Ductape.net are they a scam??

[baki]

Hi,
I came across Ductape.net in my search for a host which provided a Vbulletin license with it.Well the website is poorly designed,and I do not know if I can trust it.Also I think it would be cheaper to buy a Vbulletin license seperately and then get a host.
Well I wanted to know if Ductape.net is legit and if there are any other hosts which provide a Vbulletin license.
BTW,is it allowed to give licenses away with hosting??

[Steve Machol]

I've never heard of them. Also please note this section in our license agreement:

The Software is licensed only to you. You may not rent, lease, sub-license, sell, assign, pledge, transfer or otherwise dispose of the Software in any form, on a temporary or permanent basis, withou the prior written consent of Jelsoft.

You can view the license agreement here:

http://www.vbulletin.com/order/license_agreement.php

[baki]

So they don't have permission to do this.
I think you should check them out.
Oh and do you guys do hosting with a license,I know Invision does.

[Steve Machol]

No sorry. We do not providde hosting services at this time.

[baki]

So does Ductape.net have permission to do this or not?
Also will you be providing hosting anytime soon?
Are you going to check it out,they maybe taking advantage of your software.

[TalkMilitary]

So they don't have permission to do this.
I think you should check them out.
Oh and do you guys do hosting with a license,I know Invision does.

I wish they would allow some sort of way to allow that.... I would be all over it. Even have a good domain for it. But they do not allow it, so anybody offering it is questionable IMHO.

[rh2004]

No they don't have permission to give it away free however I notice they do only give it out free if you signup for a yearly package ..

[Steve Machol]

AFAIK they do not have permission to do this. I have reported this to our Business Manager.

[baki]

Any info about Ductape.net are they legite.
Oh and I decided to buy a license separately.
Either IPB 2 (because updates are free.) or VB (Not sure since updates aren't free.:(.But supposedly the support is great)
Well I'm still weeding through features.
Is there a VB feature list somewhere??
Would be great since IPB has a feature list so I can compare them directly.

[Steve Machol]

As I said, as far as I know they are not legitimate. You can take that as the official word until told otherwise. :)

Also there' a link to our Features page at the bottom of this page:

http://www.vbulletin.com/features.php

[ductape]

Hi,

I'm from DucTape.net and one of our users just made us aware of this thread. I know that hosting providers are not supposed to promote their services on this board, but I do want to try and clear up some of the misunderstanding over what we are offering.

We are not reselling, sub-leasing, re-assigning, or otherwise doing anything that we feel is a violation of the vBulletin licensing. All we are offering our users is to pay for either part of all of their vBulletin licensing fees depening on the length of their contract. To do this, we will license vBulletin on the customers behalf through the vBulletin website. We enter the customers own contact information and email address so the license is theirs, not ours. Once the license is assigned to our customer, we will also handle the installation of the software if he so chooses.

We are offering this because we are seeing an increasing demand for web forums and feel the vBulletin is the best software available. Our offer of a "free" license certainly isn't an attempt at anything illegal or to violate the terms of licensing since the license is being paid for by us, and issued directly to the customer by vBulletin.

I would be more than happy to discuss the issue with someone at Jellsoft if there is still any doubt over our legitimacy. Please feel free to contact me at brianm@ductape.net with any questions or concerns.

Thank you,
Brian

[Steve Machol]

You need to contact sales@vbulletin.com

[shmoses]

Hi,

What was the outcome of this? I have used ductape.net's free email for years and signed up for a forum hosting package yesterday. Seeing this thread has made me nervous....

[Bad_i_BILL]

Free vBulletin Forum Software!

Host your web forum with DucTape.net and get a fully licensed version of vBulletin, the most powerful forum software available, absolutely free with a Silver account or better and a 1 year service agreement ($160 value) or half off on a 6 month agreement ($80 value). The license is yours to keep if you decide to move your forum to another server after the service agreement period. Service plans start at an affordable $12.49/mo with a 1 year pre-paid account.

Already have a forum, but not using vBulletin? vBulletin can import the data from most other forum packages!

Very suspicious... That is on their site

[RMS-Chef]

If they are buying a license for each install I don't see the problem?

[gumu]

Exactly, from what i understand of ductape's post, they simply call it 'free', but in actuality part of the customer's paid money goes to buying the license for them. So its not really free, but it seems like it to a customer because he isnt paying what he/she sees as extra.

[Onimua]

It is stated there (I forgot where) that the forum is yours as long as you stay with their hosting... I have to check again.

[Rockboy]

Look, the minimum you can pay them is $24 a month for a year, which is $288 dollars that they can count on. Subtract $160 from that, and you get $128, which is what they get. It seems legit to me...but they should word their advertisement differently.