Illegal Use of Videolan

[khyska]

I was informed, that Slovak internet company www.downloads-forum.sk offers the Videolan products at their page as a their programme and asks for its download money - beside others freewares they required fees ca 60.- EUR for registration and download. You can see that in their registration agreement
Karel Hyska

[funman]

This isn't illegal, and the site you mention doesn't exist

[CloudStalker]

Yeah, apparently they can offer and advertise VLC as a free program but to gain access to it you'd have to pay for other non-VLC related software or registration. It's wrong but not illegal.

[kurkosdr]

Yeah, apparently they can offer and advertise VLC as a free program but to gain access to it you'd have to pay for other non-VLC related software or registration. It's wrong but not illegal.

Is it a "repacked" version of VideoLan? By "repacked" I mean VLC with a different skin or slightly different GUI. And don't say it can't happen. I 've seen repacked versions of opensource LAME-based mp3 ripping tools all over. There are people who charge 25$ for those.

Anyway, anyone who can't simply google "VLC" and get it from the official site obviously doesn't deserve to have a computer.

[3breadt]

They are only "repacked" in that they have a different installer, the VLC program files are probably the official ones.

[kurkosdr]

They are only "repacked" in that they have a different installer, the VLC program files are probably the official ones.

Again, not a good thing. You can never be sure what else might be in that unofficial installer. For example, some other sites are offering builds of VLC with third party toolbars bundled in the installer. All these just stress the fact of how easy it for some people to get duped by other people.

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

They are only "repacked" in that they have a different installer, the VLC program files are probably the official ones.

Again, not a good thing. You can never be sure what else might be in that unofficial installer. For example, some other sites are offering builds of VLC with third party toolbars bundled in the installer. All these just stress the fact of how easy it for some people to get duped by other people.

If you want to start the VideoLAN legal fight team, please do

[danieln]

I think the address from the first post has typo, the correct one is probably downloads-portal.sk

We wrote about in 60 EURO WEBSITES in our paper
http://go.eset.com/us/resources/white-p ... t_free.pdf

Meanwhile the case was brought to the court and the decision is in favor of 16.000+ damaged consumers.
More info here: http://antonak.eu/zmluvy-su-neplatne-ok ... rebitelov/ (in Slovak language only)

The FAKE BUT FREE AND WORTH EVERY CENT paper marginally discuss the download wrapper problem too (in the A PARASITE OR ADDED VALUE? section).

VLC and other popular open-source are often used by download wrappers. Often, the motivation behind the wrappers is to generate significant revenue by installing third party sponsor software (mostly toolbars).

It seems VideoLAN disagree with closed-source wrappers. The main website says:

However, you should know that it is STRICTLY forbidden to use the VideoLAN trademarks to spread, distribute, advertise or sell software or hardware if the license is NOT open-source (OSI meaning).
http://www.videolan.org/legal.html

[Jean-Baptiste Kempf]

It seems VideoLAN disagree with closed-source wrappers. The main website says:

However, you should know that it is STRICTLY forbidden to use the VideoLAN trademarks to spread, distribute, advertise or sell software or hardware if the license is NOT open-source (OSI meaning).
http://www.videolan.org/legal.html

Indeed. Those wrappers are illegal.