Okay, I'd said I was going to avoid this with a ten foot pole, but here we go...
If the admins would like an example of 'selective enforcement of IP rules or otherwise illegal sales, I'd provide the following for your opinions on why they still stand as business as usual.
HKS 're grinds'. Blatant rip-off's of HKS's hard work. There are hundreds of sets out there, someone just tossed an HKS original specs into a CNC Lathe and they're now punched out more than originals are purchased. Exact duplicates down to the degree. Ones cut from blanks, ones re-ground from old cams which were spatter welded, and ones cut to a small base circle (which are still illegal if your copying HKS's specs). This board not only allows discussion and sales of these, but allows group buys. IP rip-off, without repercussion it seems.
Mitsu repair manuals are traded and copied on a regular basis.
I dug around and found a copy of Windows XP OEM for sale, not available over the counter (illegal to sell by itself), illegal to remove from the PC it was bundled with, and is never for re-sale. No warnings, and it's a 10k fine folks...
Radar Detectors? If your going to stomp out illegal sales, that might be a good place to start. I see one very recently, and seem to recall a group purchase.
Previously viewed DVD's, while (to me) there's little moral implications, they're still *way* into the grey if not black to sell, and to advertise them on a board?
There have been several discussions which bring up Kazaa, which rips off more IP in a day then I'll do in a lifetime
I have no opinion on Mikes particular matter right or wrong, and ZERO desire to debate it, please don't take this as anything other than a good loud fence sitter.
But if your going to try to nail him on a basis OTHER than "DSM link is our friend, don't copy them" your going to need to reach all over this board, or call a duck a duck and say you don't like it because in your opinion DSMLink is above the board 'law'of allowing this type of sale normally so to speak. So far only individuals like Mike or Ziggy have been picked out and nailed for what's a debatable topic at best, and done in many other worse ways and times without discussion on this board at worst.
And for those of you who start trying to split hairs, as if company size dictates your morals, tell me, just how much money do you need to make before you've got 'too much and need some stolen from you'? Is there a financial line, or size of your building before IP laws cease to apply?
Do you think it's a bigger problem for HKS that hundreds and hundreds of sets of 600$ cams are being copied, to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, on boards JUST LIKE THIS, or if the nice guys down the street from a version of a product they no longer sell, potentially could lose a sale. It's the exact same thing. In fact, I'll bet it's cost several jobs at HKS with the money they've lost, and easily effect their decisions to continue producing parts for a particular car, which they know the owners to be unscrupulous and just copy as fast as they can.
We won't even get into the millions MS looses. Just how many 'nice guys who pick up the phone at 10pm' could that money have hired over at MS? I have friends who work there, and work hard, who deserve that money just as much as any one else, they're people with families too, who's jobs are at risk when someone 'copies that floppy' (for those of you old enough to remember the ad)
The mods/owners are welcome to call this anything they like, run this however they like, ban, delete topics, whatever they like, it's their board! Just don't try and justify it to the members with an "it's immoral" stamp, while a dozen other items sit outstanding as we speak.
Paul
If your going to call the Kettle black, you'd better make *damned* sure your not a pot.
Edit: Arrgh, too many topics, X-box mod chips, PS/2 Mod chips are advertised as well. To me, copying software is the exact same moral boat as copying DSMLink chips. Someone's work is getting copied in any event, but only one of them is picked apart.
