Freeware for sale

[Guest DFS]

If you take a look at www.ebay.co.uk, go to 'Community', enter ########## in the 'find a member' box and click on the submit button you'll find a member of that name. Click on 'sellers items' on the far r/h side of the screen and you'll find a range of DVDs for sale filled with freeware. The excuse for this is that he is 'providing a service' and 'making no profit'. I find that hard to believe at a tenner a go! Does anyone else have an opinion on this?

[John_Cillis 2,406]

My opinion is I find it odd someone joins the forum just to "alert" us to this practice. Last time this happened, turns out it was just to steer people to a certain product in the hopes to drum up sales. If your intentions are sincere, forgive me. My question--why haven't you alerted ebay. Ebay will pull such packages immediately.-John

[Guest davidvoogd]

The sale of freeware without permission is terrible, and I'm glad there are people who look out for this. However Avsim has a special piracy reporting feature and it's likely best to post it there. Thanks for taking action on this though.

[John_Cillis 2,406]

My reply wasn't meant to discourage a legitimate attempt to report these issues. But recently, some users have been spamming various forums with false "alerts" in order to steer people to their packages. If this was someone who joined Avsim out of sincere intent, I apologize. But there's also the chance this person was trying to get people to consider this DVD for purchase, which is why Ken stepped in and edited the original post.-John

[Guest Shalomar]

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!The truth is that these unethical distributers of "freeware for sale" fill a niche for certain simmers. Not everyone who has a computer is on the net, and a lot that are have slow connections. Assuming that they know about freeware distribution sites like Avsim, it is EASIER for them to go to their public library or a friend's house and have a CD shipped to their door. Or, from their slow dialup connection, order multiple or large files. I have been thinking about it for a while, and in addition to reporting piracy it might help to UNDERCUT THE PRICE. I have seen kind offers on the forums to burn and ship files to other members, and have made a few myself. I have access to broadband and a burner. What about a more organised aproach, whereupon after recieving PROOF of a donation members would burn and ship files COD to those that have trouble with the library, for whatever reason? I can see several potential problems such as what if files by multiple authors are wanted. How would it be split up, and be kept track of. If each author recieved a set amount the cost of an order might exceed that charged by the scam artists. If a donation was simply to Avsim or the Richard Harvey Foundation, it wouldn't benefit the authors. Personally I would not want anything for time spent searching for files or cost of CDs and envelopes. But I wouldn't want to ship CDs to just anyone who wanted them, which would not benefit the authors and could be expensive for me, thus I would personally want proof of a donation. The end result might be donations that far exceed the cost of CDs and envelopes, or that I could afford to donate myself.Would there be problems with legality?What does everyone think about the idea?Best Regards, Donny:-wave

[Guest Philip Olson]

I think that it would be a good idea to see the money go to charity like that. I would be willing to spend my time and money to burn and ship a few CD's to those that needed them if such a program were to be set up. I think that the best way to go about something like that though would be to get the ok from the author, I know that would be a pain in the rear, at least at first, but personally I would not want to do anything against the authors wishes. I don't see anyone having a problem with such a method but it is not wise to assume that everyone would sign off on this and one author getting mad could close the whole thing down. I am all for it though and I would donate my time, postage and CD's if the money went to the Richard Harvey scholarship or some other good charity.Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[Guest DFS]

>My reply wasn't meant to discourage a legitimate attempt to>report these issues. But recently, some users have been>spamming various forums with false "alerts" in order to steer>people to their packages. If this was someone who joined>Avsim out of sincere intent, I apologize. But there's also>the chance this person was trying to get people to consider>this DVD for purchase, which is why Ken stepped in and edited>the original post.>>-JohnSorry to hear you think I joined the forum to drum up traffic for my pirate software. As it happens, I work for a software publisher and we have been banging our heads against the wall with eBay to get something done about piracy. It is a myth that they take any proper action. As an example, two weeks ago I reported an eBayer who was selling pirate copies of our stuff (and that of Abacus, RealAir, Just Flight, PSS, Aerosoft, PMDG and others). About a week later eBay got back to me and told me to fill in their reporting form. This I did and, sure enough, four days later they proudly told me that the items had been removed. Sadly, they had already long been sold by this time (eBay had their comission) and the pirate was doubtless already spending his cash on a new set of CD burners. The pirate in question has already changed his ID on eBay and will soon be at it again. I am a big fan of eBay - I've even bought a car on it - but their current attitude to pirate software is laughable. Fill in a form and we'll ask the pirate if he's up to mischief? It would be nice if they tried to work with publishers and developers instead of treating us like annoying nuisances who are upsetting the applecart. One pirate who sells FS software on eBay also sells Nike trainers and mobile phones. I will leave you to draw your own conclusions about how much of a service he is providing the community by helping to re-distribute mobile phones from those who have them to those who don't. Still, onward and upward. At

[Guest Shalomar]

Donny AKA ShalomarFly 2 ROCKS!!!I forgot to mention it specifically, but I wasn't going to do anything without specific author's permission before sending any out. Actually at this point I'm just throwing the idea out there, I don't have any imediate plans. If the author wants it to go to the Harvey fund, some other charity, or themselves, it wouldn't matter to me. I am thinking of a target donation of around five dollars for each CD burned. But it would raise the question of what about CDs with multiple authors on them if some want the donations, which by all acounts they deserve for their labor.Best Regards, Donny:-wave