Someone posts cracks of my software on forums, what can I do?

[adrianTNT]

Hello.

I have some small software developed (web scripts in general).
In a forum I found that a user (moderator of warez site) posted my commercial software for free download.

The user that posted is also site admin, I contacted their host and they refuse to take the content off, the host said to contact the site owner instead.

What can I do? Any ideas or practices for this situation?

Thank you.
- Adrian.

[edited by: adrianTNT at 7:34 pm (utc) on Jan. 24, 2007]

[Leosghost]

traceroute it and contact the upstream provider of the box that the hoster uses to sit the site on ..then tell them ..that will remove the site ..the hoster ..and your problem ..

[digicam]

If only it was that easy.........

[adrianTNT]

The host that appears in the the whois record of domain just tried to contact the site admin, this one might be a reseller, I contacted another host that appears higher in the traceroute. I have to wait their reply.

[Leosghost]

If only it was that easy

true but usually if one goes far enough up the line it's possible to get to a company that doesnt want to be prosecuted ( an offence in most countries ) for hosting warez ..or providing a machine to someone that is hosting warez ..most of what goes on is because the companies who actually own the boxes or the DC's dont know what is running ..given proof they will shut accounts fast ..

depending on where the server physically is you can also notify the section of their national police that deals with IT crime or the FBI etc ..and if the site owner is in a different juristiction ..notify the authorities in their area aswell ..

if the actual apps downloads are hosted on networks such as rapidshare etc ( common occurence ..fora provides link to 3rd party file storage facilty ) ..a complaint notification to the file store ftp servers admin will work ..

[adrianTNT]

The site owner (maybe server too) is in Iran.
The actual files ware uploaded on a 'Rapid Share' type site.
The site name contains 'warez forum' name in it so they make it very clear what their site contains.
Their alexa rank is around 33K so they have enough users to download the warez. I would not bother if that site had no traffic.

[Leosghost]

Tell the file share site ( which is probably not in Iran ..most of them pay for their bandwidth by selling ads space on their download waiting pages ..frequently of the dating or softpron type ..Iran isn't the sort of place that allows anonymous FTP connections to it's citizens ..nor access if they know about it to those kind of ads ..so the chances are the ftp "share" server is elsewhere ..you can trace it the same way you did the fora ) the tell the fileshare sites admin contact ( many have complaints contacts info easily found on each page ) that you are the owner of a file ..prove it.. give it's ref ..usually they'll lose it within 48 hours ..

and if they are like rapidshare they'll then watch for uploads of the same ..and maybe ban the IP of the fora so as to prevent direct linking to themselves ..

given where the fora appears to be hosted there is not much else you can do ..

[adrianTNT]

Looks like he took that thread off his warez forum after I made some noise, I contacted the rapidshare site too.

he also had a free blog hosted as wordpress site subdomain, he posted MS Office kits there, I reported it and got that closed too.

Where my files ware posted:
"The specified thread does not exist."

I just checked, RapidShare took the file off too in less than 24 hrs, serious site I might say.

I guess I am ok for now, untill he or someone uploads again :)
His forum is still filled with other illegal files.