FSX Piracy Amazing Story

[jackcnd 0]

This story takes piracy to new highs, read it in the link below.Here's a summary:An user browses a torrent sight looking for new FS software,not to download but to see what is new.He sees the L39 and goes to the developers web site.Likes what he sees and goes to a local store and buys a professional packaged boxed copy.Problem is the software just came one and no boxed copies exist.Someone has produced a printed box / installer for the warez and is selling the software before the developer or publisher has!You can see it unfold at LotusSimhttp://www.lotussim.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=70

[Guest V4DIV-CVN-70]

This story takes piracy to new highs, read it in the link below.Here's a summary:An user browses a torrent sight looking for new FS software,not to download but to see what is new.He sees the L39 and goes to the developers web site.Likes what he sees and goes to a local store and buys a professional packaged boxed copy.Problem is the software just came one and no boxed copies exist.Someone has produced a printed box / installer for the warez and is selling the software before the developer or publisher has!You can see it unfold at LotusSimhttp://www.lotussim.com/forums/showthread.php?tid=70

Was reading this just the other day....Was astounded how fast they boxed it and sold it. I hope for Mike's sake they can stop it and ban the guy on flightsim.com store that bought the original. Image, this is just ONE store in Serbia I shutter to think of all the other places in the world this is happening. I myself have reported pirates. Gary

[Tom_Weiss 6]

Was reading this just the other day....Was astounded how fast they boxed it and sold it. I hope for Mike's sake they can stop it and ban the guy on flightsim.com store that bought the original. Image, this is just ONE store in Serbia I shutter to think of all the other places in the world this is happening. I myself have reported pirates. Gary

soon they will be faking flight sim websites...

[FlavioSSA 44]

Man ... you can criticize me but i

[rightseater 0]

Man ... you can criticize me but i

[Comanche 417]

I didn't want to start anything other than respectable spirited debate, but I was sort of thinking the same way. I'm not saying he's lying, I just wonder if perhaps he got caught in a hole and started digging. Or, perhaps there really is some store in Belgrade selling pirated copies. Perhaps a sim enthusiast from the area could investigate that.

Id like to give him the benefit of the doubt, but Im thinking he was caught in a lie and dug himself out. Sounds a little fishy.This picracy thing never ceases to amaze me. They get more and more brazen about it. A story selling boxed copies of priated software is not imposible. So Ill leave it at that. I don't know, how many of you have posted an FSX/FS9 video on YouTube, but ive posted a few over the years. At least once a month, I get a private email from someone on Youtube asking me to send them some plane or scenery I used in the video. Ive reported some to YouTube, but it does nothing. In fact, Ive deleted most of the videos I made for this reason. After I deleted most of my videos, someone re-posted them under his name. He even entered one of them in a video contest for another site. Amazing. They even pirated my video!! LOL. nothing is sacred.Rob

[Guest napamule]

Comanche,Once you post a video to YouTube, you might as well say the WORLD owns it, and you don't have too much control after that. I can download any video on YouTube with no problem, in case I want to watch it at my leisure later on. It will be in *.FLV format, but with video converter I can burn it to DVD in a flash. Then I can delete video from my HDrive.If someone steals my video and tags his name to it I can find it and make trouble by posting a video showing my version, and his version, so people know that 'xyz' is a thief, and a pirate. And I'll keep adding comments about him (on my own 'smear' video) until YouTube pulls it (might happen). Tools. Tools. Sweet revenge.Chuck BNapamule

[EngineRoom 205]

He is correct when he says Paypal is not available in Serbia, and credit/debit cards issued in Serbia aren't accepted by many places in other countries.However, I think he has been caught in a lie. First of all, who searches torrent sites to find news of the latest releases? It seems VERY strange that someone would go to the Pirate Bay to look for what's new, and then go out and buy the product. Next, the whole boxed copy thing also sounds very fishy to me. Sure I've seen street traders in Belgrade selling pirated software, music and DVDs, but all in loose plastic sleeves, you can easily tell it's dodgy, I have never seen a proper shop selling counterfeit software on their shelves (bloody hell, even in Malaysia, where every other shop sells pirated software and movies they weren't so stupid to display the stuff openly on their shelves!), and I have NEVER seen an MSFS addon on the shelves of a shop in Serbia. 5,000RSD is around €50 which is quite a substantial amount of money for the average Serb. Lastly, why can't this guy provide a photo of the box when he was asked? He can afford a PC that can run FSX, he can afford to pay €50 for an addon, but doesn't have a digital camera... and doesn't know anyone who can lend him a digital camera...?So, let's recap - this guy looks on Pirate Bay for the latest addons... goes out to the shops to buy the one he likes for €50 even though it is not available in boxed format... can't provide a photo of the box or CD in question when asked... and then gives lots of reasons why Lotus shouldn't take legal action against them. :( My girlfriend is a Serb from Belgrade, I would ask her to go to the store and check it out, but she's here with me in the UK right now. Maybe I can get one of her parents or friends to check it out.

[Guest palwaukeeflyers]

Let me first get something very clear on one thing before I make my point. I don't condone piracy. I believe that developers should get a fair compensation for their work. It is not fair to steal somebody elses product when a lot of time is invested in developing a software. Having said that I completely understand why piracy has become so popular and why the little guy don't give a damn anymore about stealing. Year after year products are sold, companies have made a lot of cash on products that more often than not don't work. Customers send e-mails that are ignored. Hundreads of dollars are lost for those of us that were never able to recover that money spend. Little by little people get so fed up with the abuse. It was just a matter of time. Remember, "what goes around comes around". Companies are always taking advantage of the consumer. They rip you off with their inflated prices and for years they have gotten away with this. Interesting how they act like they are the victim now. Recently, a popular fs company shutdown for a brief moment their website hoping to scare those who steal illegal software by threatening to close down their site. I have one thing to say to them, lower the damn price. There is a global financial meltdown going on as of right now. Stop charging 50$ USD for one scenery. See, the problem is not piracy, the problem is greed. Piracy is just what you get for being so damn greedy. So, my point to all this is, if you want to get rid of piracy get real when pricing a product. Second, keep up with the product. Most of the time once a scenery is done I rarelly see any new upgrades. Third, get rid of the bugs. A scenery or a plane with bugs is a product that should not be released. I once bought an airplane for fs9, the charging price was like about 90$, guess what it never worked. Last but never least, if your product suck, give me a refund you are just as low as the one who steal your product. Maybe in the future every developer should be required to release a demo, that way consumers already know before making the 90$ mistake if such software works in their PC or not. But it seems to me it is not in their (developers) best interest to do that, since making money has become the top priority and not the product.

[Guest zzmikezz]

There is a global financial meltdown going on as of right now. Stop charging 50$ USD for one scenery. See, the problem is not piracy, the problem is greed.

Yes, greed is quite a problem. Spoken like a pirate customer.There is indeed a financial melt-down as you put it. So how about you let me invade your home and steal your valuable collection of watches that you made yourself? After all, you've been selling them in your store but charging much more than I'm willing to pay.In fact, it's only because of people like you that I have to be on a budget at all. If you and others like you would just give me everything that I want, I wouldn't be inclined to steal anything.

[WarpD 824]

It is not fair to steal somebody elses product when a lot of time is invested in developing a software.

They rip you off with their inflated prices and for years they have gotten away with this. Interesting how they act like they are the victim now.

Those two quotes are in direct contradiction with each other.

See, the problem is not piracy, the problem is greed. Piracy is just what you get for being so damn greedy.

Piracy is greed. It's the belief that you deserve to have something without having to pay for it. It's greed at it's most basic form. It's the "I want it, but I won't pay that for it" and then you steal it. That's greed.

So, my point to all this is, if you want to get rid of piracy get real when pricing a product.

Do you know how much it costs to develop a product?

Second, keep up with the product. Most of the time once a scenery is done I rarelly see any new upgrades.

What's to "upgrade" on scenery?

Third, get rid of the bugs. A scenery or a plane with bugs is a product that should not be released. I once bought an airplane for fs9, the charging price was like about 90$, guess what it never worked.

Based on that statement it's probably safe for me to assume you don't use ANY Microsoft product at all... oh wait, you use MSFS, which has bugs. Quite a few of 'em in fact. Do you use Windows? Yet more bugs!!

Last but never least, if your product suck, give me a refund you are just as low as the one who steal your product. Maybe in the future every developer should be required to release a demo, that way consumers already know before making the 90$ mistake if such software works in their PC or not. But it seems to me it is not in their (developers) best interest to do that, since making money has become the top priority and not the product.

If you know, before purchase, that there are no refunds offered... then you know that you, not anyone one else, are taking a risk. There are developers who have a refund policy.As for demos... those are free downloads to pirate hackers... without providing a demo, a pirate has to at least purchase the product once to get it for all the other thieves.

[Sesquashtoo 2,846]

Was reading this just the other day....Was astounded how fast they boxed it and sold it. I hope for Mike's sake they can stop it and ban the guy on flightsim.com store that bought the original. Image, this is just ONE store in Serbia I shutter to think of all the other places in the world this is happening. I myself have reported pirates. Gary

-------------------------------------------------Gary, I just read that whole thread....DISGUSTING! Absolutely DISGUSTING!I wish Mike good report.Jeez....(I sure hope he doesn't do something in the way of physical with that book store....and HE ends up in a Belgrade jail..instead of the thieves.)

[GaryTrammell 10]

Yes, greed is quite a problem. Spoken like a pirate customer.

DITTO DITTO BIG FAT DITTO DITTOMy daddy always said he hates two things...."A Liar and a Thief"I loved My Dad! Gary M Trammell Sr LTJG USN Ret. Submariner. RIP Oct 2007 ( edit: http://spg.navymemorial.org/individual.asp...y_log_id=271876 )Gary

[scoob 18]

I have one thing to say to them, lower the damn price. There is a global financial meltdown going on as of right now. Stop charging 50$ USD for one scenery. See, the problem is not piracy, the problem is greed. Piracy is just what you get for being so damn greedy.

there is NOTHING about FS that ANY PERSON 'must have'. it is a GAME! no one will die if they don't play FS or install an addon. FS isn't food, medical care or shelter.greed only fits when looking at items that are must have for life -greed is the USA housing market and high risk loans.greed are 49 million USA citizens without medical insurance & caregreed is business CEOs making 500-times that of the average employee.greed is ENRON, worldcom, etc.NOTHING about FS is greed.--

[GaryTrammell 10]

there is NOTHING about FS that ANY PERSON 'must have'. it is a GAME! no one will die if they don't play FS or install an addon. FS isn't food, medical care or shelter.greed only fits when looking at items that are must have for life -greed is the USA housing market and high risk loans.greed are 49 million USA citizens without medical insurance & caregreed is business CEOs making 500-times that of the average employee.greed is ENRON, worldcom, etc.NOTHING about FS is greed.--

scoob, where are you from?