"FSPlanet is on it again"

[Guest]

A copy of news item from FS Nordic:"FSPlanet is on it again 25.07.03 / 21:00 - SP Some of our users remember simulation website "FS Planet" and it's arrogant webmaster Ferdy Serena. The site has been blacklisted by several freeware authors for illegally uploading their files to the website, and not removing them although so requested. It seems now that Mr.Serena has changed his tactics - he is now harrassing users and freeware authors who have issued a boycot to his site. Read the thread at our discussion forum for more information."And a link to the forum thread (copy & paste, as this forum does not seem to understand the URL....): http://www.fsnordic.net/discussion/index.p...d=13706;start=0Feel free to drop comments to that thread... Think that he's again crossed the line, and this is something worth telling to the whole community..Sami PuroFS Nordichttp://www.fsnordic.net/

[Guest Kristiaan]

I could hang Ferdy !,I had a discussion a long long time ago with him about placing any of our 757's to his site, he didn't listenend and gave us the feeling that he is the boss, i was even thinking about registering iFDG as a trademark and sending him a signed letter ( or a fax ), and i even thought to make a notam to the spanish justice department, but what the heck, luckaly enough i came to the conclusion that this is only fs !!!, and that we should boycod him, we should all visit the fspl#net.com's message board and flood it with worthless messages, for him then, to let our anger spitt into his face, me, as a 17 years old student knows how the law works, and he is almost 3x that age, ohh well, looks like mister Ferdy needs some education in, ''how to understand the feeling of being a human''...Its never justified when you, change, add or distrubte anybody's files wihtout the authors permission by a community medium, like by a Website or by the spreading of cd's..The worthness that the ''thief'' has of the norms of life and the style in which he operates by the back of developers says enough that this man wants to make profit by someone elses work..Any form of unauthorised thouches made to someone elses products, codes, ideas, are prohibited by the European Law.The author only haves to prove it by the originel source files of the product, this can be a Gmax Generated file or even word document which has been signed by multiple ''outsiders''...Oh well, enough about it. Just come to the fact that i hate that man.........-Kristiaan.-The Netherlands.

[Guest Kristiaan]

Btw, It isnt expensive to put a TradeMark into the books, for 30euro's a year are you ready.......__-- Atleast in Holland --__-Kristiaan.-The Netherlands.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

AVSIM and yours truly have been threatened with lawsuits at least three times by the "Ferdman". Turn's out his lawyer in Houston, TX is actually not a lawyer at all (probably slings tacos in a street corner chalet!). Shame really.. I was looking forward to that cat fight. :-lolAnyway, here's the deal folks. Two things have to be done to get Ferdman's attention. First, send email to all his sponsors and protest his practices. Second, if you are an author of add-on's that mysteriously find there way aboard the Ferdman's site, send him an email and demand that they be removed from his site. If he doesn't comply send us an email at srstaff@avsim.com. We have ways of convincing him. :-lol

[Guest ben_hewitt]

It's happend to me loads of time where i have uploaded my stuff to another site to remain unnamed then it had shown up on FSplanet....grrr I actually put in a few readmes...may not be uploaded to FSplanet :-lol When I was a member of the now dead Jet Precision we tried to get something done about it but nothing would work. Pretty sad if has to steal freeware work to benefit his site....if he just asked if he could use these files before hand he would have found the majority would agree and he could use the files legit. Avsim are doing a good job as I stopped uploading averywhere but AVSIM and have never saw another of my many files on FSP!..have you blocked him from using the libary?

[John_Tavendale 453]

Happened to me too, I even put into the Readme file "May not be placed on FSplanet.com" but heh, they ended up there. :-lolGuess he can't read :-hah

[ShezA 176]

I wrote to him and he sent back an passionate (but polite) mail stating his case and why it benefits me and the entire community because he posts my file to FSPlanet. I (politely) said my part and he (politely) removed all my files...not bad really. Of course it should not have happened in the first place...CheersShez

[Guest]

AFAIK you also need a registered company. That costs quite a bit more.

[StoneC0ld 5]

More likely that his leech script can't read it..... :D

[BladeLWS 0]

Well well well Ferdy up to his old tricks again. TTLUK has had numerous runins with him in the past, with most of our products being uploaded to his site against out EULA. He said in an email that any readme that denounces his site, he will keep the file on it. He thinks he is a free man, able to do anything. Well see it this way. TLUK did some investigating and yes it did find that FSPlanet is based in Houston, TX, right down to the street address of the server it runs out of. We even have satellite photos from Mapquest hehe. WE won't give them out because next thing we know people will begin bombing missions on the building LOL. I had a talk with Mr. Serena, VERY LENGHTY about it all. If you want a copy you can download it here. http://www.tlukdesign.co.uk/erik/ferdyconv.htm It get quite funny when I ask Ferdy questions and he either denounces them or lies about them. Here is an excerpt from it, this is the funniest part lol. Erik says:"The author of a freeware program may still retain a copyright on its contents"Ferdy says:in any way, any form...Erik says:as you see, a legal right on freewareFerdy says:Of course....Ferdy says:that's what we support...Ferdy says:look...Ferdy says:waitErik says:and as you said above "Ferdy says:Erik.... We respect author's wishes....!...but...Thereis not LEGAL RIGHTS ON FREEWARE!"It gets better and better as it goes along hehe. I get him on so many technicality's its hirarious, its long but very much worth the read.

[gosta 0]

Hi all,the legal situation in this case is fairly straightforward. Mr Serena appears to be based in Spain, and his website is hosted by an Italian ISP. Both countries are signatories to the Berne Convention on Copyright. Mr Serena's submission that freeware files are public domain is erroneous in the majority of cases, where the authors of these files have not been deceased for 50 years or more. As, by definition, copyright includes the right to distribution or determination of the mode thereof, any copyright holder can demand his work(s) to be removed from distribution universally or selectively without giving reason. A selective distribution policy is not actionable in libel.Hope this clears it up.Cheers,Gosta. http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[gosta 0]

Hi Erik,interesting conversation you had there :). OK, so Ferdy thinks all freeware is issued under a GNU licence. Well, the simple answer is 'no'. There are various legal deficiencies with that type of agreement, and as far as I know it hasn't been tested in any court. Therefore (just to state the blindingly obvious), it can not be considered a universal contractual basis upon which a work is released to the public for non-monetary gain. To assume that a waiver of charges for one's work automatically constitutes a waiver of one's rights under applicable IP legislation constitutes a fatal error. I believe Mr Serena's lawyer should stick to making tacos... :).Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[John_Tavendale 453]

I think the fact that erks most freeware designers is where Ferdy stores the files. The FTP server that host the files says they have the right to make and sell CDs of the contents located on their servers.

[gosta 0]

Hi John,well, they don't - the copyright holder has the right to decide if, how, through whom and by what method to distribute his/her work.Send me an e-mail, I've got an idea :).Cheers,Gosta.http://hifi.avsim.net/activesky/images/wxrebeta.jpg

[Guest hotrod56]

Interesting topic.It seems, according to this thread,that FSPlanet are not the only ones that are uploading without the authors permission. Is anyone going to take issue with Flightsim.com ? I doubt it.http://www.air-source.us/forum/topic.asp?tpa=596