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VA's and piracy


Aerosoft Team

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Our numbers paint a very different story than yours, we've got data that shows a 25% overall gain since implementation of our theft prevention/detection process. It really depends on how dependent the end user becomes on the software - the more the need the more likely they'll be responsible and do the right thing and pay. Sure we're in different markets but as far as I can tell that piracy problem shows no market boundaries.

Your making an assumption that tight security is invasive or annoying ... good security is not annoying in most cases and can still be highly effective.

Have you done a goggle search to see how widespread illegal copies of just about every single Aerosoft product? ... be sure to have your virus protection software active if you do. It's mind boggling to see how many web sites have illegal Aerosoft products ... I think you really owe it to yourself to go peak into the world of software theft - I think you'll be shocked ... even your logos are stolen. Some people don't even realize PirateBay (and many other places) are doing anything illegal and "think" it's legit and free. Some even come to vendor forums asking for help ... these aren't people that "wouldn't pay", these are people that thought it was free and had no clue.

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well I thing it´s prity straight forward about sale got better when online registration system was removed, well i can speek for my self as well as some other users and some of the products thats taged by that was not brought to interest.

The reason for that is the registration limitations thats a pain if lets say you are a tester or just install pc often.. I never been agains scecurity but when the costumers stand as the looser im against the system. the best system I have seen is flight1 where you easy manualy re-activate your product, thats the best way or like P3D v2 where the key is released when the sim is removed. As I have seen products thats have a way that might even affect proformance of the sim due to some files that dident work good... and thats realy what´s annoyeing that costumers pay the price.. thats always been my consern...

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  • Aerosoft

Have you done a goggle search to see how widespread illegal copies of just about every single Aerosoft product? ...

Sure, we also pay a legal office to sue pirates and have settled with dozens of them. I also have friends who have infiltrated pirate rings etc. I believe I got a pretty good idea. We even have pirate hunts on some evenings in the month where we go out and try to get the telephone number of a pirate (most of them are really not very clever) and then scare the crap out them by phoning them up. Most of the time we end up talking to daddy. Our average customer is a 45 year old serious guy, not the standard pirate.

The clearest indication of course is to compare the download sales the 12 hours before one of the products appears in the p2p networks to the 12 hours after that. And we see the effect clearly. But that is still no reason to make life harder for honest paying customers. They made it clear to us that they do not like online verification. So we dropped that. If you seen a 25% increase in sales when you did protection your starting position was very different.

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I once heard about another trick a developer pulled in the battle against software piracy. He had created a false account on a p2p network and right after he released his product he released the same product illegally through the p2p network. However the version released on the p2p network was slightly modified. At first glance you didn't notice, everything appeared to work fine. However, after some time the built-in tricks started to work. But by that time they had already redistributed the product to three or four other people on the p2p network who then after some time ended up with the same tricks. And because at first glance the product appeared to work the download became the most popular on the p2p network leaving other (really illegal) p2p copies in the dusk. People who legally bought and downloaded the product didn't have those built-in tricks of course, they got a good working product. But when you got it from the p2p share you're screwed before you know it.

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As a gesture to help with stemming this problem...

The requirements to become and remain a VATSIM VA Partner have been revised. Any VA found to use or provide links to pirated software will be rejected or removed as a partner.

Mathijs and Stephen (and any other developer reading this), I would appreciate if you would notify me of any VAs that you find to be in violation and I will take action to remove them if they are currently VATSIM VA Partners.

Roger Curtiss

VATSIM VP Virtual Airlines

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I would also love to see action taken against Pirates. Theft is theft, no matter how you look at it. I particularly like the British FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) adverts from not too long ago: the tagline was 'You Wouldn't Steal A Car. You Would'nt Steal A TV. Why Steal a Film?' or words to that effect. I work hard for my cash and put some aside after my bills are paid and my kids are fed to fund my Flight Sim hobby. The kids who do so are naive and stupid. Adults who do so are bloody morons and should be taken to task to the fullest extent of the law.

I think that 'covertly' :ph34r: distributing modified versions of your software via common P2P rings is the way to go - preferably with modifications that totally trash a user's FSX or P3D installation and render it totally useless.... :mallet_s:

I also would like to see the online networks do more - anybody who admits or is irrefutably found to be pirating software should have their accounts permanently revoked, deleted and their IP address blocked from accessing the servers.

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  • 1 month later...

I would also love to see action taken against Pirates. Theft is theft, no matter how you look at it. I particularly like the British FACT (Federation Against Copyright Theft) adverts from not too long ago: the tagline was 'You Wouldn't Steal A Car. You Would'nt Steal A TV. Why Steal a Film?' or words to that effect. I work hard for my cash and put some aside after my bills are paid and my kids are fed to fund my Flight Sim hobby. The kids who do so are naive and stupid. Adults who do so are bloody morons and should be taken to task to the fullest extent of the law.

I think that 'covertly' :ph34r: distributing modified versions of your software via common P2P rings is the way to go - preferably with modifications that totally trash a user's FSX or P3D installation and render it totally useless.... :mallet_s:

I also would like to see the online networks do more - anybody who admits or is irrefutably found to be pirating software should have their accounts permanently revoked, deleted and their IP address blocked from accessing the servers.

I don't really agree with your opinion on modifications trashing FSX or P3D. The reason I do not agree is simple: PMDG has such a system in their MD-11, I bought the add-on some years ago, wanted to install some liveries and found out, that the installation program deleted both my scenery and texture folder, which of course had fatal impacts on my FSX. I contacted PMDG support and was told, that I either was a pirate or just had the disgrace to experience a failure of this system, which turns livery installers into FSX destroyers if they detect any abnormalities in the registration license of the aircraft.

The case was that I had to reinstall my FSX just because the system failed checking the license and interpreted the aircraft as a pirated copy.

I don't wish to be disturbed by such failures nor do I wish it to others and therefore don't support this idea.

Greetings

Max

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mathijs,

You speak French?? Just create an account with VAT France, (vatfrance.org) a VATSIM vacc, and get on TeamSpeak and listen. You will hear people, including the staff and its director, talk about what they have installed on their simulators. You will hear them freely talk about "purchased" add-ons vs "Leased", they won't say "downloaded" or "pirated".

You'll hear stuff like: Did you get the latest Airbus from Aerosoft, and one or two will say, yeah, I leased it from KAT or PB. Carenado and others should listen as well.

It would be an interesting evening for you. There is rarely an evening without a piracy talk of add-ons.

Just today I found out about this nice bunch of pirates in France. World Pilotes Alliance.

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  • 2 months later...

That's not a VA site. It's dedicated to straight pirating.

Not much you can do about it.

True, but the file is hosted on Mega (which is as reputable as a file host can be), I just can't submit a takedown notice on behalf of Aerosoft.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Mathijs,

[....] Just create an account with VAT France[....] , There is rarely an evening without a piracy talk of add-ons. [....]

Thanks, I'll have a look into that.

Hi everyone,
after a message stating French vACC (VAT France), we took the opportunity to discuss with Aerosoft and Mathijs about piracy.
VAT France and his staff are perfectly in tune with Aerosoft about it.
Content publishers Also, we are sometimes victims of scam violating intellectual property.
You will understand that, despite the slander of some, we are actively fighting daily against this scourge.
Enjoy network flying
For the staff of French vACC
Karel Tessaro (Webmaster)
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Karel,

What you're calling "the slander of some", I call the "daily truth on VATFrance's Teamspeak". You probably told everybody to stop since you found my previous message, but you'll start again soon and anybody will be able to verify the truth in my message. And yes, telling everybody about you is a vendetta, but it is the truth, not slander.

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  • 1 month later...

hi

Have you done a goggle search to see how widespread illegal copies of just about every single Aerosoft product? ...

sorry for say it but i´m with rob, take look, for example, to pro tools software from avid, you have a lot of protection, why dont you do the same? for example you have an ilok (USB KEY), where you store the licenses of the aerosoft products and you need to download the license from "aerosoft license protection manager software" (like ilok manager hahaha) to install it on the ilok or smotehing similar, pro tools is so difficult to find it piracy, and the ilok is very easy to use, where ever i go with it on any computer with pro tools, (with the same version) i conect my ilok and i can use it perfectly. I preffer to see how aerosoft does the airbus 340-600 becuase theres a lot of money to do it and no matter how many new codes needs to be done becuase aerosoft has the money to pay it or to pay other developers to do it.

regards!

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  • 3 months later...
  • Deputy Sheriffs

VA = Virtual Airline

Beside simulating aircrafts in the flight simulator there are also lots and lots of such virtual airlines, simulating the daily business of airlines. 

Best is to read through the pages of some of them to get a more complete idea of it.

http://www.bavirtual.co.uk/
http://www.scandinavian-va.net/
http://dlhvirtual.com/
 

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VA = Virtual Airline

Beside simulating aircrafts in the flight simulator there are also lots and lots of such virtual airlines, simulating the daily business of airlines. 

Best is to read through the ages of some of them to get a more complete idea of it.

http://www.bavirtual.co.uk/
http://www.scandinavian-va.net/
http://dlhvirtual.com/
 

Thank you Tom for the quick reply. I will look at the links you kindly provided. Best wishes.

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  • Aerosoft

Yes a Virtual Airline. As defined by VATSIM: " A Virtual Airline (VA) is a member-driven group which aims to simulate the flights and operations of an airline, charter operation or flying club. Some may be based on real world companies while others are fictional."

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Yes a Virtual Airline. As defined by VATSIM: " A Virtual Airline (VA) is a member-driven group which aims to simulate the flights and operations of an airline, charter operation or flying club. Some may be based on real world companies while others are fictional."

Thank you Mathijs, funny enough the first thing that sprang into my mind is "Vacancy Announcement" that the HR people use a lot, but that is woefully out of context with aviation. Best wishes.

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