PSS Press Release - January 16, 2008

[SlickNick 0]

Kudos to Lou for working on porting their stuff into FSX!That being said, the Flight1 wrapper has one major flaw. Once you purchase an addon, and it's "unwrapped" (the EXE is extracted) that's it. That EXE can be distributed freely, and I've seen plenty on torrent sites, et al. Once again, I don't download them, all my FS addons were obtained legally. So basically, if say 5 friends wanted a peticular Flight1 product, they pay once, have it unwrapped, and burn the extracted file from there and now everyone has it. Makes a $50 addon only cost $10 per person, so that may be very attractive to some people. I even know of people selling the addon for $20 instead of $40 that they paid, and basically just selling a burnt copy of the .exe installer, which still provides a fully functional addon. This in my opinion is where the weakness of the Flight1 wrapper lies. The .exe itself needs to be protected. If I were a pirate, I'd be laughing, but as someone who spends hard earned cash on addons, it's not fair to me...

[rpowers 5]

I am reading your post and I have a question about Cloud 9 LC.I recently got a new system and did complete reinstall of FS.I just copied my Cloud 9 LC from a backup to my add on scenery folder and activated it in the library.It seems to be working but I notice your reference to the registry.I don't understand that stuff.Should I have done a reinstall from the original download?Thanks for any help.Ron

[Manny 1,293]

Isn't most addons activation based? Like Flight 1 etc?But if its anything more restrictive, there is no way I'll get that add on.The problem is..there will be no standards, every Tom, Dick and Harry vendor would come up with their own little scheme that we have to remember. No way!Manny

[Manny 1,293]

I prefer Flight1 system to Cloud 9. Cloud 9 products are not independent of each other. When I uninstall one and reinstall another I end up in trouble. Older versions of some file tend to interfere. Those commonly used files have versions and to manage that is a pain in the butt.I also like UK2000 way of trying out their product. Its also non intrusive.Manny

[SlickNick 0]

Ya, but who's gonna catch them? No one, that's who... Software piracy is largely ignored, and for good reason. There's really no grounds to prosecute anyone without insane costs and burdon on the legal system. If you could steal a $100 hoodie, and not get caught, wouldn't you? If you have morals, you won't...

[scoob 18]

>Software piracy is largely ignorednot really as it is a talking point whenever USA talks trade with China. I agree that the issue really isn't given much thought by local law enforcement in the USA.>and for good reason. There's really >no grounds to prosecute anyone without >insane costs and burdon {sic} on the legal >system. as the software discussed here is ~$60(US) a pop i would say it is ~50-to-60 'times' greater an issue that music theft (songs cost ~$1 ea. to download legal). the music industry isn't taking the issue lightly and has taken individuals that downloaded songs to court and won large settlements. (in my work i have given the FBI & police access to college students

[virtuali 4,419]

>I prefer Flight1 system to Cloud 9. First, I would like to point out there's no such thing as a "Cloud9 system". Cloud9 is one of the publishers that used the Addon Manager, that has been developed by Virtuali, my company. Cloud9 was just my first customer.>Cloud 9 products are not independent of each other.Not entirely true. They are supposed to be independent but sometimes, to enable a new feature, we lost backward compatibility (I'd say that "backward compatibility" is becoming a magic sentence...).For example, initially the system allowed (because, "the system" does much more than just protection and trial) for a limited set of features to communicate with the scenery, but over time, scenery developers asked for more and more features, and it happens that to add those, we lost compatibility with previous sceneries, because the initial data structure and related communication protocol wasn't enough anymore.It's not like communication with two programs, were you can simply keep backward compatibility by *adding* new calls without foregoing the old ones (like having DX9 working in DX10). Since one of the two parties is a "dumb" BGL scenery, to enable communication between a scenery and a C++ program, we have to do some gimmicks, that prevent using common programming techniques of retaining back-compat with previous communication protocols standard.Having said that, there wasn't usually any special needs, except than simply keeping all files updated.BUT ( a big BUT ), there were some problems for which I'm not responsible (Cloud9 did installers on their own) but I'll apologize for it anyway, sometimes Cloud9 installers weren't always updated promptly, and that has created some issues. Quite often the stand-alone installer always had the last version of the depending files, but full product versions sometimes didn't, and that confused users. If a new version of a file came out, it should have been included in all installers at the same time, that would have ensured a smooth installation for everyone.But it wasn't a fault of the "system" as such, more a problem of Cloud9 that sometimes didn't promptly update installers with latest files, when they got one.We are improving this in two ways:- First and most important, since we now self-publish our stuff as FsDreamTeam (that is the same thing as Virtuali), we now have full control of all installers and released files. I'm writing all our installers, and I'm trying to get hold of versioning in a more controlled way. We are also releasing updates for Cloud9 products inside our installers, in case we'd eventually break back-compat again so, by using our installer, any previous versioning problem should be fixed, and every product that will be released will incrementally include all updates.- The Addon Manager behavior when an older scenery is found, has been changed in later versions: instead of quitting FS, it will simply alert the user the scenery is outdated, but the program will run normally, and it will quit FS only if the user flies in the affected scenery, and only at the end of what normally is the Trial time.With these two changes, we hope versioning issues are a thing of the past, especially since the program is now way more stable, since we are at the 46th version for FS9.

[SlickNick 0]

Scobie,I kind of agree, but then I don't. Basically what I meant is that it's not worthwhile for software developers or music labels to prosecute someone. If they do sue you for say, $100,000 which to a music label is peanuts, you simply can't pay it. You MIGHT come up with a few thousand, but you can just declare bankruptcy and serve a few months in jail. Big whoop.

[virtuali 4,419]

>As far as PSS is concerned it seems it provided good products>in the past, then standards dropped, and now it's gone out of>business. Why the surprise and concern here? This happens>again and again - it's just a fact of life. As in aviation accidents, it's never a single cause for a bad event to be happening. It's always a combination of multiple factors that lead to the "accident". Piracy probably played a part in the PSS demise, but certainly wasn't the only one.regards,

[FTD1949 0]

>Excuse me gents,>>Everybody talks about piracy and stealing here, and nobody is>talking about the people, like myself, who paid in good faith>for their product and they shut down their website, and I>cannot even re-download the product. I am out pocket now! >Where do the loyal customers stand?:-roll >>Regards>MoIf I was still using FS9 you would be in the same place I would be.Up **** Creek without a paddle.They even went so far (on the other site) to actually name a Torrentsite for pirated software. Why would they do that? Just for the helluva it I went there anddid not see even one of their products listed. Shows you just how desirable their products are. And no; I didn't DLany other software.

[mgh 89]

Customers (whether they are loyal and paid in good faith or not) stand where any customer of a failed company stands. Flight simulation is no exception. Companies of all types frequently fail and their customers often loose out. It's a fact of life and nothing can be done about it If a company ceases trading it ceases trading - and that's it.

[bob.bernstein 0]

Actually the name "slippery slope" is quite commonly used to describe a fallacy...and indeed this is a perfect example of a fallacy.I stongly suspect there is no data to suggest a motivating factor exists between levels of piracy as defined by the previous poster (thx1137).It's simply a fact that the unknown is scary to many people. Thus, as long as there is no data to argue AGAINST there being a motivating factor between levels of piracy, then its LESS scary if we just all agree that one level leads to another. It makes it feel good, especially if its within our capability to clamp down hard on one, albeit minor, level of the problem. Even if this hurts valid consumers and does no damage to the real pirates, we get a feel good zap, because the fallacy in the orignal assumption is forgotten.When the ultimate goal cannot be measured, the proponents of the slippery slope logic connection can always claim success. Of course in this argument, there is no valid number that would be the sales without piracy, so the result cannot be measured.Slipper slope argument indeed, but hardly a factual argument. Best,Bob Bernstein

[I132 0]

MGH made the best point yet. Billions are lost every day to failures, poor investments, heck even natural disasters. What can ya do?Remember.... Laws only keep honest people honest. We live in a world full of dishonest people. Heck, do some looking into how much of your insurance premium goes to paying off insurance fraud in the USA. It might actually make you physically sick. Be Good,Scott

[bob.bernstein 0]

Of course, and while we look for examples, how bout fsx? Leading title of the year, right? Piracy that Phil says is rampant simply changed the profit number from gigantic to slightly less than that. But still huge or it wouldn't have received such recognition. And lest we forget the points made in this thread, the real result of a non-pirate impacted economy is a ficticious number. Especially given the historic benefit of piracy role in establishing Microsoft in the first place. A world without piracy concept can't be allowed to be fabricated only starting in 2008...after all its a thought experiment...so we have to start from the beginning. Who knows what kind of world we'd have if magic made every pirate drop dead. It sure wouldn't be this world with the current software devs just enjoying life more.Bob

[Guest JeanLuc_]

Well, this is partly true, but I won't expand on this topic more than that. Just try using your DreamFleet installer on another computer and you will see if this works or not!