yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] mchapman007:
Wait, your telling me that I can pay some punk money for all the great work created by xda? I'm on my way eBay....

How do people live with themselves taking advantage of other peoples hard work? I for one will always support xda-developers...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
Do I really need to answer that questions ?

I would think he is a certified TT reseller...

oh, wait! I meant a d*ckless prick who is only getting the money to buy himself a one way ticket to hell... there, that's your answer :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] b.mann:
I'm down for reporting/creating auctions so this guy gets what he deserves. Let me know how I can help.

EDIT: Found his photobucket acct :eek:

banhim56

^ ^ how ironic
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] redmercury:
How about this guy on ebay?

http://cgi.ebay.com/UNLOCKED-PIMPED...ryZ64355QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Musicman247:
See, this is okay because he's selling an actual phone. The phone itself is worth at least $500, so including customizations and accessories will bump up the price. He's only selling one copy of these free apps, and they are already installed.

His other auctions will probably not be bid on since the winner has to send him the phone to get the customizations. And again, this is a service. He's not charging for the apps, he's charging for the labor.

The other guy, 4goodeal, is just selling CDs with free apps on them, so he's making money off of nothing.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] douginoz:
FYI,

I've sent an email to Engadget to raise awareness of this thread and the issues within it. Hopefully they'll see the newsworthyness of this and post something.

The more people that read about this, the louder the plaintiff cry of the developers scorned by these actions, the cacophantic gnashing of teeth from the masses smitten by the potential loss of fun-ness and usefulness and showoff-ness and coolness and penileextensioness (let's not forget that), then the greater the chance that those with power will take note and pity and do something.

I urge others to write letters (well, emails) to other websites (Slashdot, PPC sites, gadget sites, blog sites, etc.) pointing out this thread and letting them know that there's trouble a'brewin.

Cold dead hands, men. Cold, dead, hands.

Doug
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Gustopher:
Word of Caution?

Not for one second would I defend or condone the actions of this moron - he is beneath contempt.

However, some of the ideas in some some of the software are not, shall we say, entirely original. Some of the good souls in this community have invested large amounts of their own time and expertise in developing this software for the personal (essentially free) use of others in this community but some of it is very closely based on software on other devices. Indeed, that's the point of much of it and that's why I spend much of my day checking the boards waiting for the next gem with which to blow away my luddite mates.

Do Apple have IPR on the iPhone design and icons? Do HTC(?) have IPR on the cube? Might be worth considering before bringing this issue to the attention of too wide an audience, just in case...?

Personally, I believe that the activity should be kept within eBay - perhaps some of those who raised the flag early on with eBay should start following up, asking what they propose to do about the violation and why the items are still being offered for sale? Courtesy dictates we are entitled to an answer to that question, surely? Others could continue to add their voices to the clamour.

I sympathise with those suggesting a 'strike' but it's only going to hurt this community. If someone's daft enough to buy this software on eBay, they are unlikely to be bright enough to find their way here...and if they do, they stop supporting eBay Charlie. Works either way?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] moritz.narnhammer:
I agree, let´s keep this lowlevel.

Reporting him to EBay is entirely enough.

We don´t need media attn.

Let´s not wake sleeping dogs.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] klmsu19:
I 1000% agree people. Realize if the press publishes this and oh say apple, htc, microsoft, etc sniff this out there can be ALL kinds of cease and desist orders placed by their attorneys for the removal of plenty of software here. thatd mean goodbye ROMs, goodbye customizations, goodbye iphone look-alike anything, bye htc cube look-alike. anything that is a look-alike of anything a major corporation uses, they will scream stealing of IP (intellectual property) and copyright infringement.

Just keep emailing ebay about it but i agree keep in on the low. Theres a lot to lose here for us too, more than this guy losing his ebay account

I also agree. I think a boycott on developing wont fix anything. Like above, if the people are buying on ebay theyre too dumb to find their way here for free. This guy will eventually be caught shortly, before he steals more material- its only a matter of time.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] klmsu19:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120227581642

just reported that for an IP violaton. EBAY said theyre going to contact TomTom! lol This guy is screwed. SElling tomtom maps on a mini sd card, what a moron. AND our hands arent dirty here since we dont deal with that stuff. Got the best of both worlds on this one!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ryncppr:
I actually just sent an email to TomTom itself in case eBay gets a little busy:p:p:p:p
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] stevierg:
I don't think engadget would post an article about this.

This goes on all the time. Ebay is famous for scams. Selling the work of the people of xda-dev is not just screwing over the people here, but the people buying the software as most is free from here anyway.

I think the only thing you can do is report them to ebay to remove them.

If anybody is using ebay they should be aware of such scams or able to look out for them.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] TorxT3D:
no telling how long this all has been going on, not only with this 4gooddeal guy, but with many others weve overlooked..
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Inclement_Death:
This is just going to continue. The only way to completely stop this from happening is to make xda-developers private. That way if it did happen we would know where to look.

Sitting here arguing about this is just wasting our time. Yes, its messed up and I hope everyone that tries to sell our stuff dies a horribly painful death, but that doesn't change anything. There will always be an a-hole with a [not so]brilliant idea to sell our creations for free.

I'm not trying to say we should make it private. All I'm trying to say is, this is a public website, we are on the internet, everyone with an internet connection has the potential to steal our stuff. From what I gather, there is not much we can do about it unless we have a license agreement included in everything released.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
We can only keep on fighting what we can catch. But in doing so, we are getting closer to achieving a solution. Who knows? Maybe enough complaints will force eBay to change the way they operate and they will not let anyone sell software anymore (not that this will happen anytime soon, but one can only hope... )

As far as raising flags to media outlets, I have already mentioned (more than once) the consequences of contacting the likes of M$. Like I said, M$'s last visit to these forums was not pleasant. I do agree that we need more people, which is why I suggested contacting other developer forums (ppcgeeks, MoDaCo, etc). A lot of these applications have cross-forum support since a lot of developers in pda-type forums work together.

Does anyone know if eFrost got the message about this issue? I know someone contacted him, but haven't heard anything about it.

Just keep the e-mails/complaints rolling into ebay. That is all we can (and should) do right now..

To the guy who contacted TomTom, that was a stroke of genius! Way to go on that one.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Jay2TheRescue:
Well, the downloads can be made private (they might be already). Many forums require users to be logged in to download anything. One of the forums I'm a member of has a whole section that only shows for registered users. Guests cannot view any threads in that section.

-Jay
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] motisu:
Sorry to be a spoilsport, but what makes you think that this character on ebay is not a registered member here? What do any of us know about the others here? We all come here in good faith(hopefully), but there is no way we can be sure of anybody here in cyberspace. I think that it is a good idea to allow only registered users to download, but I doubt that it will seriously stop anyone who want to steal stuff from doing it.

Just my 2 cents.

Moti, (a PROUD, REGISTERED member of XDA-developers)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Musicman247:
efrost was contacted and replied with thanks for the info.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] illusion8088:
Well said, Moti.

For all you know, the creep is probably one of us. Who knows, maybe he is even contributing to this thread.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Jay2TheRescue:
This is someone who at least lurks here often, whether or not they actually post is another thing. I'm suprised the auctions are still running. You'd think he'd at least lay low for a bit.

-Jay
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Slither2006:
It would be interesting if the XDA mods were able to monitor how many connections from poland were coming in then try and lure the ebayer into some kind of trap to reveal his IP....i'm sure there's a hacker here amoung one of us that could perform a format c: on the asshole...lolol....or better yet leave a nice trojan gift...lol.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
Hackers among us?!?!? :O OMG

Seriously, I don't think it could be such a hard thing to do. I believe there should be a million and one ways to determine someone's location through their IP. To do something like this (and for it to work) we would also need to know the IP address that eBay has. From what I have seen over the 3 years I've been a member of these forums, is that there are a bunch of people from Poland roaming around this place. It is not a bad idea, but having to count on eBay for such a feat... somehow I doubt anything will come out of it at all. Slither, check your PMs I will send you an idea in a few minutes. Moti brought up a good point and if he is in fact "one of us" I do not want him to see it, but let me know what you think.

BTW, Moti... right as always buddy!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] littld:
Can I suggest someone packages up the software exactly as he has done, make it available online with very simple instructions and offer it on eBay BuyItNow for a tiny amount.

This satisfies the need for the service he's providing, namely making this accessible to non-xda dev members, and stops him from profiting from it.

I enjoy trawling the forums and participating in development and testing. Most of his customers probably wouldn't have any interest in what we do here - they just want something they can install quickly and that works.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Inclement_Death:
I like it, good guys win, bad guys lose, everyone that matters is happy.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] deviant.one:
I agree with that actually, just put the auction up for .50 or whatever it takes to cover the listing charges and maybe that will keep him from profiting.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] raidzx:
good idea

I think thats a great idea. The only problems that come to mind would be the fact that somone would have to set up the listings and monior them which is time consuming.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] bobo_error:
Anyone got his email?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] ROCOAFZ:
Do them as .01 cents for a list of downloads and instructions on installation. Also referernce it has all the free apps from that link ;)
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
That's a nice idea, but you will have a major drawback. Auction listings are paid, you are going to end up spending a lot of money. Maybe if it is done the way deviant.one suggested (charging enough money to cover the cost of the auction), that might be a possibility. But you cannot charge .01 since that would not cover it. Again, if eBay would cooperate with us.... wishful thinking *sights*
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] bobo_error:
How much does a listing cost?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
Well, I haven't sold anything in a while, but I do know (unless they have changed the rules) it is a flat fee + a percentage of the auction price. If you use "Buy Now", they also charge you extra. You virtually have fees for everything, so as to give you an idea. I believe that the last time I sold an item (I think it was a HP Ipaq 6515), I sold it for like $250 and they charged me almost $10 for the auction. The only special thing that I had was the "Buy Now" feature. So, it does not come cheap.

Edit: I just contacted 5 more Buyers fro this guy. Please get in touch with the buyers so that they can complain to Paypal about what he is doing. This way not only will we bring this guy down, but also we will help people get their moeny back (two birds with one stone). Here is the script that I used:

"Sorry to bother you, but the item that you just purchased was free software developed at www.xda-developers.com. The seller 4gooddeal has taken free beta software and is selling it without the authors' consent. You can file a complaint against him with eBay and Paypal (so that you can get your money back). Please feel free to visit the site that I mentioned to see that what I am telling you is the truth. Thanks."

Edit2: The guy is from California. He is not Polish!

Feel free to use it and edit it as you see fit.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
This is what I was afraid of. There is someone else doing this as well. Have a look:

http://cgi.ebay.com/HTC-TYTN-II-2-V...ageNameZWD2VQQcmdZViewItem?_trksid=p1638.m122

I have already reported this guy's item. He has only one auction:

300203320824

Here is the link to do the reporting:

http://contact.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAP...%A0Beta+Software&instruction=&expirationDate=
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
And yet, another one...

http://cgi.ebay.com/IPHONE-THEME-FT...ryZ38331QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Auction Numbers:

170200193267, 170200201668

I realize that the second if for iPhone interface, but so far I was able to find S2U2, PCM Keyboard and Contacts. In fact, if you look close enough in his Youtube video, towards the end when he is showing S2U2, he zooms in and you can see A_C 's signature at the bottom of the screen.
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] elgreek84:
so someone copyhis listing and sell it for 5 cents!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Gustopher:
Time to Step Up Pressure on eBay

What's going on here is all highly commendable and exactly what a community like this should do in time of need - pull together for the greater good.

However, it's all a bit unilateral; I still think eBay need to be politely pestered for a response to what...a dozen or more...reports of illegal sale(s). They claim to be ethically focused, so it's money where mouth is time eBay.

I would suggest that all those who have reported these auctions to date should be following up four hourly (oh, OK, you can have a sleep now and again) with eBay until they get a formal response. I'm still awaiting a response to my complaint and that's disappointing, even if it is a weekend.

Concerted effort surely has to be the key?
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] bronx:
is it some sort of madness??

I don't get it... what's the difference if the guy is from Poland or let's say from USA or Italy? sellin this stuff is a real no no, but c'mon...

to that guy who said that he have seen some Poles "roaming around" in here:

well... I've seen some American, Spanish, German, Italian, Scottish, English, Indian, etc. guys in here. are You biased in any way? what makes You think, that this forum is made exclusively for Americans??? huh?

and to that German guy who said it doesn't matter where this scum is from: thanks. didn't expect a German to stand on Poles side. it's so good that there is still some common sense among us.

and Yes. I do have Polish roots. I am not a thief. I believe that not all Nigerians are scammers.

think people. think.

no regards this time

bro

P.S. monitor my ass if You don't mind...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
learn hows to read and then complain. First of all, the only reason why the nationality thing came up is in trying to narrow down the possible culprit, to see if this guy is actually from here. It has nothing to do with him being Polish, American, Italian, or whatever... so, relax, no one is doing anything out of racism in here.

The only reason why we are monitoring this guy is to see if eBay will take action. Nothing else. I don't give a flying f$ck if you think that it is an exageration trying to find out who this guy is. If you think that trying to pursue a guy who is stealing your **** is wrong, then pleasde stop following this thread right now becaused we will keep doing until this guy stops that
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
Well guys, I just got a few replies back from people purchasing the stuff as well as from Mr. 4goodeal himself. Without further ado, here goes:

From allstar85

"Dear egzthunder1,

thanks for the info, im just curious, who are you? you work for xdadevelopers?"

From missybw31

"Dear egzthunder1,

will do. I didnt know that. I bought it and did not work with my device and could not get it running and did not like it so I was relisting to recoop my money. I guess I will eat the costs of this."

And here is the one we've all been waiting for:

Ladies and Gentlemen, someone who needs no introduction... Mr. 4goodeal!!

"Dear egzthunder1,

What are you talking about? I sell my own product and I don't distribute any software. They are free and I show people where to get it free. One polite guy among your tell me that I shoud point people to wherever.net Why can you use free stuff and other people cannot? You talk like a kid."

That being said, his latest auctions show in the item's description that he is in fact selling information only. However, if you start looking into some of his older auctions, you will find out that he was in fact selling cd's with the actual tools and installation instructions. See this one:

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120219350280

and this one

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120226135442

Obviously, he saw all the complains and modified his new auctions to include this fix where he now only sells information. The good news is that he is no longer selling software, but information like most ebayers these days. All in all, I guess we are winning :D

I just sent him my reply to his e-mail:

"Really? Well, how about the following auctions?

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120226135442

http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=120219350280

Come on! I wasn't born yesterday. I helped develop these applications. Besides, the pictures that you have are all stock photos taken straight out of our forums.

People can use free stuff, all the more reason for you not to be selling it (specially without permision from the developers themselves)"
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] egzthunder1:
Latest Updates!!!!!!!!

Breaking News!!!

He actually gave up. Take a look at this:

"Powerful iPhone Theme

This auction is for an instructional CD (with step by step instructions and pictures to guide you along the way) that was created and written BY ME. I don't sell the software, I just give the information of where to get FREE tools and help show how to create a Powered Pack iPhone Theme for Windows Mobile 5, Windows Mobile 6 Pocket PC

TURN your Pocket PC Phone Into An Iphone.

Your phone will have the features of an iPhone:

· Slide to Unlock,

· Scrolling Contact Manager

· 20 buttons can be assigned to any available applications on your device

· Keyboard with larger buttons that are convenient when using your thumb

· iPhone skin Dial pad

· GoogleMaps

· Weather Panel with 10 Day forecasts details, support for international cities, weather alerts for the chosen city…

· Web Video and Wikipedia Search"

...and this

"Powerful iPhone Theme (not iPhone skin) and TouchFlo Clone with 4 sided Cube

This auction is for a CD with step by step instructions (with pictures) and information of where to get free tools to create a Powered Pack Iphone Theme and TouchFlo Clone with 4 sided cube for Cingular HTC 8125."

and lastly, this one

"You will receive a CD with Step by Step instructions and information of where to get free ROM Windows Mobile 6.1 Professional with Lots of Extras, and Tools for SIM Unlock &Upgrade the OS of the phone."

I guess M$ and TomTom might still slap his wrist (or a suit) for actually being able to sell a few of their items since some of you actually went ahead and contacted them (shame on you guys ;) )

All in all, Slither, you may proceed with your 0.052 Cube :D
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Gustopher:
Sorry to sound like a stuck record but I find eBay's tacit complicity in this fiasco disturbing. Perhaps they have brought pressure to bear directly on our charming friend, but at the very least I would have expected something along the lines of 'eBay do not condone this sort of thing and are investigating'.

Did anyone get anything like that? Then again, I suppose this is a small part of a very large problem...
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] sergiopi:
This story recall the same old story: a Roman emperor, VESPASIANO, is well known here in Rome because he invented a tax on... public toilets use and that's why public toilets here are called VESPASIANI.

His son was complaining him "Father, we are making money on... ****!" and his answer was "Pecuniae non Olet" (money doesn't smell, in Latin)

The same old story from ebay now !
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] douginoz:
Try to see Ebay's problem. They have countless million auctions running and probably thousands of those, if not tens of thousands, are suspect at any one time. Only a fraction of those are able to be looked at in any depth; complaints such as ours cannot get much of their bandwidth simply because it's uneconomical to try - and the payoff isn't there.

They must prioritise their investigations into things that hurt their reputation the most, are clearly breaking actual laws, or clearly violating their T&Cs sufficiently to warrant action.

At any rate, we've proven that as a community we can effect change. Well done, fellow geeks, hobbiests, and dateless men!
[Windows Mobile Development and Hacking General] Slither2006:
Hey Guys,

Good work. I prefer the ebay seller to be honest about what he is selling rather than what was doing before. The fact he doesn't supply any version of SCLPC++ is good enough for me. Back to work on 0-052 tomorrow. I'm working on making slidable info items on the Central Face.

Cheers Everyone! :)

Regards,

Slither2006.

P.S. - I honestly didn't mean to sound racists in anyway in my previous post. I think my words were taken out of context. My appologies to any polish users that were offended. With that said I hope there are no hard feelings.