alanmerry Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 It appears that an ebay seller, under the name of therefurbprinterco, is putting downloaded aircraft onto discs which he then sells. He has already sold a few at £9.99 each. I sent him a question (via Ask Seller) about this. His reply was "Yes they are available for free to download on other sites. I charge a fee for the supply, posting + providing them all on a physical copy disk. " I then asked why he didn't say that the items could be downloaded for free, he replied, "The site where I downloaded this content from notes that is all open source software - and an open source license agreement is contained within the files. With a general public / open source license - it can be freely distributed at will at any charge lawfully. Do the authors have a website, or able to prove this is their content and the licensing is incorrect? If so, I will definitely look into this." I asked which site he downloaded from and pointed out that some of the details he quotes are from the readme files, carefully leaving out the bit about not selling the material. He has not replied to this. Unfortunately I'm having trouble getting to ebay to report this misuse of their site. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mrzippy Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 It appears that an ebay seller, under the name of therefurbprinterco, is putting downloaded aircraft onto discs which he then sells. He has already sold a few at £9.99 each. I sent him a question (via Ask Seller) about this. His reply was "Yes they are available for free to download on other sites. I charge a fee for the supply, posting + providing them all on a physical copy disk. " I then asked why he didn't say that the items could be downloaded for free, he replied, "The site where I downloaded this content from notes that is all open source software - and an open source license agreement is contained within the files. With a general public / open source license - it can be freely distributed at will at any charge lawfully. Do the authors have a website, or able to prove this is their content and the licensing is incorrect? If so, I will definitely look into this." I asked which site he downloaded from and pointed out that some of the details he quotes are from the readme files, carefully leaving out the bit about not selling the material. He has not replied to this. Unfortunately I'm having trouble getting to ebay to report this misuse of their site. Have you posted any reviews of his product(s) warning other potential buyers that this is all available for free from the various sites like flightsim.com? Still thinking about a new flightsim only computer! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
alanmerry Posted December 19, 2016 Share Posted December 19, 2016 I presume that I can't post a review as I haven't bought anything from him, though from his seller reviews it seems that some people have! I have just spent 20 mins on ebay chat drawing attention to this. They have said that they will look into it, but have not yet comited to removing the items or the seller. I shall get back to them tomorrow. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CRJ_simpilot Posted January 1, 2017 Share Posted January 1, 2017 Any update? OOM errors? Read this. What the squawk? An awesome weather website with oodles of Info. and options. Wile E. Coyote would be impressed. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
bobmay Posted January 4, 2017 Share Posted January 4, 2017 In response to my request Ebay has removed all the "theprinterrefurbco" items which contained PAD freeware but in order to do this I had to itemize each item on every CD he's selling. I have no confidence that Ebay will stop him selling such stuff in future. Bob PAD Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick_Cantu Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 This has happened to me many times. I've more or less gotten over it, but there's a certain hilarious absurdity in the fact that I could have been simultaneously uploading my airplanes to flightsim.com as freeware and selling them on Ebay all these years. Then I'd be the one making some spending money instead of some other dude. I'd almost argue that the ripped-off parties ought to start doing it - "why buy from some schlock when you can get it from the source?" - but I have conflicting feelings on the subject. I'd be selling something to some people that they could get for free somewhere else, and that strikes me as a bit underhanded, but, then again, I wonder if anyone who would buy disks of addons off of Ebay would bother coming here in the first place. Maybe we'd be serving people who'd rather just buy a disk then search a file library? I don't know. What do you guys think? My name is Erick Westbrook-Cantu. I used to make flightsim addons. I may or may not endorse this message. I do, however, fully endorse Marshall amplifiers, Gibson guitars, and Tama drums."This town is a dump. I'm never going to Las Vegas again." -Adam Donald Stanger: 1986-2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Elvensmith Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Back in the early days of MSTS it was quite common for freeware routes to be distributed via CD due to the file sizes and UK Trainsim still offer this service for some content. However it was always done at "cost" - though I think it's okay to admit at this point there were a few pennies left over for a beer now and again - not to make a huge amount of money on. However over the intervening years most people now have super fast broadband so the file sizes are no longer an issue (hosting is another matter as there have been discussions over at TS.com with Nels about the cost of running the site vs. revenue from subscriptions etc.). The main issue with the file library here (and at TS) is that the Search function can be a bit of a blunt instrument - if you don't know what category a desired item is in you end up with scores of reskins listed rather than the actual aircraft, then you have to skim through to narrow down something that is complete with flight deck and sound. IMHO anything that went on CD or DVD would need to be complete and be relatively easy for end users to install. Other catches to watch are, if you sell the same item regularly on Ebay they will put you on a trader account which is presumably more expensive to run. With Ebay you run the ever present risk of scammers who will take the goods but raise some vexatious query which the seller can do naff all about, then proceed to get their money back (and keep the goods). Might not be an issue in the US, but you may catch the eye of the taxman who will look to see whether you should be paying revenue on sales and possibly income tax on any perceived profit. Finally burning lots of CD's and DVD's then sorting out envelopes and posting could get quite time consuming. Vern. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Erick_Cantu Posted January 17, 2017 Share Posted January 17, 2017 Funny thing - the tax issue is probably one of the biggest reasons I don't do commercial work in the first place - my taxes are screwy enough as-is! ;) My name is Erick Westbrook-Cantu. I used to make flightsim addons. I may or may not endorse this message. I do, however, fully endorse Marshall amplifiers, Gibson guitars, and Tama drums."This town is a dump. I'm never going to Las Vegas again." -Adam Donald Stanger: 1986-2015 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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