FSPlanet - Illegal distribution of Licensed Products

[GarryJSmith]

Hi Fellow Simmers,

It appears that FSPlanet.com has crossed the boundary and is now prepared to even publish software that is Licensed and in breach of international laws in relation to copyright and denying the authors the rightful payments due for the copies that are being illegally available from their site.

The product being distributed by FSPlanet is the AN225 by Thomas Ruth and IFC textures by Garry J. Smith. It is a self extracting executable file with a comprehensive statement included in the Licensing area of the file stating that distribution from unauthorised sites warrants a fee of $2.00US per copy distributed.

They have had the product available since Saturday the 23 October and it is still available despite frequent e-mails to request it's removal.

FSPlanet has even published this without proper acknowledgement that I am the developer of the International FlightSim Convention (IFC) textures.

They are also obviously choosing to ignore the Licensing Statements both within the installation program and the accompanying TEXT file.

For every copy downloaded by patron of FSPlanet both Thomas Ruth and I are being denied our rightful commission for the unauthorised copies downloaded of that product.

FSPlanet.com are ignoring all electronic correspondence from both myself and my legal representatives in regards to this matter.

The only point of contact for the extensive staff of FSPlanet.com is staff@fsplanet.com - there is no postal address, no forum or any other method of contact available and they are continuing to make the AN225 file available through their site.

If you wish to examine the AN225 and the licensing statement then please do not download it from FSPlanet.com

You can obtain a legal FREE copy of the product from:

http://www.FlightSim.com
http://www.ifcblackpool.com

Please obtain your copy from these locations only.

I call upon flight simmers everywhere to assist me in contacting FSPlanet and getting them to respond to my or my legal representative's e-mails so that we can resolve this matter and ensure that they abide by the laws that all other FligthSim sites and patrons.

Send an e-mail to staff@fsplanet.com and request that they contact me or my legal representatives in this matter - please feel free to also voice you opinion of their flagrant breach of their own policies in relation to abuse of flightsim developers and their rights.

This is not a push for money but a declaration that FSPlanet.com has no rights to abuse developers in this manner and that there are penalties due for such abuse.

I would also welcome knowledge on a physical postal address for this organisation so that appropriate papers may be served in an endeavour to recover fees and commissions due to the aircraft developer and I for each copy distributed illegally by FSPlanet.com.

Regards and happy simming to you all.

[moth01]

Hello Mr. Smith,
It has been a long time since I have talked to you. I see you still are doing a beautiful job on all your products and designs along with your team.
What I'd like to say is that I support your efforts to try to make "FSPlanet" not use your files without permission. I have been against that practice as it does not respect the author's rights. I have seen countless posts from authors who have had thier work stolen, and agree with every one of them. It is not right.
What I'd like to say to you, and the other simmers out there is that some of you have seen me in the past on FS planet's forum. I did this ONLY as a service to help other simmers with trouble they have with their sim. In NO WAY was I ever a part of the "running" of the planet's site. I have even been accused of being 'ferdy' which I am not. I have found that he is an arrogant person when dealing with others, including me. I lost any respect I had for him at that point.
When I had told the members of the forum that I was "seperate" from the site, he sent me a nasty, demanding email, which I still have a copy. "He was the boss", "He runs the site the way he wants" Demanding me to delete anyone saying "avsim or simviation". I could go on.
Shortly after, I learned of the many complaints he has had against him. I then did not go back to 'his' site any more, despite him asking me to come back. I no certain terms I said a flat out NO!
One more thing. I felt like myself and another fellow who helped also, were 'puppets' for him. I was not allowed to suggest getting a file at Avsi m, or some other sites. He would delete the posts.
I feel better now being away from that site for a long time now.
But I can see the damage he is doing to the FS community. To say 'he will do whatever he likes' is an understatement. There should be a way to bring in international law to something like copyright laws. You deserve to be compensated for your work. In the case of freeware, you should have the right to specify where the file is posted. I support that right.
In the end I still like to help people if I can, and respect the authors of freeware, because of their hard work, we benefit by having great file to use. I feel this site is great for having a wide variety of folks to talk to.
This is something I have wanted to say for a long time to all.
Mr.Smith, sorry to take up so much space on replying to your post, but I needed to say it. I'm a believer too in "what comes around, goes around".
Take care, and THANKS for all the work you do, and to the other authors out there, do for the FS community.
Take care! Gary Rabbitt

[GarryJSmith]

Thanks Gary for your frank and honest response.

I appreciate your response and agree with you on many points.

The likes of this blatant piracy must be stopped - there are too many developers being abused by this type of approach and they either give up developing or move to payware and we, all simmers, loose in that case.

It is imperative that all simmers accept responsibility in their part to try and stamp this sort of abuse out and ensure that we have a great, and acceptable environment for all developers to publish their products for our enjoyment.

If we all sit back and do nothing then the end result is that we will be the ones that loose.

Regards

[moth01]

Hi Garry,
Exactly!
I know that we sometimes wait for others to do things for us, but with a great number complaining etc. to the sponsors etc, we may get somewhere with this.
I don't have any other email addresses for the planet. Sheesh, you'd think with all the help I did for 'his' forum, he'd at least have sent a T shirt or some software, lol, but I wasn't in it for material things.
Yes. we all will lose when authors go to payware and complicated install routines. If you have even searched avsim posts for fsplanet you'd see the problems have been with us for a long time. The last 'installment was that he was getting a "legal team" together to bring lawsiuts against the authors, who specified that their file was not to be used at his site.Some of the posts there were halarious. Give me a break!
I know he was always paranoid about the 'other sites' plotting against him. And with 35,000 visitors a day (lol)he's in a dream world.
Ok I talked too much, thanks for the reply Garry and best to you and yours :)
Take care,
Gary Rabbitt

[herkybird]

Further to previous comments about FSPlanet - their website 'Privacy' policy makes interesting reading. Apparently they are victims of attacks by authors within their included txt files !!!!!

Salient points are reproduced here - QUOTE:

""The authors' rights and wishes concerning archives must be respected.

- We'll not tollerate any longer defamantion of fsplanet or harassament of our site by any author any longer - we are particolarly targetting those authors wich uses txt or in the habit to post defaming messaging against fsplanet into theirs txt or setup's included in freeware files. We will not esitate to take legal action against those authors or sites in the future - and choice of who will be picted is at our legals discretions. - with legal action to follow. Also we are collecting evidence against those authors who are continuosly defaming fsplanet using txt file included in Freeware zip uploaded on the net. All signed fsplanet offensive txt files are collected and passed on to our sollicitors.
- Our work is to keep freeware online for everybody. There's no "Limited Freeware".

Cookies
Our Site uses cookies for other purposes.""

(1)Authors rights !!!!

(2)'Limited Freeware' - see above quote >>authors rights and wishes concerning archives must be respected<<< - does this only apply to authors uploading to FSPlanet - or do their legal eagles interpret this otherwise ???

I asked them to email you Garry - but don't hold your breath !!:(

[moth01]

Hi Herky,
This is just a continuing thing from that site, nothing new. I had been involved with his forum for a long time until all the controversy. I never went back.
Last episode showed 'legal experts' gathering so called evidence, and threateining to bring lawsiuts. So far no one has been sued, and probably will not be.
Do a little search on avsim's forums and see how many years this has been happening.It makes for some interesting reading if nothing else.
Take care Herk,
Gary rabbitt

[airkevin]

Eek. This is definitely not going to be good.

[moth01]

<<<<<Eek. This is definitely not going to be good.">>>>>>>

Apparently you haven't read the posts. This has been an ongoing thing for at least the last 5 years, maybe more.

[airkevin]

Oops. Let me rephrase. This is really definitely not going to be good.