Illigal copy of script. What kind of action can be take over?

[cocaine]

My friend get not a legal copy of vbulletine.
He wants to develop a forum with that.
What kind of action can be taken if anyone knew that?

 

[Barrucadu]

My friend get not a legal copy of vbulletine.
He wants to develop a forum with that.
What kind of action can be taken if anyone knew that?

Contact vBulletin staff.

 

[cocaine]

common thats crazy.
i cant do that.

 

[DanR]

If you and/or your "friend" are feeling guilty then deep down you know its not the right thing to do... so DONT DO IT.

 

[Camron]

First of all, if you are going to develop a forum, use free software or pay for it. There is no inbetween, if's, or but's about it. You have got to relize that illegal things are illegal, get into illegal things and illegal things will soon be taking over your car, house, and much more.

Use smf for now (most secure free forum software), then switch over to VB once you have made some ad money, etc, also when the community developes.

It's not worth the risk. Plus if you are on a dedicated server, or worse, a shared account, you can be shut down without warning, and everything is gone unless you backup.

Better be safe than sorry

 

[cocaine]

I am not doing that actually.
Just wanted to know what could be the action over him.

 

[Morph]

Well, i'm sure when his car gets stolen he wont be fussed atall.

Your "friend" is stealing from VB.

 

[tm]

Although I don't agree with what his friend's doing, I wouldn't compare it with stealing a car. I wouldn't compare stealing ANYTHING virtual with ANYTHIING physical - except for things like domains.

 

[Morph]

It was a harsh comparison :p

 

[cocaine]

no matter what kind of comparision is it.
I just wonder why people here trying to be oversmart.
I just asked what vbulletine can do over him.
Why do you guys compare that with stealing car?
Just ingnore the topic if you dont have correct reply.

 

[Barrucadu]

no matter what kind of comparision is it.
I just wonder why people here trying to be oversmart.
I just asked what vbulletine can do over him.
Why do you guys compare that with stealing car?
Just ingnore the topic if you dont have correct reply.

Welllll, they could press legal charges - he is stealing something from them.

 

[tm]

But most likely they'll just unplug the server.

 

[dhscott]

The hosting company will get contacted by vbulletin, they will say take it down or we will sue, friend loses everything, no refunds. If they had their own server however, (i.e. one they physically control) they will contact your friend directly and if they dont shut it down, they could sue, or just shut their domain down via your friends ISP.

Take the case of thepiratebay.org as an example, but add the fact your friend is doing something illegal, but on a smaller scale

 

[slaughterbeck]

I’ll admit that I’m quite green to these sorts of issues (I wouldn’t ask how an illegal working copy could be possible), however, aren’t there a number of ways to detect stolen and illegal software these days?

If this is something your friend intends to put a good deal of time into, then, a year of usage for vBulletin at the price of $85 or so, doesn’t seem to be too significant to avoid the possible legal action and paranoia that may ensue from such a public action that can, and possibly is, easily traceable, I would almost assuredly guess it is.


I think you should suggest that your friend purchase the software, even if for a trial period to test it out. I can attest that I recently purchased a copy and the only regret I have (at this point, while I’m installing it) is that I didn’t purchase a copy for longer than a year; it’s truly a wonderful piece of software.




Best wishes,
Kimmy

 

[cyberoptik]

qwhois is correct. vBulletin will contact the host of the site that is running an illegal version (vb can find illegal forums fairly easily). They'll tell the host to remove the account, and they most likely will otherwise they could face legal action.

I had a client who did the same thing and I was contacted about his site and was forced to remove the acct.

 

[Virgil]

Jelsoft Enterprises (developers of vBulletin) have a strict anti-piracy policy. They will shut your website, just as other NP'ers have stated,that's for sure. And slaughterbeck is right, vBulletin is worth the price you pay for it.

 

[Badger]

pirate copies of VB are generally devoid of most features.. I guess done deliberately by jelsoft to screw up would be pirateers..

So, why not go get an open source script like phpbb for example... For small forums, phpbb is way easier to hack... And if you have a large forum in mind, then $150 (or whatever it is) is a small price to pay for a genuine copy of VB...

 

[cocaine]

Thank you very much for the information guys.

 

[cobby]

i tell ya theres is a sweet version of phpbb running around. phpbbfm its fully modified. i just installed it on a new project. the only problem is styles but i have a huge pack for the forum. http://www.phpbbfm.net/ tell me what you think. its got better features than the over priced crappy vbulletin and its free

by the way, no matter what jelsoft tries to tell you, they hacked ubb to make that forum software back in the day.

i dont like that company their arrogant.

 

[dhscott]

I don't know how you can say vBulletin is crap and phpBB is good in comparison. Because it's free, it's a lot easier to hack, mainly because the source is open to anyone, anytime. Now adding 440 modifications into the original is just going to make it stupidly insecure, especially considering when you won't use them all.

The best free forum software is not phpBB, but what it is is open to discussion IMO.