Yesterday evening, I have browsed a great number of links and when it has been possible I had posted or mailed a text asking for removing of Internet Spirit Browser page from their pages.
Quote Post or mail sent I am a member of the team of developers K-Meleon, which as you know is free software under the GPL.
This license allows everyone to freely use and modify freely as the software in question.
The sources of K-Meleon are of course available online, and many programmers grass, see, do not hesitate to change the software as they see fit. And all this is very good.
In the case of Internet Spirit, for everything would be better if the author did not violate the terms of the license.
Indeed, the author of the modified code is not required to seek permission from the author of the official version, do no less obliged to mention the origin of the product, provide sources of codes used, and keep the product changed under the same license.
But on all these points, there is flagrant violation of GPL.
I ask you therefore to remove this product from your pages, as we have already asked several sites, and for which the responses were positive.
Have a look for example to the about page found on Hardy's page and the About page in K-Meleon browser, and compare it. It's really a shame ...
Ghost-Fox is an extremely Fast, Customizable, Lightweight Web Browser for the Win32 (Windows) Platform based on the Gecko Layout Engine (the rendering engine of Mozilla). Ghost-Fox does not require any other web browser to be installed...
Download
Last Update: Jul 25 2008
Exactly like the presentation of Internet Spirit.
Normal ...
* Project Admins : hardycreations
* Developers : 1
* Development Status : 6 - Mature
* License : Mozilla Public License 1.0 (MPL)
* Operating System : All 32-bit MS Windows (95/98/NT/2000/XP)
* Programming Language : C++
* Topic : Browsers
* User Interface : Win32 (MS Windows)
* Project UNIX name : ghostfox
* Registered : 2008-07-25 01:43
* Activity Percentile (last week) : 85.55
* View project activity statistics
* View list of RSS feeds available for this project
Tucows has answered that Internet Spirit will de removed from there sites. It will probably take about 48 hours.
A+
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.17pre) Gecko/20101211 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.6.0
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; fr-FR; rv:1.9.2.14pre) Gecko/20101219 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.7.0
Web: K-Meleon Extension Setup (French) and (English)
Web: http://jujuland.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Mail : alain [dot] aupeix [at] wanadoo [dot] fr
Yes it's the same program. When you look for GhostSetup.exe properties it gives :
V 3.0.0.0
Internet Spirit Installation
And when you launch it, it gives a splash screen which is the same reading woman and as text, Internet Spirit Browser ....
I understand why now, he has closed his previous website and has reactivated this site.
Now, I think it will not too much difficult to ask to Sourceforge to close this project, it's not hard to see that he is always violating the GPL license.
If you look at the tab Credit Info, all have been made by Maike the Spirit, nothing about K-Meleon and the real programmers. If, as I think the last GhostSetup I am downloading, it's always the same produst (3.0.1.3 perhaps), no dubt then that he wants to continue his robbery.
A+
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.17pre) Gecko/20101211 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.6.0
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; fr-FR; rv:1.9.2.14pre) Gecko/20101219 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.7.0
Web: K-Meleon Extension Setup (French) and (English)
Web: http://jujuland.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Mail : alain [dot] aupeix [at] wanadoo [dot] fr
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2008 03:25AM by JujuLand.
hardy is a parasite.. it's very hardy to kill his ripoffs, he keeps changing websites and hosts, he also has a couple of other websites with stolen games and a paint.net clone.. a while back; i emailed cnet's(download.com) editor-in-chief explaining the violation of spiritbrowser and requested its removal but the didn't respond. it also came to my attention that all the skins are ripped off al's kronos(kmlite)
Friends, as the owner of a few freeware and shareware sites, please can you elaborate as to what exactly Internet Spirit has done as I am unfamiliar with both products at the moment. Have they simply copied your browser or code or is it something else as I cannot fully understand the message sent to me (first post). If they are claiming work or copying work we will remove all their links from all our sites without question.
Thanks in advance
Marko
Quote Mark Williamson Friends, as the owner of a few freeware and shareware sites, please can you elaborate as to what exactly Internet Spirit has done as I am unfamiliar with both products at the moment. Have they simply copied your browser or code or is it something else as I cannot fully understand the message sent to me (first post). If they are claiming work or copying work we will remove all their links from all our sites without question.
Thanks in advance
Marko
It's pretty simple. This 'Internet Spirit Web Browser' is infringing our copyright and license. Distribution is illegal.
the problem is not with internet spirit browser per se.. anything submitted by michael j. hardy should not be listed or atleast taken with caution and inspected first. mr. hardy has a long history of stealing codes and violating copyrights. now he has changed the name to ghostfox or whatsit and it won't be long before he starts submitting it to software websites under the new name...
i think he already submitted ghost-fox a while back and then decided to change to internet spirit because of a similarly-named firefox extension. desgas discovered that alternative naming when zoohunter first found out about internet spirit bollocks.
i don't know weather what the devs should do.. hardy is certainly a pest, he has already cloned paint.net and selling it at regnet alongside a few other stolen games.. it seems the only way to stop this guy is a lawsuit with a substantial fine.
you're perhaps right when you said GhostFox is before, but when you look at download sites, the date displayed is about July or august 2008, about the same date as for Internet Spirit.
Can it be a new way to diffuse is robbery and keep money ??
When I'll have a moment, I'll do the same campaign as I do for Internet Spirit. I think, viewing the quick deletion they did, that they don't want to be ennoyed for a little robber. And, if he will appear after with a new name, he will have more problems when asking to promote this product.
Sure that the better way ought to be a lawsuit, but who is about to give money for. It's a dream ...
I think a continuous tracking of this guy and his products, is the only way we have for now.
A+
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.17pre) Gecko/20101211 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.6.0
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; fr-FR; rv:1.9.2.14pre) Gecko/20101219 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.7.0
Web: K-Meleon Extension Setup (French) and (English)
Web: http://jujuland.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Mail : alain [dot] aupeix [at] wanadoo [dot] fr
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2008 02:11PM by JujuLand.
Quote Mark Williamson If they are claiming work or copying work we will remove all their links from all our sites without question.
@ Marko thank You in advance!
alain who AFAIK wrote the mail to You speaks French normally and assumes that PPL know that K-Meleon is an old GPL project. K-Meleon started in 2000! On the Windows plattform K-Meleon is the oldest dedicated browser only software based on the Gecko engine (K-Meleon project started years before Firefox).
Let me explain the problem: Mr. Hardy removed K-Meleon's own GPL copyright notice from our code/work (about: page). We do not even know whether he recompiled or just resource hacked our compiled product.
Next he made up an Eula that put K-Meleon's GPL code under his propriatary license and that tries to prevent that future additions by other PPL become GPL code.
Position here: Either the code stays under GPL and he quotes our devs copyrights - or he violated K-Meleon's license. He must not use the code and none his product.
Quote guenter His Eula contradicts K-Meleon's/GPL older rights "images...source code, incorporated into the Software Product) except as noted are owned by GLOBALISSA. The intellectual property right, copyright and all other rights in the Software Product shall remain with GLOBALISSA."
about: "Copyright by Contributors to the K-Meleon project under the GNU General Public License." Alternative concepts also exist. But all boils down to K-Meleon's devs own K-Meleon's source code, icons ... under the terms of the GPL.
If You mix new code with older GPL code the new code is "infected" by the GPL.
All changes/contributions or what others add - becomes K-Meleon/GPL code
You may only mix Your code with GPL code if You submit to the condition that it becomes GPL as well...
There is an option. If we think many PPL look for the browser?
We can tell PPL Download here if You want the newest version of InternetSpirit web browser (which is a K-Meleon clone). All would have the same basic text and alter it a little; If many of us did this on home pages and here - Google and other engines would point to our downloads with these or similar words. But that would be only worth while to do if any number looked for the product
Marko - perhaps You can use the later idea text and link for InternetSpirit aka Gostfox ...
That way PPL that look for these browsers want mail & ask where it is
Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 09/27/2008 06:07PM by guenter.
OK, thanks for the clarification guenter, consider this guy removed from all our sites
Marko
(PS for your records that includes freewarebb, netlinkz4u and downloadfilesfree - all ending dot-com)
Just out of curiosity, and to spread the word would you prefer I replace their details with any text or would you just prefer I delete the entries full stop?
Instead of waiting any longer I have now removed all references to that software and hardycreations-dot-com from all our sites although I see he may be having problems of his own as his website is down and out anyway
I have send this mail to ZDnet Fr, hoping it will give something and ask that this person contacts CNET that I can't contact.
Quote
Monsieur,
Vous hébergez un logiciel nommé 'Internet Spirit' ou encore 'GhostFox' proposé par Hardy Creations.
Ce logiciel existe dans plusieurs versions 1.1.5, 1.5.0, 3.0.0, 3.0.13 ...
Il s'agit en fait d'une version recompilée de K-Meleon 1.1.5 ou 1.5.0.
K-Meleon est diffusé sous licence GPL, ce qui permet à tout un chacun de modifier le produit comme bon lui semble. Malgré tout, la licence GPL impose quelques 'contraintes' comme la disponibilité du code source, le maintien de toute référence aux créateurs initiaux, et le maintien sous licence GPL.
Or, pour ce produit, il n'en est rien. Toute référence aux créateurs a été supprimée, le produit est diffusé sous licence EULA, et bien sur les sources ne sont pas fournis.
Il s'agit donc en l'espèce de violations graves de la licence.
De plus, bien que le site de HardyCreations ne réponde plus, curieusement depuis le lendemain de la campagne que j'ai réalisé auprès des diffuseurs de logiciels, il est toujours possible de télécharger ce logiciel depuis vos pages. Ceci venant notamment du fait que vous (cnet ?) héberger les produits que vous proposez en diffusion.
En conclusion, je vous demande donc de faire supprimer les pages concernant ces logiciels et concernant HardyCreations.
De plus, vu mon impossibilité de les joindre par un quelconque moyen, je vous demande de faire remonter cette demande auprès des diffuseurs du groupe CNET.
Par avance merci de la promptitude avec laquelle vous me répondrez et prendrez toutes les mesures qui s'imposent.
Alain Aupeix
membre de l'équipe des développeurs de K-Meleon
Merci
A+
A+
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; en-US; rv:1.9.1.17pre) Gecko/20101211 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.6.0
Mozilla/5.0 (x11; U; Linux x86_64; fr-FR; rv:1.9.2.14pre) Gecko/20101219 Ubuntu/12.04 (precise) K-Meleon/1.7.0
Web: K-Meleon Extension Setup (French) and (English)
Web: http://jujuland.pagesperso-orange.fr/
Mail : alain [dot] aupeix [at] wanadoo [dot] fr
Let me explain the timelack of our answers - many answers were from Central European Time zone. Spain, France, Germany ( kko, jujuland, desgas2 are devs & translators ).
- As to Your question. IMHO do as You think best for Your page.
Silencing the name is good but may not help users that look for an update. An notice to Your visitors may help to help PPL that search for it and do not know that it is a K-Meleon and still available under its real anme.
Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/28/2008 06:58PM by guenter.
Hi guenter, no probs on the timezone, I just wanted to make sure we dealt with this issue sooner rather than later - OK, here's my position on this issue - I fully intend on adding K-Meleon to our list of freeware on all sites and I don't have a problem with listing it such as "Internet Spirit/K-Meleon" to help with the search results if this would appeal to you guys. If you have any type of PAD file available to aid in the submission of this I will gladly use this for our other sites otherwise I can add it manually as we do for freewarebb. Once I have submitted the listing I will then feature it on all our sites so it appears on our home pages and stands a chance of being indexed asap. All I need to know really is if you would like me to include a reference in the title to Internet Spirit to help throw the search results. I will hold back until I hear from you.
Cheers
Mark
Quote www.hardycreations.com This website www.hardycreations.com is currently unavailable due to exceeded monthly traffic quota. Please visit again later.
I bet Hardy took the cheapest offer which is free of charge but limited to 1 GB of monthly traffic. With almost 20 MB per Internet Spirit package this is not much more then 50 downloads. That's peanuts.
I've seen this message several times over the last weeks. It appears to me that he is buying additional traffic on demand (when he has the money). No big business if you ask me.
I guess he is highly dependent on third party web sites who are distributing his packages. And that's where we can hurt him!
So, thanks to all of you for your efforts - especially to Alain.