MSFS portover piracy

Dear fellow simmers,

 

As we all know here, piracy is a terrible thing. Our Digital Dakota Works team has just seen a new variant of it, a quick and decidedly dirty MSFS2020 portover of our popular freeware C-47. As was to be expected, the thing is largely dysfunctional in MSFS, causes CTD’s, and generally looks and flies terrible. Still, the downloads go into thousands. Because I am given a “credit” in the upload wrapper - clickbait, clearly - these faults attach to my name and some simmers are even asking what am I going to do about them.

 

For the record: I am not going to give permission for a MSFS portover, ever.

 

I was able to talk to two PD servers that had the illicit upload and persuaded them to take it down, and to their credit, they did and apologized for it.

 

There is one organization that does not respond to multiple contact form messages and continues to have it on offer. The site goes by the name of Allflightmods.com: The biggest all flight simulator mods website. The uploader hides behind the name Treyeastland, on another upload it was somebody named Zach Gloss. I would be happy to speak to these people, but am unable to contact either or the webmaster of the site. Perhaps if they see this post they can drop me a line.

 

Here is my request to all simmers: do not download it, do not fly it, and if you see any pics or vids or threads related to it make it a point to comment and possibly link to this thread.

 

Many thanks.

Manfred Jahn

Hi Manfred, I personally didn’t know this existed. I’ve just looked on YouTube & yep, there are plenty of videos of it. I’ve added a link to this thread on one of them. Hope they all get removed.

 

Regards

Steve

Right on, Manfred! As soon as they appear over at the "Other Site", where I moderate, those posts and links get deleted immediately! And I see the Outhouse doing the same. ;)

"Corona Beach Club" - can hardly remember there was a time it could mean anything else...

There is one organization that does not respond to multiple contact form messages and continues to have it on offer. The site goes by the name of Allflightmods.com: The biggest all flight simulator mods website. The uploader hides behind the name Treyeastland, on another upload it was somebody named Zach Gloss.

 

Maybe you could try a DMCA takedown to the website? But it seems doesn't have an option for contact other than the contact form.

I can only imagine the frustration and anger at such violations, especially as your (and groups) work is exceptional and exceeds even payware. Is there a way to get this information out in a more public manner? Perhaps an article/interview done on this sites home page? as well as other notable sites?

Visited the offending allflightmods.com website for the first time. It looks well done, to me, and I suppose those running it will want it to grow in reputation. But I also think I saw the C-47 mod on the front page, under top 3 mods. Actually it must be the one, hust saw it says Credits: Manfred Jahn. They should be made aware that we all know there are such pirated mods there, and that we expect them to take them down. I’ve sent them a message via the contacts page to that effect.

We've had this happen in the train sim world as well - in fact I had to get a file taken down from Nels' sister site (Trainsim dot com) a few years back when someone cloned one of my routes and uploaded it as their own work. It is particularly rife over in Trainz world too where N3V sadly play a bit fast and loose with creator rights sometimes when it comes to copyright theft.

 

Of course good luck getting things taken down if the offender is in Russia, China or similar where anything goes so far as nicking other peoples' work is concerned and they are pretty much beyond the reach of any international recourse or appeals to fair play!

 

The problem is everyone is baying for new aircraft (or old ones remade) to fly in this thing, but probably best to see what pops up at reputable sites such as here or A...m and what the payware vendors may start to offer.

problem is everyone is a few people who are not respecting the rights of the original creator, not asking for permission and just uploading with out a care.

Hello Manfred,

 

What you write is of course correct, nobody is allowed to change your creation and upload it again without your permission, regardless of whether they do it perfectly or in a bumbling manner.

 

But that brings me to the question of whether you intend to transfer your beautiful DC3 / C47 yourself to MSFS, especially with the easy-to-use, modernized cockpit from the V2?

 

Regards

Thomas

But that brings me to the question of whether you intend to transfer your beautiful DC3 / C47 yourself to MSFS

 

Manfred said in his post.. “For the record: I am not going to give permission for a MSFS portover, ever.”

 

 

Regards

Steve

This kind of thing will really hurt the hobby! Good people that are the stalwart creators, take pride in the accuracy of the details of their work. When someone abuses the result, it is deflating and will ultimately lead to fewer quality models. Most don't appreciate the amount of time in not only modeling, but in research and meticulous calculation, to make these fine models available.

I am very sorry to hear this,Manfred!! All the Best!

I'm sure everyone here would agree that the name Manfred Jahn is legendary in the flight sim world. So I also know we are all ticked-off re: Your notice of this blatant piracy...

Hello Steve,

 

I was not born with English as my mother tongue, but your quote does not make it impossible, that Manfred Jahn could portover the C-47 to MSFS2020 by himself. He has the permission to do it ;-)

 

So my question to Manfred Jahn remains and has not yet been answered.

 

Regards

Thomas

Hello Steve,

 

I was not born with English as my mother tongue, but your quote does not make it impossible, that Manfred Jahn could portover the C-47 to MSFS2020 by himself. He has the permission to do it ;-)

 

So my question to Manfred Jahn remains and has not yet been answered.

 

Regards

Thomas

 

In a post from another site, Mr. Jahn indicated he was not planning on porting to MSFS himself either. Sounds like a big part of this was due to the case posted here, as well as the effort in learning the new and still incomplete SDK for MSFS.

Hi guys, sorry I was distracted elsewhere.

 

It's true I have given up modeling and simming but Jan Visser and I have given Gordon Madison of Sim Outhouse the C-47 source files and he has our permission to create a true native MSFS version (not a silly portover conversion). He has also got permission to do the C-97 and the B-50. This may take some time because Gordon has a number of other projects in hand, both scenery and aircraft, and I understand the SDK isn't complete yet either. Meanwhile Aeroplane Heaven are busy creating their MSFS DC-3, and since they have a very efficient development structure you will see something from them soon, I am pretty sure. Let's wish them well ... as long as they don't ask users to open the hamburger door when starting no. 1. :)

 

Cheers

Manfred

Edited October 4, 2020 by mjahn

Hello Manfred,

 

thanks to you for this answer and all the best for a future without modeling and simming.

 

And I'm looking forward about what kind of native DC-3 there will be in the future for the MSFS 2020 and especially when.

 

Cheers

Thomas