I know this may be a unique problem for my popular All in One – System Rescue Toolkit, but I am reaching out to the community for some creative ideas.
Since my toolkit has taken off and is licensed with the MIT license (free for personal/commercial use, redistribution, modification, etc) some crafty people are packaging the toolkit and selling it on sites like eBay or other self-service online stores as a sort of “snake oil” or “cure all PC problems” for the average non-technical person.
Any of you that are using this toolkit would know that it is a technician’s aid. It is clearly spelled out on my project page, but these “sellers” are misrepresenting my project and collecting money off of it. I know this because many of these folks that were swindled have reached out to me over the years.
I am not looking to legally chase these sellers down and play whack-a-mole, because per my license what they are doing is legal. Maybe someone has some interesting ideas for preventing misrepresentation without making my toolkit annoying with popups for everyone else. For now, I have a canned response for those that were unfortunately swindled to contact the sellers and leave feedback on those online stores.
Please reply back on the website if possible if you would like to comment, although email replies will reach me too. Email replies just won’t be visible to the public.
Thanks all and Happy New Year!
What about the (alleged so as to cover my own ass) embedded cryptominer in your tool? Care to talk about the legality of that?
Interesting, I checked the hash vs what is on my site and the virustotal link shows it is the same hash. There definitely isn’t any cryptominer in my utility from my build.
The method I use to script and pack the EXE is very common (AutoHotKey), so it’s likely related to that.
Pual It is sad that the crooks are out ,but man are they ever. I hope there is a way to imbed something to let buyers know they have been taken. I as an old man useing it for my own mistakes really love it and i wish i could sent some money to you. But as i am on a very slim budget due to early retirement because of cancer i just cant. Sorry. Someone will help you i just feel it and you have my thanks for your aio tool kit. Thanks Floyd
desafortunadamente otros fraudan con lic. free para personales
pero creo que su autoria debe de ser protegida de algunas maneras ….. el aviso inicial con la advertencia podría ser una buena forma de proteger la autoria legal.
muchos días buenos en este 2020.
cordial saludo
The first thing I would do is look into other licences, alternatively,
I would either make a pop-up warning or change the wallpaper to one that includes the disclaimer text in a short paragraph (and make sure that it can’t be changed).
Happy new year and keep up the good work! Your tool kit saved me on a number of occasions!
User, not a coder at all. Is it possible to build it with a requirement for a security key or some sort of user code?
I would suggest you patterned it under your legal brand and then you ask them to pay you 50% royalty of the tool that they sell. If they refuse you charged them for distribute your product without asking your permission. You need to earn some royalty for the things that they sell. Because the tool is your creation.
Hi Paul, a simple registration page saying your product is free for personal use ONLY, and re-selling is strictly prohibited. If you have paid please contact vendor for full refund.
Remember to include your donation information there too.
Best wishes
I’d suggest embedding a ‘warning’ screen / window that opens when AIO-SRT is run. That screen / window would have your message about what you’ve written above, as well as how people can directly support you if they find the programs to be of value. The screen / window should be long enough that users have to scroll to reach a button to dismiss it. Perhaps showing the messages the first time AIO-SRT is run would be enough to advise users, without aggravating others.
I’m not expert in licenses but perhaps there is another type of license (GPL, Mozilla, Apache, etc.) that gives people rights to do the good things, but reserves some rights for you, like including special disclaimer about the product, your authorship, etc.
Happy new year!
P.S. last version was published 1/2/2019, will you continue the trend? 🙂