To my eternal shame (don asbestos overalls), I am a first class member of that site although since this all blew up I have not downloaded anything from there nor will I in the future. OK so it is cash down the drain but I do not condone breach of copyright in any shape or form. I was the one that alerted three other sites when their downloads were being leeched by direct access from the third party site to theirs (two were MSTS sites and one an FS site) so my record speaks for itself. The pirates did not even have to worry about bandwidth. Normally when I find a new site the first thing I do is right click an image to make sure that leeching is not going on.The downloads available are issued in an email every two days (and I will let the managers of this site have a copy if they email me requesting it) and the downloads are activated from the email. The clever way he did it originally was to have the normal download site that was powered by a tortoise and use a fast response server for the members.As I recall originally the downloads would be available 24 hours or more before they were released onto the site. This is now shown as 5 hours so I have been shafted as well.I have just read through another of the threads and went to fsplanet to dig around. I hadn't noticed it before as I had no cause to look as it was not the case when I originally went to the site but if I right click on any of the images of downloads on the site I merely get 'Copyright by FSPlanet.com' which in itself must be another case of breach of copyright.I was not going to admit being a first class member due to the inevitable flaming I would get (do not waste your time as I will ignore it) but I have admitted it here so that I could provide the information requested. I took the membership up totally unaware of where the files were originally coming from.Bill

Bill,Thank you for telling us that....this is what most of us will want to know.and hey....nobody will flame you....you didn't even know about all this the first time you register there didn't you ? Thank You once again for telling us....I appreciate it as I personally too wanted to know about it.

wow! :-eek Well, glad he was caught before more was sold! :( some people... think they can get away with it :-rollBest Regards Derek Beal Senior Test Pilot - SimuBuild Freeware Group (SB) :-waveCLICK BANNER TO ACCESS! :7http://flightsimmers.net/va/aeroflot724/Dereksig.jpgPROUD RUSSIAN/CANADIAN! :D http://www.x-plane.org/users/dbeal/3dflags...om_russi2bl.gif http://www.x-plane.org/users/dbeal/canadaa.gif

I believe this was added since the whole debacle blew, Thomas.--M

Hey guys!As of June 16 ,today, in this case, are any of you unable to get onto Fsplanet? i cant...just wondering... :-jumpy

Nor me - he did do an upgrade on his servers a few days ago - maybe it has gone all wrong :-walksmile ;(8 :-xxrotflmao :-hang :-vuurBill

>Something else to think about: What about the site >advertisers? I noticed that both eDimensional and Lago are >sponsors of the site with prominent banners. Maybe someone >should contact them and explain what is going on... I doubt >they would be happy to be associated with a site that >actively promotes piracy. We do follow the news and we are considering our reaction. We do consider part of the issue to be serious but we will of course listen to the reaction of Ferdy on this issue. As a former freeware author I have no problem with my files on that site, even if I have not uploaded them there, as long as they are not sold. At this moment they are not being sold. I believe that the files I created as freeware were a gift to the community and that the community should distribute them as they like.Like many others I do have major problems with the disclaimer on the FTP site and I completely understand that some people want their files removed.Mathijs KokLAGO

Could it be that VOLFTP have "had a quiet word" with Ferdy? :( Shez

Well, as I have already admitted to being a first class member (see above) I can tell you that I have not had an email with the latest downloads since Friday and should have had another one yesterday.So it looks like my sub went down the drain. I don't care as I was not going todownload anything from there ever again and am in the fortunate position where I can afford to lose the money. But there are probably plenty of people who cannot and there is now no way for them to contact him for a refund. If I find a contact address anywhere be sure it will be posted here.Bill

looks like one big rip-off all round Bill, freeware artists and people who've paid subs.

Looks to me FSPlanet.com have closed down, Ferdy is taking all the money with him.

Hi Jon/AllI would wait and see, Ferdy has done this before when the heat has been turned on him for his misdoings. My guess is if he runs true to form he will be back any day...........sadly:-(The problem of getting your money back still remains, if you have paid him for first class membership and this no longer is available to you then DEMAND a refund now!I am hoping I am wrong and that he has gone for good, Avsim did a great job exposing his theft from their file library.Now we wait and see.Best

Mike, thanks, but just to put the record straight, we weren't concerned about his poaching as much as were about his flat out refusal to abide by the wishes of the authors (yourself included). The only reason we locked him out of the AVSIM system was to provide some assurance (to the best that IP blocking can) to authors who do upload here that it would take extrodinary measures by Ferdy to continue to poach their files. The only time he abided by author's wishes is when he was strong armed by one of his sponsors, apparently. The transgression that got us involved was the refusal to remove and Ferdy's response, to Kari Virtanen and his Fouga. That, combined with your experience, was the icing on the cake, and the reason that we got involved at all. Others followed our lead on the IP blocking, and hopefully Ferdy has received the message loud and clear.

Hi Tom,To the best of your knowledge did Nels at FS.com also get involved in the ip blocking?I had not given much thought to my scenery regularly appearing at FS Planet but the more I think about the whole affair, the attitude, the responses, the First Class membership for freeware, the more I think this site needs to readjust its modus operandi.Thanks once again Tom for leading the freeware cause...Shez

Shez, can't say if Nels did or didn't. No one from there asked for the IP block data we had, but others did.