They should bear the same responsibility. What is to stop License Holder A from recruiting people to fill in the roles of User A, User B, and User C? Nothing. Because they remain free from punishment. Why not be ahead of the curve and stop it before it KEEPS happening. You are seriously kidding yourself if you don't think this is happening.

Privacy? (I continually see my name brought up saying I care less about users privacy.. which is strange considering my other posts elsewhere)

What is so vital that must be kept secret? What damaging information is in that? An avatar that is likely some random image? A fake email? A fake age?

 

[Luxus]

Very true and what is ironic in all of this it's the legitimate people that'll suffer.

That I'm trying to tell everyone from the beginning. XenForo just won a nearly 3 years old litigation. More legal stuff and bickering in the community is the least xenforo needs at present. More and more people will chose xenforo for their forum and from that all addon developers will profit. It's just a matter of time till the golden days

 

[Shelley]

That I'm trying to tell everyone from the beginning. XenForo just won a nearly 3 years old litigation. More legal stuff and bickering in the community is the least xenforo needs at present. More and more people will chose xenforo for their forum and from that all addon developers will profit. It's just a matter of time till the golden days

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not agreeing with alot of stuff you said in the thread. I keep an open mind on the adverse affects it can have on the legitimate customer, but I also keep an open mind for the person who needs to protect their works. This whole thread as either been for, or against. There hasn't been any middle ground where both parties need to meet it's either one extreme to the other and once a common middle ground can be found then progress can at least be made. That is what needs to happen and thus far that really hasn't happened.

 

[jmurrayhead]

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not agreeing with alot of stuff you said in the thread. I keep an open mind on the adverse affects it can have on the legitimate customer, but I also keep an open mind for the person who needs to protect their works. This whole thread as either been for, or against. There hasn't been any middle ground where both parties need to meet it's either one extreme to the other and once a common middle ground can be found then progress can at least be made. That is what needs to happen and thus far that really hasn't happened.

I've tried to compromise, taking into consideration the concerns of both sides.

 

[Shelley]

I've tried to compromise, taking into consideration the concerns of both sides.

Yeah I'm not judging anyone I'm looking at it from a conclusive point of view. So far, nobody has really met in the middle and this thread is still ongoing and to a degree people bickering, saying they'll leave or just trying to strengthen their case. Once both parties have an understanding and share the concern of the others then perhaps the middle ground can eventually be found.

 

[jmurrayhead]

Yeah I'm not judging anyone I'm looking at it from a conclusive point of view. So far, nobody has really met in the middle and this thread is still ongoing and to a degree people bickering, saying they'll leave or just trying to strengthen their case. Once both parties have an understanding and share the concern of the others then perhaps the middle ground can eventually be found.

True beans. But that will probably never happen.

 

[Adam Howard]

I re-read the thread.....

To the best of my knowledge, unless something has changed.... You have to be a licensed customer (or associated) in order to download anything here.

Someone suggested that "anyone" could download from the resource manager.... Thats not true (the last I checked). No matter if the resources is free or paid.

 

[Sheldon]

Re-read the thread.....

To the best of my knowledge, unless something has changed.... You have to be a licensed customer (or associated) in order to download anything here.

Someone suggested that "anyone" could download from the resource manager.... Thats not true (the last I checked). No matter if the resources is free or paid.

Could you link to where that was ever said?

 

[Adam Howard]

Could you link to where that was ever said?

I'll do you one better.... Proof...

Register an account and do not link or associate it with copy(s) of XenForo and attempt to go to the resource manager & download .... You can't.

Same is true with the old archived forums.

 

[Sheldon]

I'll do you one better.... Proof...

Register an account and do not link or associate it with copy(s) of XenForo and attempt to go to the resource manager & download .... You can't.

Same is true with the old archived forums.

Errrrrm... I know that.

You said:

Someone suggested that "anyone" could download from the resource manager.... Thats not true (the last I checked). No matter if the resources is free or paid.

I was asking where that was said.

Not debating on the perms to download or not.

 

[Luxus]

Oh don't get me wrong, I'm not agreeing with alot of stuff you said in the thread. I keep an open mind on the adverse affects it can have on the legitimate customer, but I also keep an open mind for the person who needs to protect their works. This whole thread as either been for, or against. There hasn't been any middle ground where both parties need to meet it's either one extreme to the other and once a common middle ground can be found then progress can at least be made. That is what needs to happen and thus far that really hasn't happened.

I already agreed on marking/highlighting licensed customers to help protect commercial devs' work against theft. Discussions have power to influence one's opinion afterall. What doesn't help or in fact, makes it worse are stupid remarks and exaggerations of certain people trying to get the community behind them. Also, the discussion somehow drifted to legal matters involving one's own xenforo license, which should have never happened.

 

[Adam Howard]

Errrrrm... I know that.

You said:

I was asking where that was said.

Not debating on the perms to download or not.

23 pages.... start searching dude

 

[Sheldon]

23 pages.... start searching dude

I'm not searching. I don't ever recall it being said.

 

[Sheldon]

I already agreed on marking/highlighting licensed customers to help protect commercial devs' work against theft. Discussions have power to influence one's opinion afterall. What doesn't help or in fact, makes it worse are stupid remarks and exaggerations of certain people trying to get the community behind them. Also, the discussion somehow drifted to legal matters involving one's own xenforo license, which should have never happened.

If you assign 3 users, and they pirate directly due to access from your license, yes, you should be held fully responsible.

 

[Deebs]

If you assign 3 users, and they pirate directly due to access from your license, yes, you should be held fully responsible.

I give a friend access to the keys to my car, he takes it, with my permission, and then breaks the law. Should I be fully responsible for his actions?

 

[Biker]

I give a friend access to the keys to my car, he takes it, with my permission, and then breaks the law. Should I be fully responsible for his actions?

Depending on the circumstances, yes, you would be held responsible. And depending on what the friend did it's possible your vehicle would be confiscated.