Well, Ferdy's back. And the newest thefts include Bill Lyon's Fuji blimp and that VarigLOG DC-10 from that 3rd party site...Grrr... might just have to step it up with this guy. Wonder if a large class action lawsuit from the entire FS community would spook him?

This is a letter you can send to Mr. Ferdy. It outlines his infringements and liabilities he has incurred. It is approved by a lawyer and can be used to inform him that you are pursuing or considering pursuing legal action. Just fill in the relevant info:Dear [name of infringer]It has come to my attention that you have made an unauthorized use of my copyrighted work entitled [name of work] (the "Work") in the preparation of a work derived therefrom. I have reserved all rights in the Work, which was first published in 1999 on www.mycompany

Hi TomNo need to clarify dear friend. I knew your concerns were for Ferdy's scant disregard for designers wishes. Sadly Tom just one sponsor strong armed him, what does that say for those who did not? Do they support Ferdy and his abuse of designers wishes?We have some big names on that site sponsering him do we not? All said and done we are also potential customers for their products as are those who are following this issue.Why not ask them to make a public statement? The question I ask myself over and over again is why do respectable companies sponsor him? They know what goes on! Thanks again Tom time and support.Best wishes

Hi MikeFerdy would not care less about any law suit my friend, he knows how hard it would be to enforce an action against him. The only way were going to screw him is to get Flightsim.com to block him. If you want to close him down then bring this issue to Nels Anderson attention. Until such time as Flightsim.com blocks him he will continue to plunder files from that site.One other thing we can do is to contact authors direct every day we see new files posted and ask them to support us by requesting there files are removed from FSPLUNDER.COMI for one am not going to rest untill he is stopped from poaching.Best

I would certainly support this. Have you written to him with this text? His response?Shez

I sent it not one hour ago, and set the deadline for Thursday. I have given this jerk more than two weeks to remedy the situation.The next step is less certain, but I figure if he made money selling first class memerships using my files, then I'm entitled to a cut. So is everyone else.

he seems to be back from Paris....and he keeps stealing freeware.he really ignore our concern.....he seems to keep doing it.

Mike, I sent you email to your "other" address regarding Sunday. Did you get it?

He's a resident of Spain. His host is based in Texas. www.rackshack.net. Send your email and claims to [email protected].

I wonder how that would work with international law. Spain is kinda lax when it comes to enforcing IP law (seen the stacks of pirated music CDs on open sale in markets often enough to know pirates have little to fear from there).The name 'rackshack' doesn't sound too professional either, could they just claim the site does not fall under US law since it's not administered by a US legal entity? You'd then have to fall back on Spanish law where they might defer you back to the US because the actual illegal material is outside their borders.Stalemate.Law, and especially IP law, is extremely difficult to enforce when entities in several countries are involved (not to mention extremely expensive).

Yes I agree. I concur with your points on enforcement outside the US. However, the guy needs to be sent the letters to let him know that there is a chance that the law will be enforced, as after all Spain is in the EU.ShezP.S. I think I will write to Nels...

Rackshack may be in the US and Serena in Spain but as I understand the US Code on copyright (which, not being a lawyer, may be incorrect) it all depends where the copyrighted material was obtained from. If it is from a server in the US that might be a different ball game altogether.I have openly admitted that I am a first class member of FS Planet as I had no idea that there downloads were coming from elsewhere. Although I am not downloading AND RETAINING any items from there I did download all the items on his last email merely to check the terms of the file. With only one exception (and the author got an email from me and has acted upon it) none of the files had any restriction about where they could be uploaded apart from saying money could not be made from the file. As they were all new uploads and had presumably been uploaded since this all started I find it strange the authors have not done more to protect themselves.As I understand it he has not yet issued a CD with freeware on it. Once he does then legal action could be taken by those who do not restrict where their files are hosted and/or state that money cannot be made from them.In the meantime I will continue to monitor the downloads he is offering and alert any authors whose terms are being flaunted. If I do not get any more emails from him for files to download under the first class membership then I will be getting in touch with my credit card company for them to deal with the failure to perform the contract.Bill

I have just been into his site and all would appear to be not well. Try to get into any of the forums and I get diverted to Gary Rabbitt's support forum. Also a lot of the links of photos etc are dead. There have been no new files added since last Friday.Bill

Bill,it's because he gets most file from Avsim, now he has no where to find...the only one is Flightsim.com I do hope they realise it too.FlightSim pays for the huge amount of bandwith and that's why their FirstClass money is being used for the development and the bandwith they pay, freeware author can understand that well.But Ferdy keeps it for himself and his site is not that big at all, he got nothing to worry about since his website host he have offered him unlimited bandwith, I think, not sure.And all downloads are stored in VolFTP and in RackShack not to his own server.

Interesting he says at the top of the latest page that he has to go to Italy for 3 days and will announce why he had to go when he returns. Hmmm...I wonder what this could be...a meeting with a certain web hosting company called VOLFTP? :-scatter Shez