Gamestudio warez users on other forums

Posted By: ulillillia

Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 05:35

I have a forum now set up (and I'm pretty sure others here do as well), and I just wanted to know what do I do if I encounter a possible warez user on the forum? If someone mentions that have 6.20.2 Pro (or 6.22 Pro) and it has the same symptoms as that warez version, what do I do here? Of course, I'd lock the thread for that part, but what about the legal-related part? Do I post a new thread here to point to this thread? Do I send an email to someone at Conitec (if so, who?). I'm just wondering about it as there is a chance one such user could do that.
Posted By: Anonymous

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 05:42

If I were you Uli, I'd not only lock the thread, but also ban the warez user, but I'll leave the rest up to Conitec.
Posted By: ulillillia

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 05:47

Yeah, I forgot about the banning part. My main intent of this thread is to ask how to alert Conitec of it. It's not their forum, but it's a user using an illegal copy of Gamestudio (warez) and would be something Gamestudio's staff would look into, but how do I go about alerting them.
Posted By: vlau

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 05:50

Why not send a PM to JCL or Doug directly?
Posted By: ulillillia

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 06:16

I can't send a PM to JCL - he/she doesn't accept them. I tried doing this once when I encountered a potential warez user a long time ago (during the early days of 6.31, if I recall correctly). Doug I don't know about.
Posted By: vlau

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 07:01

Oh, I don't know that, how about notify the Mod?
(the third icon from the left of Post Extras)
Posted By: ulillillia

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 07:17

Notifying the moderators from these forums won't work. They'll see that the post I use it for is legitamate and otherwise meaningless. What I'm referring to is not a warez user posting here on these forums, but on an external forum, like mine that otherwise has a completely different domain than here (ulillillia.us instead of coniserver.net). Here's an example situation to help explain.

Someone goes to my forums on my website. They register and sign up without any trouble. They then post on my forums why they aren't able to build and they happen to have 6.20.2 Pro. Seeing that this strongly matches that of warez users here, I'd first lock the thread then ban the user. The main thing (and the point of my post here) is what do I do to alert Conitec about the warez user?
Posted By: A.Russell

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 07:22

Don't bother doing anything. Even if you get their IP, there still isn't really anything anyone can do about it. You could possibly send them a scary e-mail, however prosecuting them is nearly impossible. From personal experience, it is better to leave them alone, they might turn their attention to hacking your website.
Posted By: Grimber

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 07:24

I send an e-mail with a copy of the post(s) ( with registered user information) or e-mail(s) ( make sure get the header off the e-mail as well)
to this address:

contact@conitec.net

That usualy all end up needing to do.
On your website/boards. never use your own ISP email address as a contact address btw. use one from another e-mail service. in fact never give out your own ISP account e-mail address, always use an alternate one(s) for e-mail.
Posted By: ulillillia

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 07:46

Quote:

I send an e-mail with a copy of the post(s) ( with registered user information) or e-mail(s) ( make sure get the header off the e-mail as well)
to this address:

contact@conitec.net

That usualy all end up needing to do.



I'll look into this method. That's only if I do get such a case. I'd like Conitec's answer though, just to be safe.



Quote:

On your website/boards. never use your own ISP email address as a contact address btw. use one from another e-mail service. in fact never give out your own ISP account e-mail address, always use an alternate one(s) for e-mail.



This part doesn't apply to me because I don't have one. I'm using the e-mail from my webhost, however.
Posted By: FBL

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 09:18

Never use the webmaster address. Once it gets spammend, you're doomed to it. Any other address can be changed to get rid of spam.
Posted By: ulillillia

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 09:32

I have two such E-mails from my webhost. I don't mind spam that much though. Sometimes, when in large quantities, I get amazed by it and snag screenshots like this from early September 2005 and this from early January of 2006. I have one other such screenshot, but I haven't posted it yet on my website. 100 spam messages per day in these extreme cases....
Posted By: Grimber

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 12:39

use instead a third party e-mail provider that allows you to automaticly route/forward the e-mails. the 3rd party host system then scans for purposly uploaded virus/trojens ( sometimes you get these from people that know you reported them, warez users tend to be a major source of such things)

they will sometimes Intentionaly register your e-mail to sites that genarate ALLOT of spam. ( you can then easily drop and create a new 3rd party e-mail address without upsetting your web host. using your web host e-mail for contact with such malitious users can cause so much traffic backlog for a host system over thier network and routers and virus detectiing ( which usualy increase traffic for the host due to automated messages kicked out ) that such a targeted web site they host can be temporarily suspended.

a web site i frequent often is currently down because of the above problem. too much malitious spam junk e-mail was directed to the contact e-mail address which was part of the guys account on that host site.
He is not sure when his host will allow his site back up, if at all.
Posted By: vlau

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 13:36

Just leave them alone, don't answer their questions.
Why spend so much effort on warez users.
Posted By: old_bill

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 14:18

The best is recording his IP adress and email,
and send that with a screenshot (reduced size, not fullscreen)
where he confirms the warez using to Conitec.
But be carefull with warez assumptions, time is money
and I dont think Conitec wants to be filled up with mails
about possible warez users.

old_bill
Posted By: Grimber

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 18:06

Quote:

Just leave them alone, don't answer their questions.
Why spend so much effort on warez users.



Because I spent $200 hard earned bucks from 6 months of saving $30ish a month just to get the commercial edition and I live with an income thats considered well below poverty level. So why should I help or turn a blind eye to someone too cheap, lazy, pathetic, and dishonest to put a little effort into legaly buying it as well?

Besides, it takes some SERIOUS ignorance ( or arrogance) to know you have an illegal copy of software and then ask for help of legal users, and worse to post for help on the software developers own forums asking for help. They shouldn't just be prossicuted, they need to get hit up side the head with a baseball bat as well.
Posted By: Doug

Re: Gamestudio warez users on other forums - 08/02/06 18:46

I'm not going to tell you how to run your site, but I normally do the following:

Ban the user.
Get all the user's info (posts, IPs, PMs, etc.).
Send the user an email telling them why they have been banned (be professional about it).
Post on their threads a message explaining why it is stupid to use warez (its buggy, normally a Trojan Horse program, can get you into legal troubles, etc.).
Lock down their threads.

If you have time, follow up on the user's info you saved. See if he's done this before. Read his PMs (surprising what people will say in PMs). See if he has other contacts on your forum. Etc. You can waste a lot of time doing this, so save this for "special cases" or times when you want to test your tracking skills.

Don't worry too much about "hacker payback". Most of these warez users are not very smart (they wouldn't have been caught if they had half a brain ). So as long as your website isn't wide open to script-kiddie attacks they are not going to "fry your hard drive" or something silly like that.

Also, make sure that YOU don't do anything illegal. Reading their PMs is legal, using the information in it to hack their email account is illegal. Telling them that they are breaking the law is legal, but calling their mom can be considered harassment in some states (but it sure is fun ).
© 2024 lite-C Forums