[Administrator]

I am guessing that the following is not a great example of "User Friendly" ... EVEN THOUGH the idea may be worthy and justified, the presentation is NOT!

This is actual content that came from a site that purports to support the vBulletin Community.

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Looks like the author must have skipped the Support 101 class. Another irony here is that the last two lines are affiliate links, believe it or not, that the author presumably wants you to click AFTER he tells you to buzz off and not bother him with PMs.

Let me say right up front, I do not condone or support Software Piracy or Copyright Infringement in any form. On the other hand, I also recognize and abhor rabid and mindless zealotry, whether it be from a political dictator or a hacker geek like the one in my example, is generally misguided, ill-informed and very often, if not always, self-serving and completely unregulated. Moderation is a good thing but moderation and zealotry are incompatible. From my perspective, the current crop of Software Nazis have a hidden agenda, though I hard pressed to know exactly what it is but personally I think they are a LOT more dangerous than the hackers they pursue. For example, the #1 Agent used by vBulletin to administer their Anti Piracy Campaign was taken to task last year for arbitrarily taking down a legitimate vBulletin site because "he was personally offended by the site content." That, my friend is a First Amendment Rights violation (at least it is in the US and most other Democratic Societies as well.) against the site owner and has nothing at all to do with piracy or copyright infringement, not to mention completely over the top! To their credit, vBulletin restored the site license of the offended site owner. Why they didn't fire the offender is still a mystery to me.

Self Appointed Copyright Cops are worse than bounty hunters. They have no bounds or restrictions OR most importantly, accountability for anything they do legally or otherwise. These High Tech Parasites with have no scrupples, legal boundaries or ethics and, frankly, they make me a lot more nervous than some kid hacking a piece of software. In my view, hacking on my human rights and civil liberties is a LOT more important than a few bucks missing from a bottom line of a software megacorp, trust me on this one! Beware and wary of the zealous software fascists, they ARE everywhere! They shut sites down with NO DUE PROCESS misusing and abusing the DMCA to strip you of your rights!

Enjoy!

[ToMMyHR]

Amen to that, couldn't have said it better myself!

Before anybody jumps to conclusions, YES my board is legit. I have no problem buying the software I use regularly.

My philosophy is, if you don't like what's on my site... you don't belong there to begin with.

[Administrator]

Unfortunately, copyright infringement has gone the way of "political correctness" where ANY and ALL "common sense" has been removed and replaced by "nonsense" and "weasel words" so that EVERYTHING is a violation now and the only real beneficiaries are the scumbags lawyers that drove the legislation through the system as is the case with "PC"... When I was in college, they taught us how to cite material, give the proper credits and above all else NEVER plagiarized ANYTHING! Even THAT pretty solid definition would have problems with Wannabee Copyright Cops today who wield the DMCA like its some kind of magic giant killer that never fails to squash its intended victim. While I recognize the need to update archaic laws and regulations to accommodate new technological advances, I think DMCA fails dismally in achieving its intention as is clearly evidenced by the Simpleton and self appointed Anti-Porno Warrior (Jelsoft Licensing & Anti Piracy Agent) over at PirateReports who appears to have a preoccupation with or perversion for pornography sites (not making this up, do a few searches and you will see what I mean) rather than whether or not the vBulletin license is actually valid. His interpretation of the DMCA is whatever happens to be his mood when he wakes up everyday, no matter what the actual documents contain ( he has provided Jelsoft with more than a few embarrassing moments with his personal interpretations of the vBulletin license agreement and trying to use the DMCA to enforce his nonsensical and probably illegal arguments. He should be taken to task for his own "Bill of Rights" violations never mind the DMCA).

When I was young and foolish (now I am not young), I used to see the World in Black and White. Now I only see shades of gray and now realize that having a sense of humor is vitally important for a balanced view.

Thanks for your comments, I think I have pretty much the same ideas here though I have to admit finding the line sometimes is a little difficult but not impossible.