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Wonder how legal this is?

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Split hairs all you want.

I did not say illegal. I said unauthorized. You are not authorized to rip music from your CD.

There isn't much difference between unauthorized and illegal. There are a few instances, but this isn't one of them.

According to their terms of service you are not authorized to do that. They consider that stealing.

Not authorized, considered stealing, I would say that's close to being illegal wouldn't you?

You are authorized to make a backup of something that you purchased. "Ripping" is a recognized form of creating a backup. Technology changes, when I was growing up making a copy for backup with regard to music was an audio tape. Now it's "ripping" to put it on a data disc for storage or on a hard drive for storage.

Avatars. Yes some are free. Many are not. Who is to know for sure. I know for sure mine is legal because I made it myself.

You said "a single instance" including those that were set up for that purpose. In most cases, all you have to do is go to the license holders website and they have "free to use for xxx purpose" and that would let anybody/everybody know. Or you might have a notepad file with the license agreement etc. It really isn't that hard to investigate if they are on the up and up.

The definition of a squealer verses telling for the right reason.

Those who squeal to do so just to get someone in trouble is a squealer, rat, fink, stool pigeon etc.
IE:
Little jonny,, MOM billy is making faces at me.

"Mom, Billy is selling drugs to people (or stealing xxx)"

Not supposed to say that, because that would just get someone in trouble? That would earn someone their stoolie jacket for certain.
 

jiarby

New Member
what was the post on CL

The post was someone reselling CS5 on Craigslist for $80 in Mohave County, AZ.

One guy in Phx that does this even has registered an LLC, has a website, and an authorize.net merchant account. He is not a very smart criminal.

They usually have only an anonymous disposable method of contacting them, and they meet you in some public place, and they want to get paid in cash.
 

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2972renfro

New Member
Since my posting about Freds clipart and steve's font garnered no reply... how about this? What about the thread regarding trimitbyrich and how he stole images from many members here? Should we not bring it up at this site because that is called "snitching" and no one likes it?

I don't understand why anyone has a problem with what jiarby wants to do. He is not asking us to jump on the bandwagon and help him out. Let him snitch, alert the authorities, whatever you want to call it
 

SignBurst PCs

New Member
Stealing is stealing and this guy is obviously stealing and whether or not Jiarby can stop it, it was fair for him to report it.

No, I can't prove it with 100% certainty with the information given, but a reasonable assumption would be this is piracy and theft. If I see a man in a mask running out of a bank with a bag full of money and alarms going off, I am going to make the leap that he just robbed the place. Yes, there are other remote possibilities, but I can reasonably make that assumption and I would call the authorities.

Regarding the "without sin" argument, should I not call it in because I have an unpaid parking ticket? What does one have to do with the other? Now I could see it being a bit hypocritical if Jiarby had a computer loaded full of pirated software, but we have no indication that this is the case.

Software piracy sucks, plain and simple. It may seem like a victimless crime, but in reality, it affects most of us here in one way or another. I have seen so many threads and posts regarding thefts of fonts, clipart, and copyrighted images that I know that most of you guys get this on one level or another, but some make a disconnect at this software for some reason.

#1 - Piracy is stealing. This is no different than someone walking into your shop and stealing your stuff.

#2 - Piracy has an effect on the legitimate price of software. Those that steal it, indirectly raise the price of the software for the rest of us.

#3 - Piracy gives an unfair advantage to those that illegally obtain software. The sign shops that actually pay for the software incur higher overhead than those using pirated software. The legit shops suffer.

#4 - Authorized resellers (such as myself) cannot compete with software pirates. This affects my business directly.

I understand that some believe that "no one likes a snitch", but that is simply not true. Those that don't like the snitch are usually the ones getting snitched on. I challenge you to come up with a reasonable scenario in which selling pirated software is ethical. I can't come up with any.
 
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routierracing

New Member
regarding the without sin arguement ill tell a story that happened to me.

last year I had an atv stolen from me. Through a unbelievable stroke of luck a couple of months later a person I knew called having found it at a wrecker's auction falling a drug bust. The really unlikely part was that the person who helped me get it back was a person who was involved in the same crime against me several years before. Point being no one is without sin. But when situations arise we do try to do the best thing we know to do because it defines our character.
 

ova

New Member
Can't say for sure and don't really care, but maybe something like this hasn't hit close to home for Bob.

Try having an employee download all of your customer billing info, customer art work, every design program, clipart, and font collection you have. Send post cards to all your customers telling them he has their art work and is now doing vinyl work. Pirates a copy of Flexi to continue using it at his new place of business.

When we found this out, we contacted an attorney who told us it would be more money than it was worth to sue the guy. Also, the magistrate said it would be hard to prove since he could destroy his computer if need be.

I contacted the people at Flexi and some Bozo was a real smartaze, wanting to know what's he supposed to do. I told him I wanted to report someone using a Pirated version of Flexi and he said he didn't care. Said they couldn't go after all the theives in the world.

So I took care of things myself. The guy is no longer in the sign business. I think he tries to work on cars now.

When it hits close to home and affects your livelyhood, it means alot more.

I'll be the first to admitt I'm no saint. But when these kind of things happen, it puts a burr in my shorts. This is one step below the guy doing business out of his basement or garage and not having a legit business and cutting our throats. I find them, I turn them in to the state.

Dave
 

WrapperX

New Member
I'm interested in what you did to knock the guy out of the sign business. That's awesome! I mean with out incriminating yourself that is.
 

petepaz

New Member
jiarby thanks for the update/info

and wow that's crazyness i thought it was bad enough to buy the educational versions
(that's not so bad ...right?)
 

bob

It's better to have two hands than one glove.
Can't say for sure and don't really care, but maybe something like this hasn't hit close to home for Bob.

Try having an employee download all of your customer billing info, customer art work, every design program, clipart, and font collection you have. Send post cards to all your customers telling them he has their art work and is now doing vinyl work. Pirates a copy of Flexi to continue using it at his new place of business...

...remainder of personal horror story mercifully deleted...

I'm sure you rose up and smote the miscreant hip and thigh. But, other than a mildly entertaining story, just how is this anyone's problem but your own? Why should anyone but yourself and your agents involve themselves?
 

2972renfro

New Member
I'm sure you rose up and smote the miscreant hip and thigh. But, other than a mildly entertaining story, just how is this anyone's problem but your own? Why should anyone but yourself and your agents involve themselves?

Could we just have the 4th grade edition of what you just wrote in the first sentence?
 
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