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Topic: Cheap software website - is there a catch?
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Anslem Rayburn
Master Film Handler
Posts: 476
From: Yuma, AZ, USA
Registered: May 2002
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posted 05-20-2005 01:09 PM
The FAQ section on their website says you do not receive a license, which means you have no legal right to use the software. I'm sure that MS, Adobe, Et Al will be taking care of this place shortly. I'm just surprised they are so flagrant in their disregard for the law, especially with software from the big guys they have on that site!
Updated to add:
I called Microsoft regarding this site, and they pointed out the lack of support, updates, and a license. They then offered to connect me to their anti-piracy department at 1-800-785-3448 .
I was informed that NO company is authorized to make ANY MS product available for download, and what this "company" is doing is definitely illegal. They asked me for some information (name, contact info, how I discovered the company, etc. - personal information was optional), and the representative on the line filed a report. We'll see what happens.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-20-2005 05:47 PM
Anslem - many thanks for checking this out with the 'phone call.
quote: Anslem Rayburn
I'm just surprised they are so flagrant in their disregard for the law, especially with software from the big guys they have on that site!
...which was what made me think that this might just be legit. After all, it's not as if I replied to a spam message or went looking for illegal sites - I found this place by doing a Google search for 'XP Pro OEM', and it was there on the first page of results. I thought that if I could find them that easily, then so could Microsoft.
quote: Anslem Rayburn
I was informed that NO company is authorized to make ANY MS product available for download, and what this "company" is doing is definitely illegal. They asked me for some information (name, contact info, how I discovered the company, etc. - personal information was optional), and the representative on the line filed a report. We'll see what happens.
I sent an email to Microsoft via the 'contact us' page of their website, but haven't had any response as yet - presumably I'll eventually get one with words to the same effect.
quote: Dave Macaulay
With a boxed version MS support is very helpful and actually know what they're doing, with the OEM version they tell you to call the OEM and then hang up.
I don't mind that - I know what I'm doing when it comes to installing and updating Windows and so I don't want to pay £50 extra for a service I don't need, i.e. 'phone support. But neither do I want to buy stolen goods, and it's starting to look like that would be a risk with this site.
But I agree entirely with Anslem - these people are blatantly pissing about with several very big boys and girls. I'm just surprised that because I came across them so easily through an obvious Google search, none of these big boys and girls have nailed the operators of this site as yet.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-21-2005 07:06 AM
Thanks! ![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Found an OEM CD & licence from an Amazon seller with strongly positive feedback for £43.
BTW, I looked up Softpiece on whois.net and got the following:
quote:
[whois.directi.com]
Registration Service Provided By: ESTDOMAINS
Contact: support@estdomains.com
Website: http://www.estdomains.com
Abuse Desk Email Address: abuse@estdomains.com
Domain Name: SOFTPIECE.COM
Registrant:
Neo net ltd
John Hopking (soft@lastsoft.biz)
PO box 675 , denver .co
Denver
CO,188101
US
Tel. +1.2372732
Creation Date: 21-Apr-2005
Expiration Date: 21-Apr-2006
Domain servers in listed order:
ns1.soft-ns.com
ns2.soft-ns.com
Administrative Contact:
Neo net ltd
John Hopking (soft@lastsoft.biz)
PO box 675 , denver .co
Denver
CO,188101
US
Tel. +1.2372732
Technical Contact:
Neo net ltd
John Hopking (soft@lastsoft.biz)
PO box 675 , denver .co
Denver
CO,188101
US
Tel. +1.2372732
Billing Contact:
Neo net ltd
John Hopking (soft@lastsoft.biz)
PO box 675 , denver .co
Denver
CO,188101
US
Tel. +1.2372732
Status:ACTIVE
This looks like a phoney address to me - I thought that US zip codes were five digits, not six, and that 'phone numbers were (XXX) YYY-ZZZZ.
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John Walsh
Film God
Posts: 2490
From: Connecticut, USA, Earth, Milky Way
Registered: Oct 1999
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posted 05-21-2005 01:53 PM
They are probably located in East Zxratrcatan, well beyond the 'reach' of the law.
12-14 years ago, a company I worked for did some data switching equipment installs in Basra. The US had a small base there; some kind of continuing 'holdover' presence from WW2 (probably all blown up now.) The Iraq guy who was their import agent would approve the shipment at our place here in the US, then go visit NYC. Iraq apparently had no copyright laws, and this guy would buy copies of Autocad, Windows, Photoshop, etc. and bring them home. He had a business on the side selling software; the price was about $1.75 per disk (software always came on floppies then.) So if Autocad had 12 disks, the price was $21. He'd just keep coping the same disks and sell them.
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Bobby Henderson
"Ask me about Trajan."
Posts: 10973
From: Lawton, OK, USA
Registered: Apr 2001
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posted 05-23-2005 08:55 PM
Technically speaking, users can only purchase and use software according to terms in the "EULA". In reality there are certain things that make people larger or smaller targets for prosecution. The biggest targets by far are distributors of warez.
In another graphics oriented forum, I know of a rather shockingly naive fellow who thought all clip art was public domain material. He bought some "OEM packaged" stuff from e-bay, downloaded collections from Usenet and elsewhere. Then he packaged all of it together and tried reselling it for the convenience of users everywhere. Now he has all sorts of scary notices coming in from various attorneys who represent clip art software companies. That guy is totally f**ked. He committed glaringly obvious copyright infringement. His move will probably ruin him financially, not just get him into bankruptcy. There's not too many attorneys out there with any sense of sympathy. IMHO, I think many attorneys are borderline sociopaths. Lack of knowledge of copyright law or software licensing agreements between distributors of clip art is no excuse. Normally distributors of warez try to cover their tracks. This guy just got stung from thinking clip art was public domain, which could not be further from the truth.
I still remember an event that happened here in my part of the country a few years ago. The FBI ran a sting and then busted over 200 people in Oklahoma and North Texas, mainly individuals involved with building custom kit computers out of mom and pop type PC shops. It seemed nearly all were using the same copy of Windows over and over in all the PCs they were selling rather than providing a disc and full license with each PC sold. Many felony convictions were handed out over that.
After distributors of warez, the next largest targets are commercial users of illegal software. Companies like Adobe and Autodesk advertise openly that they pursue such cases and offer e-mail links and phone hotlines to report such cases. Autodesk can be particularly aggressive if it is presented with any evidence of a firm using items like cracked copies of Studio3D Max, Cleaner or Combustion.
It's still not out of the question for a casual end user who isn't profiting from having warez software to avoid prosecution. A regular hobbyist is not going to be anywhere near as high a profile target as someone who is sharing or selling ill-gotten apps. But busts can still happen.
The moral: if you have any kind of ability to buy the software you want honestly you better pay for it. You're gambling otherwise.
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Leo Enticknap
Film God
Posts: 7474
From: Loma Linda, CA
Registered: Jul 2000
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posted 05-24-2005 01:53 AM
quote: John Walsh
They are probably located in East Zxratrcatan, well beyond the 'reach' of the law.
You're right. In the 'Contact Us' page of their hosting company, their address is given as: quote:
Address Tartu Peapostkontor
City Tartu
Zip 50001
Country Estonia
Tel No. +372.55647646
That would probably explain why the site is still up, almost three days after Microsoft was told about it. Given that Estonia is now a member state of the European Union, what the operators of this site are doing is most definitely illegal under the 2001 European Union Copyright Directive. But, of course, if Microsoft cares enough to want to nail them, it'll have to hire Estonian lawyers, go through their system and so on and so forth. Given that the site is flogging products by virtually all the main PC software publishers, I guess that this is easier said than done.
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