MSFS portover piracy

[SirDan 471]

I know of one person that used your aircraft and in no way did he upload his work. He is brand new to flight sim and only linked a few screen shots and was asking for help in learning how to edit / create from, with the SDK. Again this one person was encourage to tinker around and learn. But was warned and never did upload your work to any sites. He has since moved on to bigger works with the limited SDK he has to work with atm. ofc am only speaking on his behalf due to his excitement in learning how to mod with-in flight sim. 

 

I know there are scrapers/bots that search , down / up load files to dodgy sites. Maybe this is something that is happening here, not sure. But I would avoid , name and shame any and all of these types of sites.

[Claudius_ 326]

Hi Mjahn, so happy to see you here, I think that the only way to make a stop to piracy is an official release of your beautiful C-47. Keep up your good work, your C-47 cannot be confused with the garbage.

[HighBypass 2,339]

10 hours ago, mjahn said:

...The site goes by the name of Allflightmods.com: The biggest all flight simulator mods website. ...

Biggest all sim mods site?? I've never bloody heard of them, and I've been around for a while... 

Whilst I'm here, Manfred: A big THANK YOU for your recently created Blackburn Beverley - I use it in FSX:SE. Another worthy piece of freeware 🍻 

[Adrian123 1,015]

Never heard of most of these new "Popup" msfs websites. 30yrs. Cashing in?

[norman_99 209]

This needs to be posted over on the official MSFS forum too. A lot of new FS players go there first.

[styckx 1,871]

4 hours ago, Adrian123 said:

Never heard of most of these new "Popup" msfs websites. 30yrs. Cashing in?

Yep..  Even a well known PC modding site (nm) suddenly started to host MSFS add-ons for 2020 despite never once hosting a single flight simulator related mod in the sites history.  Purely cashing in while the fire is hot)

[z06z33 763]

10 hours ago, FrankR409 said:

I posted my concerns over the matter on the YT video, but the video creator is indifferent. Perhaps others could pay him a visit as well and let him know what we think of it.

 

Its one thing to port things over for testing,education on how the new platform works and, personal use but its another to release them to the public.

Edited September 6, 2020 by z06z33

[wim123 761]

we need a freeware tab in the ingame shop, where the products have been tested  (like farmsim does), and the products can be

protected .

[OrcCorp 10]

Hello everyone! I'm the person behind the Youtube video some of you have shared in this thread. My Youtube account is OrcCorp, and my name is Joni Niva. I hail from Finland.

I've been contacted by Mafred Jahn personally via email, and my video of the model is no longer available. I have no problems with actual business taken care of properly by the relevant people, but some random person coming to comment on my Youtube video that I need to take down the content as it's pirated software will not go far. That is not the proper way to conduct official business. I was a bit confused about the situation, and was partially unable to study the topic in more detail before yesterday. I got my model from msfsaddons.org website about the time it was made available on Sep 1st. I downloaded it and made my video of it. Then couple days later someone told me that the model is not proper and not from the actual creators of the original software (nothing else was provided to me at this point, other than this claim). The model had been taken down from the msfsaddons.org website without any information available of the reasons, and I was left without any further info on the matter. I tried to look around for other websites and some forums, where I could find more info, but I didn't find anything, and didn't look too deep as I was busy with other work (got 2 day jobs). For a short period of 5 to 7 hours in Sep 5th I had the other link to the infamous allflightmods.com available in the description of the video, as the mod was still available there, and I knew nothing about the website. Then yesterday, 22 hours ago to be exact, I was told in the video comments that the content is pirated and that I should take the video down (Frank R in Youtube, FrankR409 on this forum). As I still had no accurate info available, I said it is not for a random person to tell me to take down my content on Youtube, and that my video will stay online, unless the actual creator team contacts me and asks me to take down the content. That has now happened, and I have respected the wish of Mr. Jahn to make the video unavailable. I will of course work together with the correct people, and I'm always open to civilized discussion on any matter. I have no ill will towards anyone, and wish not to breach any goodwill or copyrights of anyone. I've been active in Youtube for 12 years, which would not be possible if I was a bad actor in the community. I would appreciate it highly if no one here, or in Youtube, would claim otherwise without knowing any better. Thank you.

This is a very unfortunate business altogether, and I will keep myself more vigilant about any future mod videos I create. This incident, however, is not encouraging me to make much mods videos in the future, unless I can be sure of the origins of the mod. This is very unfortunate, and I only wished I would be able to confirm the legitimacy of any and all mods available.

I want to thank you Mr. Jahn for your candor and demeanor in our communications. After talking to you, you have my utmost respect. This ugly business is now concluded on my part, and all I can say is that I hope anything like this won't happen again. That might be an absurd wish to have, but one can always hope 🙏

I wish the community all the best for the autumn and the holidays of 2020! Stay safe, stay healthy!

 

Best regards from Finland,

Joni Niva

Edited September 6, 2020 by OrcCorp

[kapitan 90]

I think the website is dishonest and will share any piracy

In the C-47 download page of this Allflightsmod there are 9 comments, all of them thanking for the file 

I sent a comment saying the author has not allowed this porting and it should be taken down (included my name and email) as for every comment you must fill this form. And the comment was not published. Clearly moderated in favor of ilegacy

[mjahn 61]

Thank you Joni, for removing the video, appreciate it.

The C-47 is the 'Top Model' at allfightsmod at the moment, and they are happily carrying on offering it. And blocking any communication addressing the piracy issue. So they know full well what they are doing.

This is a game you can't win. But I guess you can quit.

--Manfred 

[Lorby_SI 2,038]

4 hours ago, OrcCorp said:

This is very unfortunate, and I only wished I would be able to confirm the legitimacy of any and all mods available.

That is actually very simple. Unless the mod is provided by the same person who made the original, it is illegal. Nothing more to it. You usually cannot know if the owner of the IPR has approved the mod, so it is better to keep your distance, legally speaking. 

Btw. where intellectual property is concerned, it makes no difference if it is a payware or a freeware product.

Personally I think that we are only seeing the beginning of all this. I wouldn't be surprised to see the big payware software houses take to legal arms for real.

Best regards

Edited September 6, 2020 by Lorby_SI

[KenG 492]

11 minutes ago, mjahn said:

Thank you Joni, for removing the video, appreciate it.

The C-47 is the 'Top Model' at allfightsmod at the moment, and they are happily carrying on offering it. And blocking any communication addressing the piracy issue. So they know full well what they are doing.

This is a game you can't win. But I guess you can quit.

--Manfred 

You can try contacting their host. However, considering where they are located, doubtful the host owner will care about copyright infringement. 

Quote

Domain Name: ALLFLIGHTMODS.COM
Registry Domain ID: 2070392281_DOMAIN_COM-VRSN
Registrar WHOIS Server: whois.tucows.com
Registrar URL: http://tucowsdomains.com
Updated Date: 2020-08-31T10:54:33
Creation Date: 2016-10-31T14:39:22

Registrant Email: https://tieredaccess.com/contact/78ba15d9-3f4d-4fe4-9044-075f5a140207

Registrar Abuse Contact Email: domainabuse@tucows.com
Registrar Abuse Contact Phone: +1.4165350123
URL of the ICANN WHOIS Data Problem Reporting System: http://wdprs.internic.net/
>>> Last update of WHOIS database: 2020-09-06T15:35:53Z <<<

"For more information on Whois status codes, please visit https://icann.org/epp"

Registration Service Provider:
    Interneto vizija, info@iv.lt
    +370.52324444
    +370.52077944 (fax)
    https://www.iv.lt/

 

[Dutch727 543]

Manfred,

I and so many others for so many years have enjoyed and appreciated and have utmost respect for your top-notch work and your generosity in sharing the C-47, and your other works, with the community.  I speak as a developer of flight sim products as well as a community member for many, many years.

Your reputation is solid and unimpeachable.  No one who knows anything about you or the magnificent C-47 and has enjoyed it in the past thinks for a moment you are responsible for these incomplete port-overs.  In fact, everyone is looking forward to seeing this airplane in MSFS, properly done by its original creators; and of course we are willing to wait however long that takes to get it right.

It's so unfortunate that due to a quirk of circumstances some new simmers have taken advantage of some easily used tools to port over a highly imperfect version of your airplane (and others) and offer them to the community out of a misguided sense of generosity.  This is a temporary condition that will soon fade - I have experimented with the SDK and the tools involved in porting legacy aircraft.  They are not ready for prime-time at this point.  Once legit addons start to appear these first-cut port-overs will vanish quickly.  The flight sim community has exploded in numbers in the last few weeks, and so many of those who are new just don't get it; how we do things here.  I don't believe they have any greedy or evil intent - they are just not understanding our ethics and can be educated.  But to be clear:  posting others work in public is piracy, regardless of intent, and regardless of whether profit is involved or not.

I know it hurts to have this happen, but I hope in time the sting will fade and you will feel comfortable in again building and sharing your work.

Much respect,
Dutch

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by Dutch727
Using synonyms to avoid 'word not allowed' substituions for perfectly legit words.

[kaosfere 3,115]

31 minutes ago, Lorby_SI said:

Btw. where intellectual property is concerned, it makes no difference if it is a payware or a freeware product.

With respect, this is potentially rather misleading.   At least in the US, commercial status of the derivative product is very explicitly one of the deciding factors in fair use doctrine, and in fact, the very first one.  17 U.S.C. § 107:

Quote

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

If you are talking about the originating work, yes, you are correct -- IP right is the same regardless of the commercial status.  A creator of "freeware" has exactly the same rights as a commercial artist.  But in the case of the derivative work, no, it very much matters.

For the record, I respect what Mr Jahn did, and I think that here the balance the law (again, in the US -- I believe Mr  Jahn lives in Gernamy; add international law and treaties and it gets even more confusing) is on his side.  If I were an enterprising defense attorney, I'd say that by adapting a model to MSFS that is currently not available there is no potential impact upon the market for the copyrighted work, but that's a different argument.

But, in general, and again, for the derivative work, commercial status could not matter more clearly.

 

Edited September 6, 2020 by kaosfere