I was talking with Miko about a file he saw on www.flashden.net that was a US asset being re sold there, and then noticed 60% of the files being sold by that guy where mine, some modified to look different some exactly the same file with different colors, example.

original - http://www.ultrashock.com/#/asset/40...k-browser.html
same file modified - http://www.flashden.net/item/images-book/12147

take a look at most of his files

http://www.flashden.net/user/MrBleide/portfolio

and then take a look at mine

http://www.ultrashock.com/#/contributor/58/anik/

Iam sure youll find lots of the same files in both sides...

Amazing...

www.rum-i.com

[Isocase]

Thats a shame and sorry to see that your stuff is being resold. Have you contacted Flashden about this, and if I remember correctly hasn't Flashden been having some issues with people stealing code and reselling? I think I read something about that in this forum awhile ago, but I could be wrong.

[miko]

I sent them an email as well. That user took other files from Ultrashock including Shane's butterflies. Seems like most of his work was stolen from our authors.

[enkriptid]

man that is lame-sauce, there seems to be a scum-bag in every trade .. no matter how much education it requires ..

[Nutrox]

Looks like the guy's account has been shutdown, all of his pages seem to be 404. Is it not possible to take these thieving gits to court?

It is good to know that FlashDen take this seriously though. I remember the last time this happened, that wasn't too long ago.

[Hansen]

FlashDen shouldn't allow this to happen at all. Sure, that would be almost impossible but I get the feeling a majority of their content is stolen from others.

Anik, you should contact FlashDen to see how many copies that content sold since that really is your money. I would also demand to get the contact details of that user...

[jaybirch]

They only take it seriously AFTER the event. They willingly accept files from ANY source and don't take any steps to combat this type of stealing. I have contributors to my site, and make it my personal duty to keep an eye on all competitors so that I can spot copyright infringment, I also ask for source files where necesary.

I'm sure actionscript is more difficult to monitor, but maybe a contributor should complete a test before submitting. There are ways and means to set up a business like this legally and FlashDen disregard them all, in the knowledge that a lengthy court battle is never going to happen due to location and the small money involved.

I actually have to spend a few hours a week looking through their garbage, just to make sure they are not selling my work. I just hope threads like this make people reaslise that they may be buying stolen goods if they go to these people.

It's testement to the business they are running that as soon as I saw the title of this thread, i knew it would be Flashden
--------------------------------------------
It is good to know that FlashDen take this seriously though. I remember the last time this happened, that wasn't too long ago.

[Nutrox]

I'm not sure it is that easy to police though, how do we know that every creative asset available here at Ultrashock has been created from scratch by the people who submitted them, and don't contain any code/images that are in breach of licensing terms and conditions? There is no real way of knowing unless someone reports an asset as being stolen or dodgy.

I agree though that FlashDen is becoming as bad as Template Monster in terms of stolen/ripped assets. It is a shame there are so many dishonest people around.

[nrg]

Quote: Originally Posted by Nutrox

I'm not sure it is that easy to police though, how do we know that every creative asset available here at Ultrashock has been created from scratch by the people who submitted them, and don't contain any code/images that are in breach of licensing terms and conditions? There is no real way of knowing unless someone reports an asset as being stolen or dodgy.

It's indeed not simple, and the same happened already the other way around where we were offered assets which contained copyrighted material from Flashden. The only legal policing way we have is that the contributor is the one who's responsible at the end, he signed a digital contract where he states that all the uploaded assets are free from any copyrights and if we find a breach, his contract will/can be terminated. This still doesn't stop certain individuals though so it will be an ever ongoing battle... Terminating a contributor account will also not fix the possible harms he/she did in the mean time.

[Anik]

So, i contacted flashden, and as you can see the account has been disabled and they are investigating the case.
Now, about flashden allowing stolen assets i dont think thats what happens, we've all agree that is very difficult to know if an assets contains copyrighted material or not, and since flashden has lots of users then its not that surprising most of the copyright problems happen there.

They have replied very fast to me, and they took the user down.

What does surprise me is the user that really believes that he can do that without getting spotted, lol, he even said thanks to people that told him how good the flas where, so lame.

[miko]

Anik,

You should be paid 100% for all of your files that were sold on flashden. There were other files that sold which were taken from other authors here as well.

[Isocase]

I agree with Miko. Anik you should be paid 100% for your assets since you took the time and energy to create them and someone just used your work for themselves. Keep us updated with what happens.

[nonak]

Quote: Originally Posted by jaybirch

They only take it seriously AFTER the event. They willingly accept files from ANY source and don't take any steps to combat this type of stealing.

Ummm... No. They don't accept content from ANY source.. More than half of all submitted files are rejected for quality or copyright reasons. So believe u me, it's taken pretty seriously before the event aswell.

Quote: Originally Posted by jaybirch

There are ways and means to set up a business like this legally and FlashDen disregard them all, in the knowledge that a lengthy court battle is never going to happen due to location and the small money involved.

Another ludicrous fallacy, man. To say that they disregard them ALL is just a total generalization based on opinion rather than fact, which I would think is based upon your hardened resolve to despise the place. Don't be haters people

The new measures introduced there, including mandatory file and code documentation, are ones which will hopefully dissuade more would-be wrongdoers

Ideally, my personal opinion is that all stock sites should eventually require a mandatory valid ID submission, i.e driver's license or other photo ID scan, Just like iStock expects from its contributors I think. I understand there may be privacy concerns there, but let's face it, this is the internet, and I think that would be the only gung-ho way for the lawyers to be able to track down these callous bastards, and significantly prevent them from just creating more dummy accounts. Heck that would put a good damper on the illicit stock flash file trade methinks.

Quote: Originally Posted by jaybirch

I actually have to spend a few hours a week looking through their garbage, just to make sure they are not selling my work. I just hope threads like this make people reaslise that they may be buying stolen goods if they go to these people.

Dude people may be buying stolen goods from anywhere in this day and age, gimme a break. You can't liken the whole of FD to crooks. If some suppliers manage to add stolen apples into the baskets there, you don't lambaste the whole company. Them bad apples are removed, faster then you would like believe, and the suppliers are cut out, before or after approval. Just because you yourself have lost total faith in the site doesn't mean what you believe is in fact what's real, behind the scenes there. I know they are good people, I know they're not scheming to sell stolen goods, and I know they don't adopt a laissez-faire attitude towards the issue.

Otherwise I wouldn't be working there. For the record then, I review audio and moderate the forums there now.

But the most important thing right here is Rumi's files aren't compromised anymore.

Peaceful coexistence please? Thank you!

Be good y'all, peace.

[Anik]

yea, by no means i posted this to create some kind of fight against flashden, not at all, theve replied to the problem in a very good way, and i dont believe that they let stolen files go by just to make money, its very hard to know if files where created by the user that is submitting them, so please as leave any anger against flashden out of this or i would have to close the thread since i dont want it to be related with that, even tho i believe everyone is entitled to its own opinion.

And if you are wondering why i created the thread in the first place, it was because i wanted people to know about the user that was reselling my assets not to rant about flashden.

[miko]

nonak,

The people posting in this thread who had their work stolen and sold on flashden deserve to speak about it and sure they are upset about it happening. I am sure if it was your work you would feel the same way. Jay had a very negative experience with them previously with members selling stolen files from his site as well. Not only were they stolen, but they were being sold for much less than on the other sites they were taken from. I have seen threads over at the gotoandlearn.com forums where contributors at flashden take tutorials that Lee puts together and they sell the files on flashden, not to mention the FWA rip that was being sold. That should have been an obvious one to the founders since the FWA is so well known yet it still went online and was being sold. These are the facts, nothing more. It does not imply that the other members sell stolen files.

Anik, let us know if you get reimbursed for the files that were sold.

[nonak]

Yup,

I can totally understand the sentiment of seeing one's work ripped off. It has happened to me in the past once, and it was settled with a violation notice. I was compensated for my losses too. This was a number of years ago, over a musical copyright issue. So I can relate.

Despite the sentiment, I still believe in keeping a cool head myself, and giving the benefit of the doubt as to the benevolence and accountability of the owners, realizing the gravity, and evolving procedures in accordance. I know most people here are fair spirited and even tempered too.

In terms of the facts, yes it's a non-issue. Those things did happen, obviously wrong decisions were made in retrospect, and lessons were learned. I chalk it up to the mistakes of a young site going though growing pains. The site hasnt reached its 2nd year yet...

If you walk into a store to get an LCD tv and the salesman says... get a plasma, lcd sucks because it has ghosting during fast scenes. That is a fact... one which was once truer, 4 years ago, but doesn't apply so much in terms of the present performance of the system, because over time the ghosting issue has been pretty much dealt with.

That's what this is about I think, bringing up mistakes from the past, grave as they might be. Yes the facts happened but the what is also a fact is that more good has come of the ensuing consequences. Far fewer breaches happen than a lot of people are thinking, only because the big ones get hugely publicized in arguably justified venting rants.

Hey, when I was young, I couldn't always tie my shoes down well, so I would end up falling more often. Growing up, I soon learned to tie double-knots, and well, I don't be fallin down as much.

But sometimes people will still put sticks in my feet when I'm looking the other way for cars in the road. It's very hard looking everywhere at once in these streets, ya know?

Man, I still say Card everybody!

Cheers.

[jaybirch]

You can give as many analogies about stealing as you want... the fact remains that our work was and still is comprimised. Taking the products down is not an end to the matter, I can no longer resell the 3 products in question to bigger players in the industry on the basis that they are exclusive to my company (something I do with many files) so, in effect, the Flash Den incident cost me $$$$s.

This was something the owners held no responsibilty for, I repeatedly asked for payment for a reseller license so they could legally sell those products, this was the only way the files would not be fully comprimised. They refused, and to add insult to injury... offered $6 compensation for 3 sales on products I charge $100 for.... they should have at least offered $300.

I can understand that it is a difficult issue, but you cannot tell me I am just being bitter.... I dealt several times with the owner regarding how my files were comprimised.... to no avail.

If it were my business, I would have paid out the money for reseller licenses... not out of necesity, but out of business ethics. That is what I expect of other companies too.

[Nutrox]

I think one of the problems here is that the individuals who upload/sell products without any legal right to do so tend to get away with it most of the time. Yes their accounts are closed, and threads like this pop up now and again, but the fact remains they get away with it. If more of these people had legal action taken against them (regardless of any money lost by the prosecuting company), and these cases were made as public as possible, then a lot more people would think twice about ripping other people off.

Slightly off topic but still relevant to this, knife crime in the UK is absolutely ridiculous at the moment, and most of the people carrying knives and committing murder are teenagers. The problem is that nine times out of ten they get away with it, they get wrapped up in legal cotton wool, they get a slap on the wrist, and then they are released back into the public. This problem is increasing because these stupid kids know that they can get away with it, nothing is making them think twice about taking a knife out onto the streets.

As far as the illegal selling of Flash assets and website templates etc goes, the companies hosting those assets and templates need to take more responsibility, grow some balls, and start dragging people through the courts. The problem is only going to continue to get worse until that starts happening.

Bottom line is, if people think they can get away with something then they will continue doing it, and others will follow in their footsteps once word spreads.

A nice hot cup of common sense anyone?

[Anik]

Well, the whole issue has been solved, user is banned, files are down and ill get the earnings for the files that were sold.

[Isocase]

Good stuff Anik you deserve the earnings.

[miko]

Thanks for letting us know Anik.