Would you report a forum/site using nulled software?

[Cedric]

Suppose you visited a forum or website and you suspect that the forum/website to be using nulled software based on the owner's statements, the activity on the forum, and the general quality and content. The owner is not a competitor and has never done anything to you personally, should you contact Pirate Reports of that software and suggest they investigate it or should you keep your concerns to yourself? If not, would you do it if it was a competitor ?

 

[Strawberry]

To be honest, I'm not sure if I would, but I guess I wouldn't know until I was in said situation. I feel like if it wasn't a forum I was signed up to and I was just lurking, I would close the tab and it's none of my business. If I was a registered member, and somewhat active, then yes I don't think I would want to be associated with any illegal activity, so would maybe look into reporting it.

 

[Arantor]

I'd need to be sure, I think. Not 'I think' or 'I'm fairly sure', but I would need to be *sure* because nothing good comes of muck-spreading.

 

[Tracy]

For me.... in a heartbeat I would.
Of course, I come from a LEO background and folks that violate (and even skirt) the law are lower than gutter trash to me.
It's similar to on other admin sites where you see "admins" coming or help.. and when you tell them they could get better help at the actual script developers site you simply hear crickets chirping. Those trend towards the unlicensed users...and I simply refuse to give ANY assistance to thieves.

 

[latrodectus]

As someone who codes for a hobby to make a little extra money on the side, I would want someone to do it for me so I absolutely would at least attempt to track down the original author (competitor or not). I know everyone loves free things but being a thief just isn't cool. Let alone a thief with bad intentions.

 

[kolakube]

Glad this topic exists as I just went on a mini tirade on a site I found releasing nulled copies of my different software.

It's a bit flattering after the fury of seeing others profit off my work settles down. The softening touch to it is that there are people who are curious and excited about the products, but they are going about it in such a risky way that leaves them open to vulnerabilities.

I've heard of developers going on pirate sites to offer support and advocacy to convert people into proper license holders, but I am not holding my breath on actually achieving any of that. The best I can hope for is to embarrass the admins for a little while before my posts are deleted (though I kept them within the rules) but even that is a lot to expect on such a shameless group of people.

 

[Arantor]

The sad part is that it's going to happen whatever you do, so you might as well make peace with that part.

Various strategies over the years have been tried and it seems that people never learn; my favourite incident was the time Greenheart Games released a modified version of Game Dev Tycoon with a 'pirate mode' setting turned on, on to torrents themselves. So people would torrent it, and the game studio they made in game would always collapse under the weight of piracy. Cue people coming to the forums to ask what's going on only to be told 'well, you pirated the game...' because at the time that was the only way for that outcome to happen, Steam etc. builds didn't have the code for pirate-mode in them so you'd never fail for that reason.

So if you don't get through to people over "my game dev studio always fails due to piracy but I pirated the game and I don't see the connection", there's not a lot of hope to be had.

Best you can probably do is curtail who gets support.

 

[kolakube]

The sad part is that it's going to happen whatever you do, so you might as well make peace with that part.

Sadly so, it was the number of engagements I saw and probably being too tired last night that triggered me on this particular case. Funnily enough only one of my posts has been deleted so far so I feel a little better knowing "I had my say".

Various strategies over the years have been tried and it seems that people never learn; my favourite incident was the time Greenheart Games released a modified version of Game Dev Tycoon with a 'pirate mode' setting turned on, on to torrents themselves. So people would torrent it, and the game studio they made in game would always collapse under the weight of piracy. Cue people coming to the forums to ask what's going on only to be told 'well, you pirated the game...' because at the time that was the only way for that outcome to happen, Steam etc. builds didn't have the code for pirate-mode in them so you'd never fail for that reason.

I like this idea for piracy on that scale and have brainstormed ideas to help track it, but I know it's futile like you said and takes away a lot of development time from the majority of the customer base who acquired it properly.

 

[Cedric]

Sadly so, it was the number of engagements I saw and probably being too tired last night that triggered me on this particular case. Funnily enough only one of my posts has been deleted so far so I feel a little better knowing "I had my say".


I like this idea for piracy on that scale and have brainstormed ideas to help track it, but I know it's futile like you said and takes away a lot of development time from the majority of the customer base who acquired it properly.

The thing is, piracy will never cease to exist. For the best peace in your mind it’s best to ignore it. As sad as that may be.

 

[Cedric]

Hell, even I had people sign up asking to give them certain themes or add ons, @Arantor can verify. In which my immediate reaction is a ban.

 

[kolakube]

Hell, even I had people sign up asking to give them certain themes or add ons, @Arantor can verify. In which my immediate reaction is a ban.

Solid policy, we are not those kinds of junkies. 😜

 

[Cedric]

Solid policy, we are not those kinds of junkies. 😜

Indeed, we are positively addictive webmaster junkies.

 

[Reverie]

Indeed, we are positively addictive webmaster junkies.

This needs to be a quote somewhere lol.

As for null software I remember this being a thing back on the zetaboards days and people were moving to IPB. I wasn’t 100% certain but my friend was certain one forum was nulled software so I believe they reported it.

I think again if you know 100% and you’re a member I would report it. If you weren’t a member and you saw it…. I don’t know I think I would report it. Just because I hate seeing people skirt the rules and just get by with it. It’s frustrating for all us who spend money and etc.

 

[André]

Wow, i've seen that word 'nulled' popping up heaps and hadn't thought anything of it.

Hope i haven't had any illegal add-ons downloaded,...i wouldn't even know aye, like last week i hired [021] to add & set-up the ChatGPT AI bots & the Framework.

Took 'em maybe half an hour or so to finish the job and he pointed out 3 things he'd noticed;

•Learn how to set permissions.😅
•Sort out websockets or whatever.
&
•the live chat add-on Aaron did was set illegally and unlicensed or something.

i was/am confused coz i really ain't got a clue, but it was clear that [021] was seriously pissed off at me about it.

Actually thought he might report me so i immediately bought the license.

What's the deal with the (*i think it's called) nulled community forum? Are they all dodgy af mofos?

 

[Arantor]

The whole point of a 'nulled' software is that it's been acquired without paying the developer their fee, and developers in general get very twitchy when they find that that's the situation they're working with - because it probably has happened to them in the past.

I've certainly had people ask me for support for things they didn't pay for. I've even had stuff of mine ripped off and posted to 'free download' sites when they weren't free - naturally I got no money from those.

The 'nulling' part usually relates to whatever checks the software does for its licence state being removed (or 'nulled out' so that it doesn't actually check).

 

[Ravenfreak]

I would if I knew 100% that the board was using a nulled script. I know those developers work hard on the software to make it as great as it can be, and if I was in their shoes I would be quite upset if I found out that someone was pirating the software I worked hard on.