Piracy at Joomla-BG.COM, where next Joomla.org?

[ep98]

Hi there,

After a lot of checks on the code I prepared the HOT Property pack (originally developed by Lee Cher Yeong ) on 9 November 2005. Then I emailed him with a question regarding the position of the pseudo-Official Support Site for Joomla in Bulgarian, http://www.joomla-bg.com.

Following this email the pack was removed from http://www.joomla-bg.com (temporarily, so that everyone forgets about this case). 

Now, a few months later, http://www.joomla-bg.com have released a top news item: they are to hold a contest on building templates for a Real Estate Agency.

There is nothing wrong you may say. Yes, sure, there is nothing wrong except for one line from the rules of this contest. 

This is the line that bothers me (And, of course, why should I be buying this module if I were to need it for my sites? They could and should release it for FREE).

[quote in Bulgarian]
4.3  Нашата идея е, че ще се ползват компоненти от типа / Estate Agent и  com_imoti (от Иво Апостолов)
[ the same quote in English, translation]
4.3  Our idea is, that we will use components like Real Estate (which is GPLed) and com_imoti (authored by Ivo Apostolov) 

* com_imoti (real name is hot_property) can be attached if u need it to compare it. The word imoti means property in Bulgarian

My firm opinion is that this module, piece by piece, line per line, is the same with COM_PROPERTY created by Lee Cher Yeong .

Here is the link to the whole story: http://joomla-bg.com/index.php?option=c ... 9&Itemid=2 .


I am sure, guys, you can find someone to translate it to you, if not Kinyra.com may translate it for you.

I do hope that this time, you all togehter, including Lee Cher Yeong, will decide to take final actions against http://www.joomla-bg.com and put an end to the piracy practices of this site. 

These people are like a bleeding wound for the Open Source Community, messing Piracy with GPL.

A attach my correspondence with Lee Cher Yeong as well.

Regards,

Stefan Ilivanov

What follows is my recent correspondence with Lee Cher Yeong

Hi Stefan!

  Thank you very much for noticing us on the illegal distribution of
  our components.

  Just to be clear:

  - Hot Property is *not* released under an open source license
  - We do *not* condone any act of piracy
  - We do *not* allow distribution of our codes without prior notice
  - We have *not* authorize any person from the Bulgaria team to 
    redistribute our files.

  We have notify them about this and I expect them to remove the
  files soon.

  Thank you once again for notifying us. Please let us know if you
  have any more queries about Hot Property.

Best regards,
Lee Cher Yeong

Email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.Mosets.com/
Wednesday, November 9, 2005, 4:28:00 PM, you wrote:


> This is an enquiry e-mail from Stefan Ilivanov ( [email protected])

> Hi, I just wanna ask some questions regarding hot property component:

> 1. What means commercial component
> a) Everyone have to buy no matter from where comes
> b) Someone can buy it, and release it to Public ?
> c) Someone can buy it, translate it, change to credits to owns, and release it to public 

> I cant understand why I have to pay for it, if I wanna take it as
> separate component, just to take a look and code, and mofify it to
> fill the requirements of my clients, but some ppl called official 
> support site, can release it for free.

> http://developer.joomla.org/sf/frs/do/d ... s2144?dl=1

> If this program (Hot Property) component assimilated from this
> support site is with your permissions, why u just not release the
> latest version for FREE.

> In other hand, if this repack is created with your permissions, u 
> support WAREZ (Piracy) community and I not have nothing left,
> instead to notify Mambo/Joomla! Centrals.

> Thanks in advance.

[brad]

I m sure that mosets.com will do all they can to handle this situation within the confines of the law, please make sure you pass this info on to them.

I am not sure what your reference to joomla.org in the title means. Joomla is open source and will remain so.

I will pass this thread on the the Translation Team, however the only affiliation Joomla has with joomla-bg.com is that they provide a translation of Joomla.

[ep98]

I m sure that mosets.com will do all they can to handle this situation within the confines of the law, please make sure you pass this info on to them.

I am not sure what your reference to joomla.org in the title means. Joomla is open source and will remain so.

I will pass this thread on the the Translation Team, however the only affiliation Joomla has with joomla-bg.com is that they provide a translation of Joomla.

1. I'm sure, they recieved this mail before to be posted here.

2. Reference to Joomla.org - cos this post was send to them, more than 72 hours and still no reply, no reaction...

3. They pretend to be an officialized support site.

[brad]

3. There is only one official support site.. this one I see there is no Bulgarian community here yet, however if anyone wants to create one... feel free to let me know.

Thanks for trying to stick up for us and other developers (like mosets.com)

[ep98]

here is no Bulgarian community here yet, however if anyone wants to create one... feel free to let me know.

We can disscuss this when this situation is solved. Thanks.

[chessko]

3. They pretend to be an officialized support site.

where ? i can't see where we pretend. show me where in the site we mentioned to be officiall joomla support?

[kenmcd]

I have found many Russian sites to be better resources for bootleg copies of Joomla commercial applications.
- MosetsTree
- iJoomla Magazine
- ComboMax
- mosDirectory
- mosGuestBook
- mosIPN
- mosKnowledgebase
- mosListMessenger
- mosLock
- Phil-a-Form
- SEF Advance
- WYSIWYG Pro

Anyone with a brain can find these.
What is your point?

[ivo.apostolov]

The only illegal copy of it can be found at http://vmart.pzcci.org/index.php?option ... y&Itemid=4

which is site owned by you Stefan right? (Oops sorry by your wife)

and with commercial purposes right?
And you are the original distrubor of the file aren't you?

and all of the attacks and stupid posts you start here (as well as in the old Mambo forum) are done with the clear idea to takeover of the brand Joomla! Bulgaria.
Probably we are not the best people in the world, but what I can see in the last year is that you are trying to make a takeover of the brand.
Why: COMMERCIAL PURPOSES, over 3,000 sites in Bulgaria are powered by Joomla! compared to the 0 powered by XOOPS.
You started initially to make a XOOPS support in Bulgarian, but when you see that there are no money in it, you try what?

First: Takeover of the old brand: Mambo Bulgaria (now Joomla! Bulgaria) - didn't work out. After many many many offences by you, without any reason?
Second: Next attemp: Takeover of the bulgarian e107 support. Ooops also didn't work out.
Third: Takeover of Joomla! Bulgaria. Why? Just explain me why? Again offences. Copying my translations and presenting it as yours? Why? What's your point?

The absolutely stupid statement for the official support. JOOMLA! DOES NOT HAVE ANY OFFICIAL SUPPORT EXCEPT OF THE CORE TEAM and if you don't know that, it is YOUR PROBLEM. Therefore you are not able to find anywhere on http://www.joomla-bg.com a statement that we are official support or whatever. This is something in YOUR IMAGINATION.
The only one pretending to be OFFICIAL SUPPORT WAS YOU with yout site. And my question is - why did you named it in the exactly same name as ours?

Finally I would like to present my excuses to everyone. I am sick of people trying to destroy someone else's work. It is not about me or Ivan (chessko), we are currently 16 people who are working on our small NOT COMMERCIAL site, trying to help the people and providing them solutions with the possibilities we have. And at the end appears some person with the only idea how to make money using the work of the others.

I am horrified what the people can do. I am horrified that even now on Joomla! where the freedom and the open source MATTERS, there will be still people who will find a way how to crash everything.
I am sorry that people from my country are trying to make such a bad image just because of commercial interests.

I don't know what more to say. I am ashamed.

I am really ashamed.

Ivo...

[zigzag]

[brad]

Ok time to close this thread.. feel free to contact me privately if there is any need to re-open it.