Just a thought, sad a bit. About piracy.

[edogs]

What do we mean if we bought some software? We mean to pay money... but more other... we mean to pay respect to developers. Correct? Correct. And we like it. And of course, at least we hope, we could wait back same respect in return.
But, that we really see?
We see the site of competitor (guys, it's not about competition, so don't tail to this word), and he using piracy scripts on this site. He "saved" more than 300$ (for example, it's not real price, exact cost doesn't matter) total in comprassion to us, who bought all same scripts for our site. Through the last 3 months we have send 3 complain to owners of this software, and... it seems no actions taken. Site are alive and nothing happend..
The competitor took these 300$ and spend them to advertise his site, but we don't have this 300$ on advertising (we spend it to scripts) and we are not advertising. Of course it's 300$ advantages on us.
You can tell that this is normal situation... probably.
But you must confess that using piracy software gives pirates an the advantage. And if developers take no actions to pirates, they just allow pirates to have advantages on honest customers. So... it looks like developers pay respect to pirates instead honest customers, because they allow pirates to use piracy scripts. It doesn't looks honest for us.

P.S.: Please, guys, if you wanna discuss, no names of any real scripts and developers here. It's more big question.

[Bober42]

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?t=40279

[---MAD---]

You can never know if the person has an active license or not - only vbulletin staff will know that.

Theres no magical button that can take the site down as some hosts dont co-operate or want more proof etc before taking the site offline.

[Floris]

In the long run when your community is doing better, you will feel better knowing you've taken the right path here..unlike the competitor who's trying his best to grow a site using nulled scripts and all the downsides that came with that. His community users will respect him less once it becomes clear they're just scrabling to get keep things together and realize that's how he or she does their business. Whereas your community members respect you for doing the right thing and feel more comfortable buying your services/products or donate back to you in forms of participation , returning to the site, or donating money ..

In the long run, you will have a better community, and the competitor has to succeed based on luck. If I was to choose between yours and theirs, I'd go with yours, feeling more comfortable sharing my privacy details such as email and IP .. who knows what other practises the owner does, for example; not respecting privacy.

[edogs]

You can never know if the person has an active license or not - only vbulletin staff will know that.

We'll be polite and will kindly tell you that you are wrong
Just a hint - the file with address like this

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/clientscript/vbulletin_global.js?v=368b

will contain something like this

[SIZE=1]|| # Copyright ©2000-[#]year[#] Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved. [/SIZE]

and on piracy forum it'll contain something like this

 | # vBulletin 3.5.3 - NULLED BY TURK'S :)

If you can't feel the difference between these two things and recognize which one are legal software and which is not - our regrets.
And finally - damn, did you read our P.S. in our first message here? We kindly asked not to call any names of scripts or developers or something. It's Chit Chat so we can talk here not only about vbulletin.

Theres no magical button that can take the site down as some hosts dont co-operate or want more proof etc before taking the site offline.

There are magical button - court with judges and so on.
If you will fall on your knees and kindly ask pirate to delete piracy software - of course you'll get no result. But official developers could start process in court w/o any problems. More other, site is not operated by only "one person". Site are always belongs to server, server belongs to datacenter and datacenters always doesn't like piracy software. So... if only you have a wish.

In the long run when your community is doing better, you will feel better knowing you've taken the right path here..unlike the competitor who's trying his best to grow a site using nulled scripts and all the downsides that came with that. His community users will respect him less once it becomes clear they're just scrabling to get keep things together and realize that's how he or she does their business. Whereas your community members respect you for doing the right thing and feel more comfortable buying your services/products or donate back to you in forms of participation , returning to the site, or donating money ..

In the long run, you will have a better community, and the competitor has to succeed based on luck. If I was to choose between yours and theirs, I'd go with yours, feeling more comfortable sharing my privacy details such as email and IP .. who knows what other practises the owner does, for example; not respecting privacy.

Agreed in many cases, but... see the point. You mean that community have to choose and decide and judge. Ok, community is good. But if we bought scripts from developers, not from community, why we should wait protection from community in piracy aspects? Why don't you think that developers must protect right of their customers, at least in such easy thing like real fighting with piracy? Especially because only developers complain could reach hosting/datacenter/court/judge? And once again, we don't try to discuss any script separately, so don't take it please in address of vbulletin - it's general thoughts, situation are almost same with many scripts, so no matters that we are talking about exactly.

[Zachery]

We'll be polite and will kindly tell you that you are wrong
Just a hint - the file with address like this

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/clientscript/vbulletin_global.js?v=368b

will contain something like this

[SIZE=1]|| # Copyright ©2000-[#]year[#] Jelsoft Enterprises Ltd. All Rights Reserved. [/SIZE]

and on piracy forum it'll contain something like this

 | # vBulletin 3.5.3 - NULLED BY TURK'S :)

If you can't feel the difference between these two things and recognize which one are legal software and which is not - our regrets.

Actually, not everyone who buys a license replaces their files. Just report a site if you think its pirated. Nothing more to do.

There are magical button - court with judges and so on.
If you will fall on your knees and kindly ask pirate to delete piracy software - of course you'll get no result. But official developers could start process in court w/o any problems. More other, site is not operated by only "one person". Site are always belongs to server, server belongs to datacenter and datacenters always doesn't like piracy software. So... if only you have a wish.

Actually, there is no magical button, You can send a request to the site owner, then the host, then the upstream provider, but if they don't want to coperate or still operate in a country that does not have solid copyright laws. We do most everything we can with to shut down sites who illegally use our software.

[edogs]

Actually, there is no magical button, You can send a request to the site owner, then the host, then the upstream provider, but if they don't want to coperate or still operate in a country that does not have solid copyright laws. We do most everything we can with to shut down sites who illegally use our software.

There are no countries which not operate copyrights law, it's just a question of how strong developer really interested in making the pirates disappear. Yes, some DC will decline complain... so what? You can go to court, no problem, and get the result.

[Floris]

Things are not as simple as you might assume.

Report the sites you suspect to run unlicensed, and we can do what we do.

[Wayne Luke]

There are no countries which not operate copyrights law, it's just a question of how strong developer really interested in making the pirates disappear. Yes, some DC will decline complain... so what? You can go to court, no problem, and get the result.

It is not about countries without copyright laws. The country has to respect the copyright laws of the UK and the US as well. Several countries have never signed or ratified the Berne Treaty so they don't recognize the copyright laws of other countries. The idea of a single law providing "International Copyright" doesn't exist.

Aside from that many pirates of our software will purchase the software rather than lose their site. I, personally, deal with many instances of this occuring every month. Once they buy a license we recommend they upload the new files but they don't always do so.

[---MAD---]

Even if it shows hes using a nulled copy of the forum, he may still have a license but doesn't want to upload them over the nulled ones may be because he/she have modified the files for addons or whatever. I am not saying he isn't using vb illegally but everyone is innocent until proven guilty .

[Omri.L]

It's not that easy to handle these things. it takes a lot of time and efforts. Also, you are not being asked if you want to respect the developers or not, it's the law. If he breaks the law it doesn't mean you have to do the same.

[Cromulent]

There are no countries which not operate copyrights law, it's just a question of how strong developer really interested in making the pirates disappear. Yes, some DC will decline complain... so what? You can go to court, no problem, and get the result.

You say that like it is easy. Do you know how much it costs to take someone to court in a foreign country? Not only do you need to provide appropriate proof that they have broken a law in that country but you also need to hire a solicitor from that country as well. Plus the potential of needing to travel.

I doubt it would be worth it in order to reclaim $160 for one piece of software unless there was a very high chance of a large payout to Jelsoft at the end of it.

[Michelle]

Personally, I don't buy a software only to pay respect to the developers. This is a low-priority reason for me. The first and most important reason of why I choose to buy a software instead of getting a nulled copy is because I respect my work, my site and my members and I don't want to risk any of my work with nulled scripts. The second reason is support (both official and non-official). The reason of paying respect to the developers is third in my list.
Also, I have been asked many times to provide support or give my hacks to people with nulled vBulletin and I always refuse. I tell them its a matter of principles for me and it really is.

[MRGTB]

Even if it shows hes using a nulled copy of the forum, he may still have a license but doesn't want to upload them over the nulled ones may be because he/she have modified the files for addons or whatever. I am not saying he isn't using vb illegally but everyone is innocent until proven guilty .

I agree, some people who start off using a nulled version and hack their site to death don't want to start messing around uploading files, overwriting the ones there if all works fine. Plus a lot of these nulled boards have the version check removed. And some people who have hacked there nulled boards to death and have no intentions of ever upgrading after buying a license, would sooner keep it that way with the version checks removed.