My Baron V2.0 panel.

Seems they didn't bother reading the end of my readme file - or chose to ignore it.

E-mails will be on the way to FSPlanet's ISP and FSPlanet themselves. I'll leave the content to your imagination.

I wholeheartedly agree.

I've copied it to several people in Spain connected with the service provision of his site.

We'll see what happens.

ban that site! 

I have never been to that site.  Now I know why.

I saw it there too lastnight...knew you would be pissed. Somebody needs to copyright something and shut them down when they upload it on their site.

Sorry to hear about this 'tipster'.  While here in the US, simply placing the words "copyright" isn't enough to pursue legally... don't know about international copyrights, and even though it is freeware (right?)... People just need to learn to respect others and their wishes.  I have never visited FSPlanet because when I started visiting Simviation, I had heard nothing but negative things about that place!

So... This is what I say "DOWN WITH THEM"!!!

After extensive searching of his site, it appears he's removed my file. His forum is currently off-line btw.

Unfortunately for him, he dind't remove it before I wrote to:

His sponsors.

His ISP.

His server host.

All companies with ads on is pages.

Veri-sign - He has a graphic up for them but it's not clickable - they probably didn't even know about it.

Recommend-it - I'll bet they don't.

His hit counter provider.

Basically, anyone who has anything to do with his site.

We'll see what happens.

awesome, lets hope there are more adverstiers that are willing to do that type of thing.

I'm glad they took your file off their server.

FS2002Tipster are you sure they took it down from their website?  Click here and see

http://www.fsplanet.com/new01.htm

They didn't put it back in they just added a new page which they do every two days or so and never removed it.

Hey tipster. . . .

tell him you'll let him off the hook ONLY if he pays your phone bill for every month in which he has your panel up there 

Glad things worked out.  I fly your panel daily

I checked all his pages - it wasn't there an hour ago I promise you.

Anyway, I just sent the following e-mail to the Spanish Embassy in London UK:


Dear Sirs,

I am writing to you as a last resort to request your assistance. My name is John Consterdine and I am an author of software for Micrsoft Flight Simulator. I am not associated with Microsoft, I simply provide free software to the flight simulation community.

A Spanish website has recently stolen my files from where I uploaded them and poisted them on their own website.

The site in question is www.FSPlanet.com which has a long history of distributing files it is not entitled to.

I have personally fallen victim of this in the last 2 days.

You will find my file half way down their second page (http://www.fsplanet.com/new01.htm) "FS2002 Baron 58 RTW 2003 Panel V2.0"

If you take the time to download it, yand read the "ReadmeFIRST!!!" document, you will find this licence at the end of it:

"Licence and disclaimer
----------------------

This panel is FREEWARE and may not be included in any commercial package. It may not be redistributed, published or uploaded to ANY other site than Simviation.com without the express written permission of the author. Failure to comply with this will result in legal action.*

*This is simply to avoid actions of piracy. Almost all freeware sites will be granted permission. Just bear in mind that that if you choose to ignore the terms of this licence, the threat of legal action is not an idle one. I've done it before (successfully)."

I have also sent Mr Ferdinand Serena (who owns the site) the following e-mail:

"Dear Mr Ferdinand Serena,

My name is John Consterdine and I am the aouthor of the above panel.

The following is my licence at the end of the readme file of the file you are currently distibuting:

"Licence and disclaimer
----------------------------------

This panel is FREEWARE and may not be included in any commercial package. It may not be redistributed, published or uploaded to ANY other site than Simviation.com without the express written permission of the author. Failure to comply with this will result in legal action.*

*This is simply to avoid actions of piracy. Almost all freeware sites will be granted permission. Just bear in mind that that if you choose to ignore the terms of this licence, the threat of legal action is not an idle one. I've done it before (successfully).

The files in this package have been fully checked and validated by an up-to-date installation of Norton 2002 Antivirus as virus free at the time of uploading. It should not produce any adverse affects or damage to your system, but if you think that it has, I accept no responsibility."

You are in direct contravention of the terms of this licence. You have made no request to distribute this file and I have not granted you permission. You have 24 hours from the time of sending of this e-mail to remove all unlicenced files from your website published at simviation.com by myself..

Failure to do so will result in legal action. As I stated in the licence, this is not an idle threat and I have successfully persued this course of action before, against both the offending webmaster and his Internet Service Provider, which was, like yours, also legally liable.

Your Internet Service Provider will be receiving their own e-mail shortly. 

Ignore this e-mail at your peril."

I am one of many people in a similar situation. Mr Serena has a long history of ignoring licences and copyright law in the world of flight simulation. I implore you on behalf of not only myself, but the many other people who have been victims of Mr Serenas activities to do something about it.

I leave it in your hands and await your reply

Yours faithfully,

John Consterdine


Lets see now...

Mate, I would also complain bitterly to the Italian Emabassy as well. If you notice the files for FSPlanet are hosted on a www.madalori.com file server - this mob are just as bad as Ferdy the Poof.

I would also put this thread on to the www.avsim.com forums as Ferdy the Poof is well known to troll those forums - if you do a search on the Avsim forums there are PLENTY of threads that cover this ********* (*= profanity).

I did this course some time ago and got an email stating that any new file that i produce will no longer appear on that site. Secondly, In Australia Copyright breach is a criminal offence that carries a $50,000 and or a 2 year Gaol term, i did in all seriousness threaten him with this course of action under Australian Criminal Law which meant possible arrest and extradition to Aust for criminal proceedings to commence.
Since the directors of www.madalori.com have taken absolutely no notice of my emails they will get another one stating the above UNLESS they remove ALL of my released freeware. I wonder what will happen next?????
P.S. good luck in your efforts. It is high time this (both FSPlanet and its file server host is removed).

hmm, we won't be seeing fsplanet in a couple of days

It is a copy right law, and it is the law, if we get enough support, he may go to jail, but most likely he will get a fine which will put him out of business, if the courts don't order him to terminate FSPlanet for good. Also most likely it may take the Spanish goverment a bit to do some research on the topic, to contact Ferdy etc. I wonder what Ferdy will do when he gets a call from the Spanish goverment hehe, I would go nuts.

lol, would love to the expression on his face if that happened, and I really hope it does

Btw, I noticed that he has a google search engine for for his website, I wonder if it's possible to close that also???

I hope he realizes that crime does NOT pay

How do you not agree with their registration requirements ???

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Yes, under Australian Law cpyright breach is a criminal offence. What applies to movies etc also applies to freeware. What i said applies to EACH instance (i.e per file). Thus if he steals 3 files, that is 3 counts of software theft and each count is up for 2yrs Gaol &/or $50,000 fine.
Personally i reckon the directors of www.madalori.com should be really worried by the amount of (in all likely) stolen software that they place on their servers - FS2002Tipster, i would remind them of that too - I would also make sure you have both delivery and reciept certyificates for each email you send to them to make sure they are reading them. I hope you do complain to the Italian Goverment via their emabassy about the activities of Madalori.com, i would even go one further and try channels via the European Union & see what happens.

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Don't all politicians sleep whilst they are in the Chamber?? I know some of ours do, my tip is that if you cannot sleep late at night the best thing to do is switch on Question time when parliament is sitting - better than a sleeping tablet!

Hi guys
I'm Italian and i read some month ago that isn't the first time that fsplanet stole something 
The right address where FSPlanet are hosted shoul be mondadori.com and not  www.madalori.com.

Hope that this help you.
I'm agree with you.
Excuse me for bad english

Ciao   Robi

John, good stuff. Glad to see that someone is having a go at this crook. Pity sending viruses is a criminal offence, some people really DO deserve them!
Keep us posted on what happens, and remember you have the support of all of us here.
Maybe we should start up a petition against this charming individual, there are over 5000 members here, that is a lot of names for you to count on.

Mark

It is about time some results are being seen, hopefully more of his sponsors will drop his account.  He'll get thrown in jail and he will sit there and rot.



Do you think that if we all e-mail this doofus, that he'll get the hint?

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By who? The illegal distributers?  8)

Alon

Hi,
Im a First Class Member of FSPlanet.com. I enjoy the service, which isnt hosted off the Mandadoli or whatever the free host is. The First Class Server host should also get a e-mail which is RackShack. Also the Ferdy@Fsplanet.com e-mail doesnt work.. If you want full attention send your e-mail(s) to FirstClass@FSplanet.com you should get a response within a couple of hours.
                Good Luck!
                         Michael Phillips

Hi Michael and thanks for the info.

Rackshack were 5th in the long queue of recipients of last night's e-mails.

As for Ferdy's e-mail address, he advertises it on his site and the e-mails didn't bounce. So if he's not looking at it any more, that's his problem as far as I'm concerned.

I'm reasonably confident that he'll be made aware of the situation by other parties if he isn't already.

Thanks for the input though - considering you've  paid good money to be a member of his site, I think it reflects very admirably that you've felt able to contribute.

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Ferdy probably should have thought about that before he stole peoples work!

The people that use that site aren't very bright either... I was going to post something in the 'General Forum' but when I read the first post there, the question was "After I land the airplane, how do I make it stop"?


I didn't even bother creating a User ID just for one post... because if people are asking such stupid questions as that, then they are all to ignorant to even care if the guy is stealing other peoples work.

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???
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Quote:
???
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what freeware mean to you and for the Law??

We maintain this free software definition to show clearly what must be true about a particular software program for it to be considered free software.

``Free software'' is a matter of liberty, not price. To understand the concept, you should think of ``free'' as in ``free speech,'' not as in ``free beer.''

Free software is a matter of the users' freedom to run, copy, distribute, study, change and improve the software. More precisely, it refers to four kinds of freedom, for the users of the software:


The freedom to run the program, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and adapt it to your needs (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help your neighbor (freedom 2).
The freedom to improve the program, and release your improvements to the public, so that the whole community benefits (freedom 3). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
A program is free software if users have all of these freedoms. Thus, you should be free to redistribute copies, either with or without modifications, either gratis or charging a fee for distribution, to anyone anywhere. Being free to do these things means (among other things) that you do not have to ask or pay for permission.

You should also have the freedom to make modifications and use them privately in your own work or play, without even mentioning that they exist. If you do publish your changes, you should not be required to notify anyone in particular, or in any particular way.

The freedom to use a program means the freedom for any kind of person or organization to use it on any kind of computer system, for any kind of overall job, and without being required to communicate subsequently with the developer or any other specific entity.

The freedom to redistribute copies must include binary or executable forms of the program, as well as source code, for both modified and unmodified versions. (Distributing programs in runnable form is necessary for conveniently installable free operating systems.) It is ok if there is no way to produce a binary or executable form for a certain program (since some languages don't support that feature), but you must have the freedom to redistribute such forms should you find or develop a way to make them.

In order for the freedoms to make changes, and to publish improved versions, to be meaningful, you must have access to the source code of the program. Therefore, accessibility of source code is a necessary condition for free software.

In order for these freedoms to be real, they must be irrevocable as long as you do nothing wrong; if the developer of the software has the power to revoke the license, without your doing anything to give cause, the software is not free.

However, certain kinds of rules about the manner of distributing free software are acceptable, when they don't conflict with the central freedoms. For example, copyleft (very simply stated) is the rule that when redistributing the program, you cannot add restrictions to deny other people the central freedoms. This rule does not conflict with the central freedoms; rather it protects them.

Thus, you may have paid money to get copies of free software, or you may have obtained copies at no charge. But regardless of how you got your copies, you always have the freedom to copy and change the software, even to sell copies.

``Free software'' does not mean ``non-commercial''. A free program must be available for commercial use, commercial development, and commercial distribution. Commercial development of free software is no longer unusual; such free commercial software is very important.

Rules about how to package a modified version are acceptable, if they don't effectively block your freedom to release modified versions. Rules that ``if you make the program available in this way, you must make it available in that way also'' can be acceptable too, on the same condition. (Note that such a rule still leaves you the choice of whether to publish the program or not.) It is also acceptable for the license to require that, if you have distributed a modified version and a previous developer asks for a copy of it, you must send one.

Balbo  - +

I've seen that licence before.

Because the way I choose to distribute my files doesn't comply with it, I didn't include it.

That's my choice.

The definition of freeware is, like most things, open to interpretation. My own opinion is that distribution licences are a separate issue to cost. That is exactly why I don't use the licence you've quoted which I've seen a few times in other packages.

If that's how you want to define freeware and licence your files - GREAT! Good luck to you!

But I don't, and I refuse to be subject to this moral crusade about how "Free" freeware should be. I don't charge anyone for my files - that's free enough for me.

The fact remains, I included a licence, and it was ignored.

End of story.

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Thanks for the support.

Thanks for the information Crater - very interesting!

Please e-mail me what you have. I've no idea how far down the road this thing is going to go yet, but it will do no harm to be prepared.

As for your post getting a bit long, I really wouldn't worry. This thread is turning into the encyclopaedia Brittanica!  

i think ya'll are being a lil too hard on him
i mean all he did was put your file on his site
i do agree that he should be punished, but $25000??
closing down his website??

cmon, be a lil more subtle man


ps- please dont hate me for this, cuz im still on your side ok??

Second reply I've received from Ferdy's advertisers (POUKsim advertising FSArchitect2002):

"I noticed your download at FSPlanet on page two of their download section.  Yes I have paid for advertisement at that site to promote my product, as I believe it is the best scenery design tool for FS available.  Being a non-freeware author, however I am very tuned to issues of copy protection, software licenses, and the general cooperation of the web sites that be to keep our downloads and technical information secure, and honor our freeware and copyright statements.

It appears that FSPlanet has not responded to your e-mail requesting they remove the software from their download site -  if you could please verify that you are not getting cooperation from them, I might reconsider my support of their web site through advertisements.

I might also contact Ferdy Serena at FSPlanet on your behalf -- just let me know and I'll see if I have any influence there.

Good Luck with your endeavors,

The ball is rolling...

ok - thanks a lot.

I tried downloading it earlier (before you asked), and it just kinda of seized up and wouldn't do anything.

As far as freeware goes, it doesn't matter whether or not it is freeware (like stated earlier by Balboray)... It is a matter of respect and complying with the author(s) wishes!

I think Pete should add a new icon for topics... anything over 25 replies is a very hot topic... But yours is a blazing inferno... I hate to say, I haven't downloaded the panel myself (even though the Baron is my favorite twin), but I haven't been flying the sim for sometime now... why? I don't know.



I might just get that panel now!

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Look at the quote under your own Avatar... "No Escape... Consider Yourself Screwed".

Simply reading, and complying with the authors request would have eliminated all of this! He should have read it and/or complied with it... But he chose not to.

(I did download the panel just now, just got to install it and go flying).  

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Scroll down fspirate.com and click the "RED" next buttom and then scroll down again and you'll see it.

here it is anyways
http://www.fsplanet.com/new01.htm

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Thanks Selby - appreciate it.

By all means if no-one else minds.

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That is related to air to air combat
when you go against a flanker in an inferior plane, it is a fact, there is no escape, and you are screwed

that is WAY off subject by the way

Thanks for the offer regarding the petition. The addy might well prove useful. if you can find it.

I think the easiest way is for me to assume that if the link is still there, so is my file. As Ferdy's still completely ignoring me () I'm not going to worry unduly about checking everything I'm doing down to the last detail. It seems he's not even checking his e-mail..

Hey guys guess what, I happen to have something that some of you may dearly like, Ferdys MSN Messenger ID hehe. Here is his MSN MSG email: serenaferdy@hotmail.com You can log onto MSN, and talk to him right away, he blocked me after I tried to get TLUK products off his site, but GO GET HIM!!!

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I'm all for anyone vocalising their views on this to Ferdy - it was just the dangers of wandering in to the illegal I was previously trying to highlight.

Anyone wishing to point out to him the error of his ways is, of course, perfectly at liberty to do so.

Well, I did e-mail him at the hotmail address... wonder if he'll respond, here is what I wrote...

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I just checked his profile via MS Messanger, and everything is un-disclosed except his location (Valencia, Spain).

That sux I still have to finish installing mine I am no where near done installing my panel no where near talk about slow

Last time I talked to ferdy he said his hotmail account doesnt receive emails. Also I think its safe to say he may of blocked your emails so you can't send any to him. Well the better the look on his face when he finds a notice to appear in court on the door. 

I've sent him 2. Both went through although someone (sorry - losing track) said he doesn't use the account any more even though it's still posted on his site.

He won't be getting any more from me. Hopefully he'll be getting a few from his sponsors/government/advertisers etc.

He can block me all he likes. Makes no odds to me.

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BE58D, how spot on you are.
A simple courtessy email from the webmaster to ASK the author would he/she mind if your file is displayed on my site with an explanation of what the site is would eliminate all of this.