vBulletin pirate sites hit by hackers

[Lucas]

I am not actively battling piracy of my addons, all I'm saying is that I still disapprove of it and if I'm given the opportunity to do something about it I will. For example I found out one of my users released XenSSO to a pirate board and I banned him, contacted him and had him remove it from the piracy board. Sure it will probably return at some point but I had the opportunity to act and I did.

If you have that opportunity then yes, I'm all for it. What I was talking is when you're trying to get those forums like the ones shared here that are hosted who knows where with who knows what and it's an endless battle to bring it down.

 

[Kevin]

If you have that opportunity then yes, I'm all for it. What I was talking is when you're trying to get those forums like the ones shared here that are hosted who knows where with who knows what and it's an endless battle to bring it down.

So better to give up the fight than make an effort? That usually doesn't work out well.

 

[Adam Howard]

2 subjects ..... 1 thread..... hhmmmm...... I'll answer both.....


#1

I fully believe in the "try before you buy" concept. The demo hosted by XenForo is nice, but it can never completely give someone the full understanding of how X product will work on your own setup or allow you to review the code or see how easy it is to customize it completely.

So yes, I started with a pirated copy of XenForo. Although I did not and was not stupid enough to run that copy on a live site. The closest I did to "live" was on localhost and on a junk server, which everyone who participated knew to use "fake" e-mail addresses and proxies.

The end result is I am a happy and loyal XenForo customer.

As for those who pirate simply because they want it and have no plans of ever paying... I have zero respect for those people.

#2

Occupy Wall Street failed. Period.

I was actually a member of "Occupy" and I have to say... No, it was not about just wanting stuff.

But just like every "group" there are some dumb people and the media had the strong habit of interviewing the vast majority of those dumb people. After they ignored us for the first few months. We started with over 50,000 people marching into New York, caught the city off by surprise, and no one heard 1 word about it until September or October (don't recall when the media finally stepped in).

The movement was about justice, equal rights, and equality of life.

 

[a legacy reborn]

I think you need to realign your moral compass, cause it sounds like perfect justice to me. They didn't loose a limb or something, their server got hacked, that's all. It's certainly not nearly as impactful to them as the damage they have done to the countless developers whose work they've supplied pirated of.

An eye for an eye? I can understand your logic but that does not make it any less false. True, what they did was wrong, but that does not mean their server should get hacked, their toast should not even be burned. They did something wrong, something bad happened, don't revel in it and leave it alone. To be honest the whole premise of this thread doesn't make sense, the OP tried convincing people that it was funny that something unfortunate happened to someone that did something wrong, which is not something that we should take pleasure in. It would have been fine to state facts like how running pirated software dramatically increases the chance of your site getting hacked(the people who nulled it could have left a backdoor, among other things), but the idea that we should rejoice about anyone's misery, regardless of how they came to the point of being miserable is absurd.

 

[Forsaken]

An eye for an eye? I can understand your logic but that does not make it any less false. True, what they did was wrong, but that does not mean their server should get hacked, their toast should not even be burned. They did something wrong, something bad happened, don't revel in it and leave it alone. To be honest the whole premise of this thread doesn't make sense, the OP tried convincing people that it was funny that something unfortunate happened to someone that did something wrong, which is not something that we should take pleasure in. It would have been fine to state facts like how running pirated software dramatically increases the chance of your site getting hacked(the people who nulled it could have left a backdoor, among other things), but the idea that we should rejoice about anyone's misery, regardless of how they came to the point of being miserable is absurd.

I agree, but I also disagree.

In general, I don't often take joy out of others misery (Unless I hate them to such a degree that any misfortune brightens my day, but that's generally more personal), but with many of these pirates sites they're grade A douchebags.

For example, the viet xf site bragged about ripping one of Kims custom styles on our site. There was no need to brag about it, it was pure malicious douchebaggery on their part.

Also add in chargebacks and all the other crap, and I can understand while some people are paying more attention to this.

 

[Naatan]

An eye for an eye? I can understand your logic but that does not make it any less false. True, what they did was wrong, but that does not mean their server should get hacked, their toast should not even be burned. They did something wrong, something bad happened, don't revel in it and leave it alone. To be honest the whole premise of this thread doesn't make sense, the OP tried convincing people that it was funny that something unfortunate happened to someone that did something wrong, which is not something that we should take pleasure in. It would have been fine to state facts like how running pirated software dramatically increases the chance of your site getting hacked(the people who nulled it could have left a backdoor, among other things), but the idea that we should rejoice about anyone's misery, regardless of how they came to the point of being miserable is absurd.

If we were talking about true misery I'd tend to agree, in this case we are talking about poetic justice though, and I do not feel morally shamed for taking joy out of the particular misfortune they are currently having.

 

[John]

True misery is the $150 chargeback I got this past week. I fully expect to see all the stuff of mine that hadn't been stolen yet, appear soon on these sites because of it. It is very personal to me because these people are taking food off my kid's table...literally. Personally, if I ever got the chance to face one these asshats in person, I wouldn't hesitate to take a baseball bat to their kneecaps.

 

[Forsaken]

True misery is the $150 chargeback I got this past week. I fully expect to see all the stuff of mine that hadn't been stolen yet, appear soon on these sites because of it. It is very personal to me because these people are taking food off my kid's table...literally. Personally, if I ever got the chance to face one these asshats in person, I wouldn't hesitate to take a baseball bat to their kneecaps.

I haven't done it with Xenique, but a few years ago I sent a nicely worded letter to a kids parents detailing what he was doing online, and outlining what I would have to do if the matter wasn't dealt with.

Abusing my works resources = saves me time .

 

[Syndol]

I herby declare this weekend as the Syndol amnesty weekend.
All those who use pirated versions of my add-ons will be forgiven, both legally as well as morally, if they purchase legitimate copies from me over this coming weekend.
Not only will you be doing the right thing, but you'll feel better about it too

 

[Hydrix]

It is impossible to know how the people "cracked" the software and thus they could have left a backdoor so that once enough people had installed it they could cause massive amounts of damage.

Do you think that the pirates backdoor their own sites? I don't think you noted that the sites that were hacked, or were attempted to be hacked, were the distributors, not users.

It's also worth noting that they were running vB 3.8 not 4.x as stated in the first post, and that the exploit affects both legal and illegal installations, see here: http://androidforums.com/site-updates-announcements/580371-important-notice-security-breach.html

 

[a legacy reborn]

Do you think that the pirates backdoor their own sites? I don't think you noted that the sites that were hacked, or were attempted to be hacked, were the distributors, not users.

It's also worth noting that they were running vB 3.8 not 4.x as stated in the first post, and that the exploit affects both legal and illegal installations, see here: http://androidforums.com/site-updates-announcements/580371-important-notice-security-breach.html

Ah, I didn't really care to look into that, that makes a difference to how they were hacked, but the rest of my position remains solid.

 

[BlackJacket]

Hmm, with that avatar I took you for an OWS member......

http://www.truthdig.com/arts_culture/item/from_v_to_ows_one_masks_story_20111020/

I have had this same avatar since V for Vendetta came out because I like the friggin movie. Not for that Anonymous bullsh!t. Stop taking the internet seriously Craig, you might get your panties in a bunch...

 

[Hydrix]

Ah, I didn't really care to look into that, that makes a difference to how they were hacked, but the rest of my position remains solid.

I actually agree with you for your other positions.

It shouldn't be an eye for an eye, tooth for a tooth philosophy that society seems to cling on.

If a man (A) kills another man (B), in a state where the death penalty is law, does the man deserve to die? The man has a wife, a family - 2 children. What right do people have to choose to ruin the lives of the wife and children. Say the dead man (B) also had a wife and children. Their lives have been ruined by man A, but do they then have the choice to inflict the same level of pain and hurting onto others? What gives them that right, to level the playing field? What kind of human beings would want to inflict that pain, onto someone only related to the situation by blood, having no actual involvement?

So pirates by the very definition, pirate. So they deserve everything they get then? Are you categorizing pirates as being some form of non-human heap incapable of emotion? Seems like a lot of people are.

 

[Luke F]

True misery is the $150 chargeback I got this past week. I fully expect to see all the stuff of mine that hadn't been stolen yet, appear soon on these sites because of it. It is very personal to me because these people are taking food off my kid's table...literally. Personally, if I ever got the chance to face one these asshats in person, I wouldn't hesitate to take a baseball bat to their kneecaps.

I had a similar thing happen recently - bought all my addons and paypal chargeback'd, and lo and behold they're on warez sites almost straight away.

Unsurprisingly the email domain pointed back to a Vietnam-based hosting company 'hkda.net'

 

[craigiri]

So pirates by the very definition, pirate. So they deserve everything they get then? Are you categorizing pirates as being some form of non-human heap incapable of emotion? Seems like a lot of people are.

In the USA, if you walk in a bank or store and demand (steal) $100, it's likely you will be locked up for a long time. Same goes with writing a check for $200 which is fraudulent, etc.....

I think a person buying add-ons, then doing a chargeback...and THEN giving away those add-on to many others is committing a worse crime! What do you think?

I'm not saying we should cut their hands off like the Saudis do, but at the same time thinking of it as just a scofflaw is not the answer either.

 

[RobinHood]

I had a similar thing happen recently - bought all my addons and paypal chargeback'd, and lo and behold they're on warez sites almost straight away.

Unsurprisingly the email domain pointed back to a Vietnam-based hosting company 'hkda.net'

What can be done to prevent this? Do the CC companies always side with the purchaser even if it's digital goods delivered over the internet?

Or can keys be issued upon purchase, which can then be revoked if a chargeback occurs?

 

[arr0w]

And I'm sure no one within the angry mob (with torches and pitchforks) has ever downloaded a song, movie or whatever illegally off the Internet? If you have then you are nothing but a hypocrite and nothing you say will change that fact, sorry to say it, but that's just the way it is.

I'll spare you all the mystery, piracy ain't going anywhere, you can gloat, dance, open bottles of champagne and celebrate all you want because those sites got hacked, if they remain closed then new ones will pop out, you can count on that.

If you don't want anyone getting your stuff for free, then maybe this business isn't for you. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that it is right others steal your hard work, it sucks, but I'm just saying that it is the way it is and it will always be, no matter how hard you fight it, this "war" is as effective as the war of drugs.

And yes... I have downloaded stuff for free off the Internet, what can I say? I guess I'm just a horrible person who belongs in jail.

 

[Luke F]

Interestingly I've seen vastly more sales over the past few days since the other big XF warez site went down - not sure if coincidental

 

[Hydrix]

People just love to think they are taking the moral high ground.

Format-shifting, the process of moving music from a CD to a portable device and changing the format to a usable format for devices, such as an iPod, MP3 Player or Phone, is actually illegal.

Now if someone says that they have never moved music onto a portable device (before the days of iTunes) then they are simply a liar, as well as being a hypocrite.

Everyone is a pirate at heart

 

[Syndol]

Interestingly I've seen vastly more sales over the past few days since the other big XF warez site went down - not sure if coincidental

Of XenForo or your add-ons? No one has taken me up on my amnesty offer yet