Well, he could, but then why would anybody pay him for premium access (or whatever he calls it)? If the whole community knows that they can go to any of a couple of hundred sites and get them for free, or to the library mirror itself, or to the AVSIM Library directly, then that kind of dillutes Ferdy's attraction, don't you think?

Same way people pay for CDs with freeware, "premium services".Ferdy will claim to have something that makes him stand out (of course he'll hide that Avsim hosts the files by leeching them realtime and retransmitting them as his own).

That may hold true until we block his IP from accessing the mirror. :-sae

Reading his privacy statement is a laugh.1. He doesn't understand what Freeware is. (with the comment, "All freeware can be freely distributed")WRONG!Freeware is free software. Nothing more, nothing less. The license attached is at the decretion of the author and they have the right to specify it's distribution as they see fit. EG. It is possible for Freeware to exist that CANT under any circumstances be distributed.I believe FSPlanet are confusing freeware with public domain software, where the autor revokes any license he may have to effectively make the software the property of the public, as in everyone owns it.2. His cookie policy is way off the base and in breatch (I am sure) of many countries legalalities. He accepts money on the site and it must therefore meet the eCommerce laws for the countries he will export his services too. Stating that "Cookies are used for other purposes" DOES NOT fulfil the UK eCommerce regulations and is therefore illegal for him to trade his services to UK residents, (To my knowledge anyway).3. He does openly state that he will give all you personal information to his afiliates and other companies who advertise on his site. You don't have an option. This includes email addresses. Again this is against new european LAW! Unsolicited email is now illegal, and if he is giving your email address to other comapanies with out your prior and explicit permission to do so he is "aiming to help spam mail".What an ####.

Oh well so what? let the man upload files. The more sites are available for free files the better. Stelios

And its this attitude and lack of understanding that leads FREEWARE develops to say stuff you, you can pay for any and all future work I do.

Jon,Since Stelios is a low time poster here, I wouldn't consider his attitude one that reflects the feelings of the community in general. If anything, you should feel pleased by the response you've seen from most here. There's people with a certain naive attitude in every forum, and one musn't overlook the chance that some users with low post counts are here as proxy to a "higher" authority, if you know what I mean :)Long story short--any site that dismisses copyright in a campaign to make money in keeping freeware "unlimited" by selling paid memberships for easy access to said "freeware", is going to eventually run afoul of the law. Before someone says Flightsim.com does the same thing, they have one key difference--they work with the community instead of threatening it. I know my file will be there because I want it to be--not because some clown tells me it his his "right" to have it.Please don't let people like Stelios get you down. I took something the wrong way the other day and almost tanked a project that many have helped me with. Even if Stelios is a bit naive, you have more supporters here than I can name.-John

"Since Stelios is a low time poster here"If that's the case he should also know that guys like Ferdy are stealing more than just files from freeware authors (that in itself is bad enough), but the sites he poaches those files from are also being hurt.Sites like Avsim and Flightsim get to pay for the bandwidth Ferdy uses to get those freeware offerings. In the end, everybody gets hurt just so a crook can make a few bucks off the labors contributed by others.Greg

>Oh well so what? let the man upload files. The more sites are>available for free files the better. >SteliosIt's not just that - it's that he's selling "premium" CDs and download services in which he's directly profiting from files that authors have stated that they don't want being used to make Ferdy a profit.

I agree and the terms he puts on his Privacy page are relevant only to "Public Domain" in that people can charge only for the distribution costs. This was evenident when we had little or no internet, you had to pay for the floppies!He is mistaken about "Freeware" licenses.

I am a webmaster myself...before I create a major site that will have the content that tends to have high bandwith I always think...what if one day I cannot afford to keep up the cost of the website...many people downloading stuff out of my site, some people complained that they cannot access pages because of bandwith issue...so...perhaps webmaster should be aware of this kind of issue, people are not going to be really happy if suddenly you decided to charge them for free download. Donations is a good alternative, while the webmaster cannot except people will always put generous donations, but webmaster can think of the alternatives, advertising that generates revenue for the site.Ferdy in this case, use the advertising, but what he did is worst that he charge people for a faster access, faster downloads, exclusive email deliveries of new great downloads and etc, he used freeware files for that, he simply don't respect the author's wishes and even threaten, harass the authors. I see many authors decided to call it a day when they can't accept their hard work being used for money by Ferdy the ######.FSPlanet bandwith is nothing compared to Avsim, Flightsim and any other FS site which hosts greater amount of files than FSPlanet. While Flightsim charge for faster download and guaranteed access without the all nodes busy message, you can still download files for free, the option of having that previlages is your choice, they're not forcing you. FSPlanet does, you cannot download from their site, so you have to register for their FirstClass service.As author who have been unrespected by Ferdy, I simply hurt to see my files there...because my files can be downloaded with a charge, the money goes to Ferdy, not to me. Hours after hours I spend to get the work done, give it the quality for our hobby, than all this guy do is poached it and charge people to download them.Ridiculous to see FSPlanet's privacy statements, funny how he didn't respect the privacy act itself and telling people to respect it.So...I still hope that justice will be brought upon FSPlanet.

Well if he is making money out of files that people developed to fe used freely, this is wrong. If I develop something for free and is available for everyone to use it's ok, but if someone is making money out of it, I will be very upset.Stelios

>We'll not tollerate any longer defamantion of fsplanet or>harassment of our site by any author any longer - we are>particolarly targetting those authors wich uses txt or in the>habit to post defaming messaging against fsplanet into theirs>TWX or setup's included in freeware files. We will not estate>to take legal action against those authors or sites in the>future - and choice of who will be picoted is at our legals>discretions. - with legal action to follow. Also we are>collecting evidence against those authors who are continuously>defaming splint using TWX file included in Freeware zip>uploaded on the net. All signed splint offensive TWX files>are collected and passed on to our solicitors.>>I'm sorry but that is HILARIOUS!!!!!! It's>pseudo-typo-legalese!!! ;) :DI knew that Ferdy was an #### but I didn't know he'd gone that far. Let me see...by placing wording in your TWX file to keep Ferdy from ripping you off makes you slanderous of his site?!?! This is a hoot,he could teach PT a few things.David

>Greetings One and all,>>On Tuesday evening I received an e-mail from our friend at the>website currently being discussed, here is the full text of>the e-mail:>>To who it concern;> >Fsplanet is taking preliminary legal action against Jon>Murchison for defaming our free and fully legal activities at>our site.> >Please provide me your postage address where my solicitor and>legal represantants can contact you and we'll take this matter>further - in court of justice.> >Thank you!> >Xavier Vergara>[email protected] >http://www.fsplanet.com/>Valencia-SPAINOh this is sooooo funny. What a tactic,rip off the freeware community and then "scare them straight" with the old tired PT angle " I got a SOCICITOR!!"Of course they don't and it wouldn't matter if they did. A line in a .txt file stating that the file can't be placed on FSPlanet isn't within a million miles of being slanderous.David

Good read folks, had a nice talk my Ferdy a long time ago and he spills all his beans. I think he's a certifiable nut job. http://www.tlukdesign.co.uk/erik/fsplanet.txt