Is this true?

[Prolex]

Its not a secret that Software-Piracy excist, infact almost everyone knows it exicsts. Jakeman nailed this one on the head when he said that Mad Dog was most likely not thinking of purchasing vb, he was of course double checking if this feature was implemented in order to make sure he didn't get caught.

If you were a legit person using vb software you wouldn't care at all. Theres absolutely no reason to get alarmed about a "call home" feature.. So it sends back some info saying whatever.com is using vb. Ok so now they know that whatever.com is using vb, oh and whatever.com purchased vb. All is good and dandy..

However if they were using a (unlicensed) copy they would certainly not like this "call home" feature.

I would also like to thank all the vb developers and moderators for bring a major crunch on entering peoples customer ID's an passwords. It gives me great delight to see that NO ONE using a hacked copy is getting support.

I hope everyone who is running a "hacked" copy gets busted and their webhost shuts them down Cheers ladies

[Thomas P]

well spoken.

[JamesUS]

Originally posted by MattR
For me, the infuriating issue is your 'why should you care' response. It's my right to know that the software is going to make a connection from *my* server to Jelsofts. If someone asks, you say "Yes, yes it does". You list it in the fine print somewhere but for heaven's sake don't try and pull that line of BS "Why should you care".

There is such a feature. It is a part of the code. Tell people if they ask. It's not hard to find and / or remove but it is my right to know SOMEWHERE that this is doing that. Dig down deep in license agreements for Real Player, etc. and it will say 'We will, every time you run this application, send X Y and Z to our servers and here is what we do with it…'. I expect no less from vBulletin. Say 'We will call our servers with your license number and will record your IP address and verify that it jives with our records. Then it is destroyed'. That's it. Don't try and be all cloak-and-dagger about it.

When you open up a port from MY box using MY internet connection I sure as hell want to know about it. And the thing is, it will record my PERSONAL IP address, not the servers. I don’t know what YOU use to browse the web with, but some of us have relatively static IP addresses. I don’t like the idea of my and other Admins / Moderator’s IPs being tracked behind my back and it IS your obligation to say WHAT your privacy policy is. All major sites say ‘we will record your IP, date and time, etc. for our records etc.’

What’s ‘one more’ thing people use to invade my privacy. Would you like your car uploading your VIN number and everywhere you went that day to a local database to make sure that you’re not in a stolen car? That it is stored somewhere that you visited Bob’s Pr0n-o-rama for 45 minutes? If my car did that I would a) not buy it or b) disable it. I’m a law-abiding citizen and I don’t need someone or some thing to keep ‘proving’ that I am honest.

Certainly this is a minor ‘privacy invasion’ (because it looks like it is returning MY IP address and not the server’s) but it is your OBLIGATION as a reputable business to not **** with me and go ‘It might; so what!’

I agree that the license agreement should be clarified. But, your IP address is not collected in any way.
Two things are collected: the url of the board, and the license number used to install it.
Nothing more. Nothing less.

I agree with Prolex. This should only be a concern to someone if they are using an unlicensed version. I personally don't like the feature, but I can see how it is totally necessary. Shortly after the release of vB 2, it was discovered that 50% of vBulletin's are pirated. Yes, 50%. That means 1 out of every 2 boards is stolen. We know we can never completely eradicate piracy, but we are doing our best to lower that to a more managable figure.
Please see this from our point of view. If the information coming in is from a registered board, then it is never seen again. If it comes from (or appears to come from) a pirated board, then we will investigate further.
Also, the only people with access to this information are John and James.

[Prolex]

I've got a question James. Are we allowed to install a 2nd version on our server, back up the database from our excisting one, then import so that basicly we have a 2nd copy of our excisint forum.

Then test out hacks and various things on that forum so that we dont end up screwing up our "good" forum? I wouldnt see this as a problem because personally I dont want to go messing up my "good" forum. I would rather screw up my "test" forum..

[Martin]

I have a test board I sure hope it's within the agreement or they'll demod me

[Prolex]

sweet jesus heheh ur a mod, shouldn't u know the aggrement off by heart?? jk man

[Martin]

as long as it's not generally accessible, no one is going to spank you. mine I use for installingand testing hacks, though my board is hack-free.

[Prolex]

no the board is only accesible to me, and the php programmer on our site. So only staff members.. K thanks Martin

[Thomas P]

I mailed sales about my private test board, it took a while and they said it's okay - as long as only one is public at a time since I have one license.
-Tom

[JamesUS]

Yes a private test board is no problem. I personally have one for each of my two forums.

[Nicholas Brown]

Matt, firstly let me say Im shocked at your post. If your going to be such a jackass, at least dont do it in a forum where lots of members have respect for you.

Dont you think Jelsoft deserve to protect their product? How would you feel if you wrote software then people started uploading copies to Warez sites etc then all the thieving little twats come along downloading it, sending it to their buddies. Then we get to the 50% piracy rate,

Now, thats not good. Just think how much money Jelsoft are loosing because of these idiotic pirates - its not fair.

I think the way Jelsoft have setup the tracking is an OK way. Its loaded in 1 frame that isnt rereshed as you do your admin-ing.

Originally posted by MattR
For me, the infuriating issue is your 'why should you care' response. It's my right to know that the software is going to make a connection from *my* server to Jelsofts. If someone asks, you say "Yes, yes it does". You list it in the fine print somewhere but for heaven's sake don't try and pull that line of BS "Why should you care".

There is such a feature. It is a part of the code. Tell people if they ask. It's not hard to find and / or remove but it is my right to know SOMEWHERE that this is doing that. Dig down deep in license agreements for Real Player, etc. and it will say 'We will, every time you run this application, send X Y and Z to our servers and here is what we do with it…'. I expect no less from vBulletin. Say 'We will call our servers with your license number and will record your IP address and verify that it jives with our records. Then it is destroyed'. That's it. Don't try and be all cloak-and-dagger about it.

When you open up a port from MY box using MY internet connection I sure as hell want to know about it. And the thing is, it will record my PERSONAL IP address, not the servers. I don’t know what YOU use to browse the web with, but some of us have relatively static IP addresses. I don’t like the idea of my and other Admins / Moderator’s IPs being tracked behind my back and it IS your obligation to say WHAT your privacy policy is. All major sites say ‘we will record your IP, date and time, etc. for our records etc.’

What’s ‘one more’ thing people use to invade my privacy. Would you like your car uploading your VIN number and everywhere you went that day to a local database to make sure that you’re not in a stolen car? That it is stored somewhere that you visited Bob’s Pr0n-o-rama for 45 minutes? If my car did that I would a) not buy it or b) disable it. I’m a law-abiding citizen and I don’t need someone or some thing to keep ‘proving’ that I am honest.

Certainly this is a minor ‘privacy invasion’ (because it looks like it is returning MY IP address and not the server’s) but it is your OBLIGATION as a reputable business to not **** with me and go ‘It might; so what!’

[Chen]

Originally posted by Martin
as long as it's not generally accessible, no one is going to spank you. mine I use for installingand testing hacks, though my board is hack-free.

And if I wanna be spanked?
j/k j/k don't ban me or something.

But seriously, I'm with Nicholas Brown.
If any of you got a problem with this type of verification, don't use it! God... at least respect it!

[Jake Bunce]

pirating vb will get you bad jakeman karma

[The Realist]

If there was a ET phone home script hidden in VB it will be an excellent Idea to stop sites using it without a proper Licence.

The only people that will not like this are the pirates themselves.

[Chen]

And hey, it's not that hard to remove!

It's not like on Real's products or Microsoft's that you need to crack some of the files and stuff like that - all you need here is a text editor (well, and finding where the code is, that couldn't be that hard).

P.S.
Why do I have the feeling that this is gonna be one very long thread?