Will there be a Lawsuit from UBB???

[David Copeland]

I agree with that too.

In this day and age there are so many law suits over the
themes such as "If it walks and talks like my trademark and
copyright" . . . then I must have been ripped off.

You're right about the FAQ. UBB could easily win in a
trial on that point alone. And USA law allows on a
majority of the jury to find in favor of the plaintiff,
such as 6-4, instead of all jurors.

Spend the little bit of cash and get a legal review.

[theprof]

The FAQ was not written by Infopop.

[cheeky]

Wonderful!
so we have more than one so called professional outfit alleging that it has copyright to materials that aren't there's!

Does anyone actually do any work ?
or do they all just rip each other off ?

sounds like we have some real slick operations going on here'
there's nothing wrong with using other materials sourced from outside the development team, so long as it is clear that concessions and approvals have been made for it to be used.

What is your reference for saying that it is not InfoPops either ?

[David Copeland]

We'll be buying VBulletin anyway.

Silly as this sounds, by the time InfoPop and the other company catch up to all the copyright issues, I doubt it will have any long term affect on our forum members, because SOMEONE ELSE will by then write ANOTHER software program that we can import.

This seems like small folks are too busy developing and too poor to hire a federal or international copyright attorney to make sure all their ducks are lined up.

(Maybe the duck hunters are too poor to chase down the ducks!)

[cheeky]

you are so right.

cool - there's been a lot of "duck"ing of the issues in here the past 24 hrs.

sure, vB appears to be a worthwhile alternative to uBB at the moment which seems to of had it's day and unless there's some excellent originality from this product in the future, that trend will continue with better systems coming online, ensuring that any transition is smooth & sweet and old immitations will be phased out.

This is great news for the BB webmaster.

Competition will mean lower prices and better product for all concerned.

[James]

It's the heart of the engine and overall framework that cause the problem.

vBulletin was developed without any reference to the source code of UBB. Although vBulletin started out life as a rewrite of UBB in PHP/MySQL for the VB-World forums, we felt that the product was of sufficient quality to justify us marketing it as a separate product in it's own right. I personally spent many many hours creating a look and feel interface for the system that was both intuitive and flexible enough for customers to adapt however they wish.

In answer to the questions regarding copyright lawsuits - we have a solicitor looking at the issues as I type, and rest assured that anything that will leave us open to potential legal problems from any parties will be dealt with asap.

Just to clarify... we have a good working relationship with Infopop. We have been in contact with various representatives within their company from the start (including Ted), and we have no reason to believe that vBulletin will become a target for a lawsuit.

Cheeky: Please refrain from making assumptions that are untrue. Some of your comments are bordering on flaming.

All the best,

James

[cheeky]

Not at all, you appear to have clarified and agreed with my assumptions!
so I'm not sure which assumptions I've made over the past 48hrs are untrue as you put it.

First of all, how do you explain "copies" of uBB html source on your site ?

very strange that how you alledge no reference to uBB yet you have their stuff on your server??? odd

Thank you for confirming what I've been saying all along that vB evolved from uBB as a rewrite/conversion - this is EXACTLY the point I've been making without having to see the source but some people here have been contesting and confusing that issue.

I understand the effort required to develop such a conversion and respect the development team for that, as I've already paid credit too. A new platform does create it's own unique challenges.

1) Can you confirm also, for those that may still have some concerns that InfoPop have no problems at all in you developing your stand alone product as a rewrite/conversion from theirs.

Really there would be no need for legal represenation if an agreement had been struck with InfoPop, so I'm a little confused as to why you say you have someone looking into now.

All the best, I think you have arrived at the right time, to fill a gap in the deminishing uBB market place.
Good luck with the evolution of your own product.

regards
Derrick

(ps: It didn't take you guys long to start spying on me!)

[Edited by cheeky on 05-28-2000 at 05:29 PM]

[James]

Derrick,

Note: this is a reply to two threads:

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showthread.php?threadid=167&pagenumber=2

http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...p?threadid=636

NO I DO NOT ACCEPT THAT I OVERSTEPPED THE MARK AS EXPLAINED
YOUR CLIENTS DID.
...by not respecting the nature of the inquiry and request that the answers come from vB directly.
Anything else would merely incite a mild panic and retribution.

If anything Derrick, you are the person responsible for making a proverbial mountain out of a mole hill. Heck, if you really didn't want any other users from answering your message, you should have sent me an email direct!

To answer your points:

First of all, how do you explain "copies" of uBB html source on your site ?

As I stated before, vBulletin was originally a UBB rewrite. Before releasing the product commercially, we redesigned all the templates with our own html. If any ubb html exists, it's purely coincidental.

Really there would be no need for legal represenation if an agreement had been struck with InfoPop, so I'm a little confused as to why you say you have someone looking into now.

Our solicitor is not looking into issues in relation to Infopop... but the exact nature of what he is doing at the moment is none of your business.

Thank you for confirming what I've been saying all along that vB evolved from uBB as a rewrite/conversion - this is EXACTLY the point I've been making without having to see the source but some people here have been contesting and confusing that issue.

No one was contesting that vBulletin is a UBB rewrite.

I am not really sure how your anti-vBulletin tirade will benefit you... consider me jumping to conclusions (it's only fair isn't it) but aren't you releasing your own message board software fairly soon?

To be honest, comments such as this: "now does anyone know where there's some open threaded source for vB to sneak a peak at ?" make me feel that you are attacking us for all it is worth without being rational. These comments are also potentially libellous.

You have certainly overstepped the mark on this discussion. Many of your comments have either personally attacked other forum members, or made unsubstantiated claims about vBulletin.

If you would like to continue this discussion, please take it to email.

Regards,

James