[wataru]

I had been having problems with a piece of software I use and love recently, so I emailed the author. He replied saying that my serial number and email address (the number is tied to the address) had been distributed on a popular illegal serial number forum and so has been blacklisted. I most certainly did not post my own email address and serial number. This has me extremely upset and angry.

The author says his business has been hurt significantly since the leak. I don't feel that this is my fault, and that I should be entitled to continue to use the software; on the other hand, it's clear that I have been party to damaging his business.

What recourse do I have in this kind of situation? Is there any way I could find out who found and posted my info, and how he or she did it (all I have now is a username on a forum)? What would you do?

[AKcrab]

You gave it to a "friend" and they screwed you over?

You never shared with *anyone*? Not even your mom?

Did you find your serial number and email on a "popular illegal serial number forum"? I would ask for some proof.

[wataru]

The only person I gave the serial number to was my girlfriend. Sure, that's technically a no-no, but what was I going to do? Besides, there's no way she did it, since everything she knows about computers I taught her, and I'd bet my life she's never heard of the forum in question. Plus I know that we were both ridiculously busy the day the serial was first posted.

Of course someone could somehow have gotten the serial off of my or her computer. I have no idea how that would have happened, though.

Yes, I did verify that the info was posted exactly as the author described it.

[mrfrost]

What AKcrab said. Ask for proof. (But be nice)

[wataru]

I just said I got proof.

[mrfrost]

Oh sorry, didn't see that. So you know who posted the serial at that forum then right?

[storer]

Originally posted by wataru:
I just said I got proof.

looks like you are in a bit of a situation. what was the software and was it mac or windows?

[wataru]

Originally posted by mrfrost:
Oh sorry, didn't see that. So you know who posted the serial at that forum then right?

Yeah, like I said in my first post I only know his username. I sent him a PM, but I have yet to receive a reply. I also emailed the forum people, but I got a "no such user exists" error, even though the address was definitely correct. It's a seedy place to begin with, so I doubt the owners will be very cooperative. In fact I'm kind of afraid they'll retaliate somehow, like by signing me up for spam or something.

[wataru]

Originally posted by storer:
looks like you are in a bit of a situation. what was the software and was it mac or windows?

I wasn't going to say, but I guess there's not much more harm I could do by telling. It was Synergy, for Mac.

[storer]

Originally posted by wataru:
I wasn't going to say, but I guess there's not much more harm I could do by telling. It was Synergy, for Mac.

oh ok. i never heard of it, but good luck... its not a nice thing to happen 2 u if its not your fault. what was the forum?

[theolein]

Originally posted by wataru:
I wasn't going to say, but I guess there's not much more harm I could do by telling. It was Synergy, for Mac.

I guess that it's also possible that the SN is generated by some kind of hashing on the email address. A cracker would find that out easily, and if your address were on a synergy forum, then it wouldn't have taken much to put two and two together.

[Ω]

Is your email address something like: ?????? @ mac.com (edited for discretion)

Looks like this has been doing the rounds......

[wataru]

Yep, that's the one. You can imagine how I feel about my email address, that I pay $100/year for, ending up in a situation like this.

[Cadaver]

Loan your computer to somoeone? Did your girlfriend?

[wataru]

I'll have to ask her; she's in China right now. But the only thing that comes to mind is this: She sent her iBook in to be fixed for some dinky little problem (like the sleep light didn't turn on during sleep or something) and Apple ended up wiping her hard drive for no good reason. Aside from that, unless she did something she never told me about, I can't think of when either of our computers would have been out of our immediate control.

[Ω]

Looking at iDave's past posts he seems to be a serial king - not much chat, all serials. You would guess you will have zero luck getting the posts removed, and once in the public domain almost impossible to stop.

Who have you tried contacting?

[wataru]

I sent him a PM, and I sent and email to the forum's general email link (info@...), but I haven't gotten a response from either. Except, like I said before, a "no such user" error from the info@... email. I don't know who else to go after.

[Ω]

PM sent...

[wataru]

Wow, I talked to an admin and he deleted the offending thread, no questions asked. I guess there is honor among thieves.

Also, the developer was good enough to issue me a new serial when I re-registered.

Another update: I got a reply from iDave, and he claims that the developer's serial system had been cracked months ago, and that it was pure chance that my email was used. So maybe I wasn't betrayed by anyone after all.

[AKcrab]

Originally posted by wataru:
Wow, I talked to an admin and he deleted the offending thread, no questions asked. I guess there is honor among thieves.

Also, the developer was good enough to issue me a new serial when I re-registered.

Another update: I got a reply from iDave, and he claims that the developer's serial system had been cracked months ago, and that it was pure chance that my email was used. So maybe I wasn't betrayed by anyone after all.

Yay, a happy ending!

[Ω]

Good to hear all ended well. Small developers like this who produce good quality products should be supported. They may even get a sale out of it because I am currently going to give it a try.

[ManOfSteal]

Damn, that's a wild story/occurrence...glad it all worked out the best though!

[willab]

I am trying out Synergy now. I may end up buying it. It looks like a great app. I think it's terrible that people pirate a $5 app instead of supporting the programmer.

[Ω]

Bad news

http://wincent.org/article/articleview/246/1/0

[starman]

Originally posted by _?_:
Bad news

http://wincent.org/article/articleview/246/1/0

Lame excuse. There are decent algorithms and serial number controls out there that they can use.

Mike

[Daracle]

I love Synergy
I bought the license even before my demo period was up and have recommended it to many people.

I hope they dont go under.

[demograph68]

I'm now officially an ex-Synergy pirate. Not like I needed it anyways, so I deleted the krack. I even posted the article at that "forum" mentioned. I hope it helps.

[storer]

Originally posted by demograph68:
I'm now officially an ex-Synergy pirate. Not like I needed it anyways, so I deleted the krack. I even posted the article at that "forum" mentioned. I hope it helps.

if they go under, there isnt much we can do about it. Careful who you pirate next time, cos not all software companies are large.

[Randman]

Glad to hear that it worked out well in the end. But... it couldn't have helped your situation by participating in whatever dodgy forum you were on.
To use an analogy, even if you aren't smoking crack, you're likely to find yourself in some dodgy situation by visiting a crack house.

[Daracle]

Originally posted by demograph68:
I'm now officially an ex-Synergy pirate. Not like I needed it anyways, so I deleted the krack. I even posted the article at that "forum" mentioned. I hope it helps.

Can I ask since you used to have it, why you would worry about a crack for a $5 pice of software?
I dont understand.

[Ω]

Originally posted by Daracle:
Can I ask since you used to have it, why you would worry about a crack for a $5 pice of software?
I dont understand.

A lot of the time it is because you can. You don't go out of your way to find the crack, but the opportunity arises and many take it.

And before you bitch and moan at me I believe in supporting products that deserve supporting. If the product is any good I will buy it. I do however like an extended "trial" period before I pony up for the cash.

[Person Man]

Originally posted by _?_:
And before you bitch and moan at me I believe in supporting products that deserve supporting. If the product is any good I will buy it. I do however like an extended "trial" period before I pony up for the cash.

You know, something that has always bothered me about trial periods for shareware (one where you get unlimited use until the period expires).

Most are either: 1. You get a certain number of consecutive days to try the program, or 2. You get a certain number of launches to try the program.

Neither is perfect. For example, with the certain number of consecutive days, you would have to use the program daily and often to get the full use out of it. Not too many people use their software like that, so for most people, they only get three or four uses out of a two week trial period.

With the certain number of launches, you could use up two or three on a given day if you quit/relaunch the program or if the program (or computer) crashes, it can still be too short to fully evaluate the program.

Why not give people a certain number of *non-consecutive* days? For example, 14 days. The program counts the number of days you have used the program, not from the time you first launched it. You can launch the program an unlimited number of times on those days, but the counter doesn't increment until the program detects that it's been launched on a different day than the day before. (You could detect for people who like to manipulate the clock, of course). This would give people a more fair trial (and maybe less incentive to pirate the program). It would make it possible to try the program on *your* terms and see if it would work out with *your* workflow.

[york28]

Originally posted by Person Man:
You know, something that has always bothered me about trial periods for shareware (one where you get unlimited use until the period expires).

Most are either: 1. You get a certain number of consecutive days to try the program, or 2. You get a certain number of launches to try the program... Why not give people a certain number of *non-consecutive* days? For example, 14 days.

I agree with this, and not just for shareware. I've been trying out some software for running visuals for my band, and a lot it has 15 day trials. I'm really busy, and if I'm lucky I'll get to use it maybe once or twice more before that demo expires.

Anyone pirating shareware needs a stern talking to. I might not pay for Office, but I've bought tons of shareware programs.

[Stradlater]

Originally posted by _?_:
Bad news

http://wincent.org/article/articleview/246/1/0

I'm sorry, but people who pirate software, more often than not, wouldn't have bought the software anyway.

[wataru]

Originally posted by Randman:
Glad to hear that it worked out well in the end. But... it couldn't have helped your situation by participating in whatever dodgy forum you were on.
To use an analogy, even if you aren't smoking crack, you're likely to find yourself in some dodgy situation by visiting a crack house.

Are you referring to me? Well the fact of the matter is this: I couldn't even verify the developer's claim without registering and posting a number of times because they hide the "interesting" forums from casual viewers. And I couldn't contact anyone on the site without registering either. I think everything worked out just fine with regards to my problem, though I see Wincent is still in deep sh�t over this. It's sad that people would go out of their way to crack a piece of 5� shareware.

[CharlesS]

Originally posted by Stradlater:
I'm sorry, but people who pirate software, more often than not, wouldn't have bought the software anyway.

So the fact that sales go down 30% when a serial comes out is just what, coincidence?

[Daracle]

Whats funny is this software is something you would use pretty much everyday even when using the trial. If you use iTunes to listen to your music, then you would use this product.
Also, Don't get me wrong byt this next comment, Im not rich or even close to it. But would it that bad to just put up the $5 after the trial period and if you didnt like it, then take it as an experiance?

I mean its only $5....Its not like your taking a chance on Photoshop or something.

[Synotic]

Originally posted by Stradlater:
I'm sorry, but people who pirate software, more often than not, wouldn't have bought the software anyway.

Or how about, people that wouldn't have bought the software will most likely pirate it? Often there are people who have musthave software for whatever they're doing like say Transmit.. or OmniGraffle. Although they can pay, the opportunity to pirate is too easy and riskfree for the user. When they're unable to pirate the software, they then are forced to either give up the software that they find essential to them, like Synergy, or pay for it. Sales going down 30 percent on the day the serial came out seems to coincide with this.

[george68]

Out of curiosity, was the name/serial something like this?

Name: new user
SN: CK6C-L9PU-WRLD-UD8Z-1824

????

- Rob

[wataru]

No, the username was my email address, and the serial number was longer. I've managed to get it taken down from everywhere I could find it, so with any luck you won't run into it.

[zen jihad]

That's a bummer, I also use (bought) synergy, and liked the regular updates and so on.

Oh well.

wataru - isn't it possible that when your g/f used your serial/reg details, synergy 'phoned' home and then wincent detected it's a serial that's been used by another person(you)?

[wataru]

Originally posted by zen jihad:
wataru - isn't it possible that when your g/f used your serial/reg details, synergy 'phoned' home and then wincent detected it's a serial that's been used by another person(you)?

That's hypothetically possible, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that Synergy phones home at all. In fact I'm running it with the same serial on two different computers right now with no problems (I feel justified since I've now purchased Synergy twice, but I can't use my old serial since it was leaked). Wincent himself told me it doesn't check locally for that kind of thing (unlike MS Office, which doesn't phone home, but will check your LAN for copies running with the same serial).

[zen jihad]

Originally posted by wataru:
That's hypothetically possible, but I haven't seen any evidence to indicate that Synergy phones home at all. In fact I'm running it with the same serial on two different computers right now with no problems (I feel justified since I've now purchased Synergy twice, but I can't use my old serial since it was leaked). Wincent himself told me it doesn't check locally for that kind of thing (unlike MS Office, which doesn't phone home, but will check your LAN for copies running with the same serial).

I wonder how much of this has to do with these new (pirated) serials doing the rounds. If that is the case, then it could be that the crackers algorithm's they used just randomly generated your serial, or something.

[george68]

Originally posted by wataru:
No, the username was my email address, and the serial number was longer. I've managed to get it taken down from everywhere I could find it, so with any luck you won't run into it.

Oh okay. That must be the serial so you can use quicktime's fullscreen option. Silly me.

- Ca$h

[wataru]

Originally posted by zen jihad:
I wonder how much of this has to do with these new (pirated) serials doing the rounds. If that is the case, then it could be that the crackers algorithm's they used just randomly generated your serial, or something.

Like I already said:

Originally posted by wataru:
Another update: I got a reply from iDave, and he claims that the developer's serial system had been cracked months ago, and that it was pure chance that my email was used. So maybe I wasn't betrayed by anyone after all.

[Ω]

Finally bought it today after my 7 days expired.

My purchase must have been enough to create another version, as 1.3 was released shortly afterwards!!