www.avsim.ru

[Guest jacob001]

Just wondering if http://www.avsim.ru is part of Avsim? It seems to be completely different apart from the name - and its file library is different.

[Gavin 99]

I think they're completely separate, but I may be wrong. I like both :-)

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Glad you asked. They have nothing to do with us. Furthermore, they stole our name. We set up shop in February, 1997. Our domain name was assigned shortly there after. Take a look at WHOIS and see what date they resgistered theirs. Significantly later. Did they ask us for permission to use our name? Nope. Did they ever even communicate their intentions? Nope. Have they ever communicated with us since saying "Oops, sorry about that"? Nope. They are thieves, pure and simple. Do we have the money to go to a Russian Court to enforce our copyright on AVSIM Online or the partial use of that name? Nope. Just remember in dealing with those characters, that they are simply thieves.

[Gavin 99]

>Glad you asked. They have nothing to do with us. Furthermore,>they stole our name. We set up shop in February, 1997. Our>domain name was assigned shortly there after. Take a look at>WHOIS and see what date they resgistered theirs. Significantly>later. Did they ask us for permission to use our name? Nope.>Did they ever even communicate their intentions? Nope. Have>they ever communicated with us since saying "Oops, sorry about>that"? Nope. They are thieves, pure and simple. Do we have the>money to go to a Russian Court to enforce our copyright on>AVSIM Online or the partial use of that name? Nope. Just>remember in dealing with those characters, that they are>simply thieves.Oh dear :-( Prehaps I should stop liking them :-(

[Guest jacob001]

Oh! I should stop liking them too! There's a www.flightsim.ru as well - wonder if that's inspired by www.flightsim.com? I'll stop downloading from them then :-(I really need to stop doing this; I thought for months that FSPlanet.com was a nice, harmless site as well. I'll look more closely next time I find a site!

[Guest mikealpha]

And what harm does avsim.ru do to you ?I don't know much about their owner, but like here it's actually run by a bunch of volunteers. For a wide part of the very active Russian FS scene (especially the non-english speaking users) their free file library and forum gives a chance to discuss and to spread their files. Many wouldn't even know how to register here at avsim.com.Would anyone who wants to go to avsim.com type avsim.ru instead ? And then with all the cyrillic characters stay there ?Bottom line is that simmers should be happy about both. At least for me it's the hobby what counts :)Mike

[Guest mikealpha]

>> There's a www.flightsim.ru as well - wonder if that's inspired by www.flightsim.com? I'll stop downloading from them then And www.flightsim.no and www.flightsim.info you shouldn't use either then ? And certainly not buy something at www.flightsim.it. It's probably similar for www.avsim.*Mike

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Let me change the context a bit, and see if your position remains the same.We are freeware authors. We work for 10 years to develop a series of add-on's and to establish a name for ourselves. Suddenly, someone comes along and uses our good name and product without permission. So, using that context, do you condone theft of freeware and copyrighted product / name etc.?I am glad it is "the hobby that counts" for you. That mindset would argue that unbridled sharing of payware, repaints without credit, theft of freeware, selling of freeware, etc. would be "good for the hobby". Is that what you are saying?

[Guest Philip Olson]

Tom I agree with you completely! Mike, there is no way that anyone can say that it is ok for someone to use someone else's name in order to get people to your website. There is no doubt that this guy knew of Avsim and their good name when he founded his website, he wanted to cash in on someone else's popularity. Cash in might not be the right word but he did want to use it for his own purpose and popularity. What do you think would happen if I opened a business in Russia called Microsoft? For some reason people seem to think that they can do whatever they want, especially if it is in this hobby......if it is freeware the OWNER of the copyright should not be able to say how their creation should be used. How can anyone support such garbage? Tom created Avsim, he basically owns Avsim and no one should be able to "profit" from that name in any way without Tom's permission. You say it is good for the hobby, well it isn't unless it is good for those that make our hobby better, people like Tom. What if one day Tom gets really mad about people "profiting" from his name and closes up shop, is that good for the hobby? Or how about if something really bad happens over at avsim.ru and someone tries to sue Tom thinking there is some connection to avsim.com, Tom will have to pay a lawyer to handle it which costs money and ends up hurting this site and hence our hobby. There are many, many ways that Avsim.com could be directly hurt from a site such as avsim.ru. I just looked at their website for the first time and I see several problems with the legality of what they are doing. The fact that they do accept money for others to advertise on the site says that they could actually be profiting in the real sense from Avsims name. I also don't like the fact that they claim a copyright on the bottom of their page, how can they copyright something in which they have in fact stolen? Well just another bunch of low life pond scum that can not do it on their own, they have to steal from those that can in order to make themselves look big. It always puzzles me to think that anyone could ever support theft but it takes all kinds. Philip Olsonhttp://www.precisionmanuals.com/images/forum/supporter.jpg

[Guest mikealpha]

Tom,>> So, using that context, do you condone theft of freeware and copyrighted product / name etc.?No, I don't and I do not get it what is has to do with avsim.avsim.ru has a news section, a file library and a forum, that is all they have in common with avsim.com and there are roughly two dozen websites that offer the same. Besides that, it looks completely different.avsim, flightsim and so on are just logical abbreviations of the subject they are dealing with.As an example, avsim.de would be freely and legally available. If I would use that and make an FS file library and a forum, you would call me criminal ?And in the same context, would you call www.flightsim.no criminal, because www.flightsim.com was there earlier ?I get the impression, Western and Russian sites are seen with a different measure here.Mike

[Guest jacob001]

Tom,I made a rather long reply to all of this yesterday and it seems to have dissappeared. Has it been deleted?

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

I haven't seen it. So, I assume that it never got to the "posted" stage.

[Tom Allensworth 1,532]

Mike, you don't get it; don't appear to want to get it, and I am not going to waste my time trying to talk you into "getting it". If you don't understand copyrights and intellectual property now after all that has transpired in this hobby, you won't ever. So, this is my last response to you.

[Guest mikealpha]

Hi Tom,I couldn't agree more. Since you prefer not to answer to ANY of my questions (not even from my first answer), it makes no sense anyway. CheersMike

[Guest P3_Super_Bee]

So Mike...You're saying if someone were to come up with a site called say circuitcity.net instead of .com and sold electronics items its perfectly alright. http://publish.hometown.aol.com/p3superb/i...s/sign_name.jpg