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Feb 20, 2003, 6:20am

An illegal universe is one thing, but when they begin to profit from it, it
makes me sick.

http://www.emotionfm.nl.tt/ is currently making money by selling worlds and
citizen ships.
The software IS up for download, under "Emotion 3D"

Feb 20, 2003, 8:18am

Is it not exactly "making profit", but a "rip-off". :-)





[View Quote]

Feb 20, 2003, 12:48pm

[View Quote] Not only that but the uniserver is not running either :)
I hope AW already shut it down though it is running on chello.nl which is known to be the heaven for ripoff guys :(
mania.sytes.net [212.187.116.145]
21 47 ms 63 ms 46 ms c116129.upc-c.chello.nl [212.187.116.129]
22 219 ms 141 ms 125 ms c116145.upc-c.chello.nl [212.187.116.145]


--
Andras
"It's MY computer" (tm Steve Gibson)

Feb 20, 2003, 1:49pm

Not yet - I just supplied aw with some information though, since I
really hate such obvious rip-off attempts (payment only by PayPal, no
refunds, no address, etc.).
The installation program is, btw, a non-distributeable trial edition and
the program itself (aw 3.1) was just hacked enough to change the
copyright information and icon. The message file, though, seems to point
to an email address of a service that is not related to this whole
issue.

The connection appears to be a private dsl connection, the download page
is located on the same IP and working, only the uniserver is not running
(school is not out yet?) - and the other server with the webpages is
hosted in Germany. The guys name is Michael Peters, according to website
and program (if that says anything to anybody, I never came across him).






[View Quote]

Feb 20, 2003, 2:02pm

> The installation program is, btw, a non-distributeable trial edition and
> the program itself (aw 3.1) was just hacked enough to change the
> copyright information and icon. The message file, though, seems to point
> to an email address of a service that is not related to this whole
> issue.

Or, they used VC++ or some other visual GUI editor to make a 99% identicle GUI
system. It's not that hard to do. As for coding the network part of it, that's a
little more difficult.

> The connection appears to be a private dsl connection, the download page
> is located on the same IP and working, only the uniserver is not running
> (school is not out yet?) - and the other server with the webpages is
> hosted in Germany. The guys name is Michael Peters, according to website
> and program (if that says anything to anybody, I never came across him).

It's their choice to host a universe on the DSL connection. Just because he can't
afford a commercial line means he's obviously hacking the AW browser and servers?

--Bowen--

Feb 20, 2003, 2:06pm

You want to have first a close look at the program exe file (and the
rest of the distribution) and then post. :-)




[View Quote]

Feb 20, 2003, 2:41pm

[View Quote] So, because the filesizes are similar and the distribution install is similiar, that
to references a hacking? Remember, most companies use a standard platform for
distribution. A 1-2 mb file is not unheard, and to be really sure that it's a
hack... one would have to look at the DLLs and such and see how they interact with
the file and compare it to AW.

--Bowen--

Feb 20, 2003, 5:46pm

I talked about a "close look", which proofs within 2 minutes already
that a copy is a copy (especially in this case, where the genius cracker
obviously lacked the knowledge what and where to crack in the first
place <bg>) - but nevermind, be assured that I knew what I was talking
about. :-)

However, for your information, just two small excerpts from compiled-in
dialogues of the program (here reduced to the text information only), of
course, there are many more and sophisticated proofs, these are just two
most obvious:

"Unable to contact Active Worlds. Please try again later. If this
problem persists, contact support at activeworlds.com for assistance."
<<<

or...

"Active Worlds Immigration and Registration"
<<<

Sounds familiar? :-)


But, of course:

"LegalCopyright", "Copyright © 2002-2003 Da-Genius Studios"
<<<

There is no further comment needed. :-)







[View Quote]

Feb 20, 2003, 7:20pm

[View Quote] Or it's a legal universe.

--Bowen--

Feb 20, 2003, 7:59pm

Illegal universes are well, illegal!

[View Quote]

Feb 20, 2003, 8:31pm

they dont change the icon on the browser in legal versions. the AW icon
always stays

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Feb 20, 2003, 8:32pm

[View Quote] No, I do believe Fandom had it's own icon. We are talking about the icon and not the
action animation right?

--Bowen--

Feb 21, 2003, 3:15am

Fandom had a F surrounded by a loop or what have you. Ahh Fandom....

*gets all mysty eyed*


LF

Feb 21, 2003, 8:25am

Erm: Was this the shortcut:

Shortcuts CAN have different icons to the atual Icon of what they are linked
to, for example: Outer Worlds.

but AW never usually lets the AW bit in the main bit be taken off.. could
only be taken off with a reshacker (the same with the icon of the exe).

[View Quote]

Feb 21, 2003, 10:53am

[View Quote] Nope. Please take how dumb you think we are and quarter it, then quarter it again.
That little image in the top right corner, the one with AW wasn't the same. Fandom
was legal. Did anyone ever stop to go, "Hey, how do I know this isn't legal?"

By god John, most people who have any computer experience whatsoever know you can
change the icon of shortcuts.

--Bowen--

Feb 21, 2003, 4:24pm

Ya, some dont... OK?

Anyway: The clients shouldnt ATUALLY be edited.

[View Quote]

Feb 21, 2003, 9:24pm

Why not ?

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Feb 22, 2003, 1:06am

> Illegal universes are well, illegal!

Wow! Did you figure that out all by yourself?

-J

-- (Just the daily bit of sarcasm)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Jeremy Booker - Owner
JTech Web Systems
www.JTechWebSystems.com
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for
tomorrow will worry about itself. Each day
has enough trouble of its own." -Mathew 5:34
[View Quote]

Feb 22, 2003, 4:21pm

Because they have to be edited with a resource hacker for that... I was
under the impression it wasn't entirely legal.

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Feb 23, 2003, 12:14am

Well, if you purchase your own universe, for that kinda money, (round $10,000 a year) I'd think you should be able to have your own
lousy icon on the browser.... but that's just me.....
JB

[View Quote]

Feb 23, 2003, 12:19am

[View Quote] Which you can. From what I remember.

--Bowen--

Feb 23, 2003, 12:36am

Actually universes are a one time fee but you gotta pay half the price of
your universe to upgrade your universe version.

[View Quote]

Apr 21, 2003, 4:31pm

I thought resource hackers just edited the stuff stored in your RAM? As for
that being legal, I think it just depends on WHY you're editing it...

"john" <john at 3d-reality.com> wrote this
(news:3e57bf9d at server1.Activeworlds.com) in general.discussion on 22 Feb
2003:

> Because they have to be edited with a resource hacker for that... I was
> under the impression it wasn't entirely legal.

Apr 21, 2003, 4:35pm

Perhaps AWI edits the browser before they sell the universe, if someone
requests a different corner animation? I mean, it would be a bit silly
for the company to refuse to change something like that (especially
considering the price of universes) if the buyer said "I won't buy a
uniserver unless you change that icon!"

"bowen" <thisguyrules at 7k2.4mg.com.ANTISPAM> wrote this
(news:3e582fa1 at server1.Activeworlds.com) in general.discussion on 23 Feb
2003:

>
[View Quote]

Apr 21, 2003, 4:55pm

ross your very very slow
[View Quote]

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