Hello everybody,

I don't know if I spell "rip-off" right but I'm sure everybody understands the meaning... some monthes ago I found a software called "Advanced Messenger Plus". I didn't really care, I thought it was just a Messenger plugin using a name like mine to get known.

Well, I just saw that this software is still updated by its creators and that in addition of using my name, they are using my features too! I just saw a screenshot showing "Quick Texts" in their software. Who are they kiding? On top of that, this is a shareware so they make profit on it. This is a complete ripoff and, if you agree with me, I'd like all of you to let them know what you think about it (they never answered to my email which was very polite).

You can contact them at Sales@gramasoft.com and Support@gramasoft.com.

Thanks for your support... doing Messenger addons is great but you shouldn't steal ideas/concepts from others.

Patchou.

Grrrr.... Knowing all the time you spend into this Messenger Plus, this is totally crazy !! Isn't there something to do about this ? Damn...   

uhmm... [cough]mail bomb[/cough].

Btw, of what ive heard, seen and used of that program... not many people like it and not many people are willing to pay for it, I get people e-mailing me asking for cracks to stop it expiring.

out rage... i say lets kill em 

and for the hell of it, never that its going to replace msgplus from PATCHOU, im going to see why they are even selling this for $15... thats bullshit


HOLY FUCKING CHRIST... DID THEY JUST HEX YOUR OR SOMETHING.. ITS LOOKS LIKE EXACTLY THE SAME!!!

* Muss thinks he should get his mate to send them this thing that opens up goatse in about 100 IE window


We will see 

  That nice email address   I like it.. Should give "him" some 'support' ...right buddies

Yeah, charging $15 for this program is a bit of a rip-off.

I'm not sure whether it's actually trying to copy Messenger Plus!, though... it might've had some sort of inspiration from Plus!, but it looks like a completely different code base to me.

So it's hard to say whether this program is unethical or not... it's a very fine line.

Spanish half speaking english person comes along... you say:

Msgplus! or Messenger Plus

They will know the difference..? we've had people ask for support on all kinda programs on here, which names have Plus on the end.

MSN Messenger is a freeware, so is it legal to make a plugin for it that is a shareware?? i don't know .....
btw the only feature that is important in this soft is the log viewer (beautiful) but i hope theire will be one in MP2 and much better, isnt'it patchounet? :')

Legally they ain't doing anything wrog i think... maybe the name.. but they don't use the excact same name.
BUT, it's just very sad to see such a program that is almost copied straigth from Plus!, then call it "advanced" and even ask money for it.

* Jae's anti-gammasoft compain has begun....

Thanks for your support. No, it's not illegal... it would be if I had registered the "Messenger Plus!" name but it costs money

Concerning the log viewer, yep, in fact they are using a database-driven model for their logging system. It's a good idea which has its advantages. I already considered it for my own logging system but, well, I tend to think that people prefer to have their own text files they can manipulate the way they want.

Note: I don't plan to make a log viewer for the logs. However, their should be an HTML option in the new version and, in that case, I'll try to add a feature that creates an index.thm page with bookmarks to quickly browse your chats.... what do you think of this?

Patchou.

WFT its yours patchou and jamc mal bombing  lol

yeah it would be a greta thing to read this logs with the original text formation (color, size font...) i wait 2 see

Mail bomb

And Johnny is right, many people are confused cause all these programs calling itselfs "Plus"... Well, we all know that is better

and is free and a lot better

Patchou, i will deal with this person when i get home. He is registered on my forums.

his sad little 'rip off' will not exist anymore.

Plus! will never be ripped off again.

                   thank you

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Originally posted by surfichris
Patchou, i will deal with this person when i get home. He is registered on my forums.

his sad little 'rip off' will not exist anymore.

Plus! will never be ripped off again.

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Muss.... sending a mail bomb by itself is not breaking the law eith.... ops... sorry, forget about what I was saying 

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......, so you shouldn't do anythign to him

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Originally posted by Patchou
Muss.... sending a mail bomb by itself is not breaking the law eith.... ops... sorry, forget about what I was saying   

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his sad little 'rip off' will not exist anymore

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Is it illegal to register for your forums surfichris? Whats that got to do with rpping programs... its a free world, people can rip who they like... and they should face the conciquences from the author...

Thats what I think anyway...

You may be right Johnny, and that exactly why I originally created this thread... I don't have time to put in that kind of stupid stuff, so, I was asking all of you who do not think that ripping is a good practice to email them and let them know what you think about it. I never asked anyone to mail bomb anyone. You're free to do whatever you want. And Muss, I don't think that anybody will go physically beat them so, what else could have he meant?

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Originally posted by Patchou
I never asked anyone to mail bomb anyone.

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lol well no i think just eamil im complaints see what returns

Hey!, those gay.. errm.. guys over at www.gammasoft.com have two more products besides  REALY-NOT-advanced Messenger Plus.

PRODUCT 1:

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EasyWMA Converter 1.22
EasyWMA converter is the ideal tool which allows you to convert your MP3, MP2 and WAV files to WMA formats (with ID3 support). It also allows you to convert your WMA file back to wav format. The tool is integrated with the Windows Shell and you can directly start conversion by right-click on the selected audio files and selecting "Convert to WMA" from Windows explorer. The tool also support batch conversion mode and you can add multiple audio files and convert them in a batch. This program costs only $14.95 to register and you can evaluate the full function evaluation copy for 15 days.
http://gramasoft.com/easywma.htm

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AAA Color Picker is an easy to use tool which let you get the color value from anywhere on your screen. It will display the color value in different formats: .NET, VC, VB, VFP, Java, Delphi, RGB and HSB. You can easily copy the color value in your preferred format from this tool to other applications.

How to use AAA Color Picker

Just move your mouse to the point where you want to get color, and the color value of the pixel under your mouse will be displayed in this tool. Press the hot key CTRL-1 to stop the color picking and then all done!
http://gramasoft.com/colorpicker/index.html

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You do not need to register "Messenger Plus!" to have copyright on it, just by releasing the product you have that, you only need to register to have it as a trade mark.

Either way, it is illegal for someone to knowingly copy your program name, although copying the ideas and implementation is completely legal unless you get patents (at £1000's) on it.

Sadly, in reality, you (and anyone else) will never make enough money to challenge anyone in any court in America, for anything, without bankrupting yourself.

register the program in another country then   

You don't need to register, so you can't pick where you register it. Anyway - if they have any connection to America it will probably end up in American courts (as everything seems to do), and sadly it would cost £000's to pursue anywhere (apart from Libya where for about £10 you could get them shot legally  )

*cough* Let's go to Libya *cough*

        no compition then

lol, very good idea Jae.... maybe one of these night I'll do a Color Picker Pro or something like that .

For the patent, well, you know, Patchou makes a lot of money with contracts but that's not the problem... as Ginge says, even if I has a kind of copyright on it, it still prevents nobody to copy the software, it just gives me the possibility to bring it to court... there, it costs time and money and that's the real problem.

Anyway, what I will do probably is write to web sites such as Download.com to ask them to remove the software because of X or Y reasons... I doubt very much that they will listen to me but I got to try! .

In the meantime, supporting me by sending them an email is the best thing to do I suppose. Thank you for your support all of you.

You shouldn't have any problem getting it removed from download sites, just make the email fairly long and legal sounding, and most sites will take down any content no matter how bad the legal reasons. They don't want to spend any time in court any more than you do.

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By johnny:
Is it illegal to register for your forums surfichris? Whats that got to do with rpping programs... its a free world, people can rip who they like... and they should face the conciquences from the author...

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patchou, I never thought he meant he would go and beat him up 

But saying what he said could mean anything, so I said what I said 

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Originally posted by surfichris
Sending a mail bomb is not a very professional act, in some cases it can be considered illegal. If he had any Law Attorneys ( ) he would be able to track you down and sue you. (knowing him....its a one man company)

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Johnny_Mac
And the best thing we can do is cause bad publicity, people know who Patchou is and what his program does... thats all that matters at the end of it all.

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U guys r the best, how can n e one pirate ur software, If i knew how to hack i would hack them rite away , but come on, ur software is the best out there, plus on top of that itz free, everyone will dl urs cuz of those reasons, and u guyz r jus awesome peeps, so it makes it even better commin here, i have no regretz commin to dis forum, u guz r jus da best

look guys (& girls)
Why worry? who knows about this program? and even a better question, who's going to pay for it?
maybe 1% of all people who use msn know it (it's still much) and 0.000000005% from the ones who know it are going to pay for it
mp2 rules, it's free, people don't wanna pay much any more, but this little rip-off thing isn't going to have an influence on the usage of the great messenger+ !
here it is, my comment    one more thing: if i were an adult i would sponser you bigtime patchou...

greetz

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Originally posted by Xaero
look guys (& girls)
Why worry? who knows about this program? and even a better question, who's going to pay for it?
maybe 1% of all people who use msn know it (it's still much) and 0.000000005% from the ones who know it are going to pay for it
mp2 rules, it's free, people don't wanna pay much any more, but this little rip-off thing isn't going to have an influence on the usage of the great messenger+ !
here it is, my comment    one more thing: if i were an adult i would sponser you bigtime patchou...

greetz

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What choice will one have? No one in this IT world can stop piracy. Although I myself have not tried Messenger Plus, I have heard my friends commenting that Messenger Plus is a wonderful software. But however, since I am on Messenger 5 when my friend recommended me this software, I have no choice but to wait for MP2 to be released. 

[cough]I think someone with good hacking skills should delete it from their site [/cough]

I never said that

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Originally posted by Xaero
...
maybe 1% of all people who use msn know it (it's still much) and 0.000000005% from the ones who know it are going to pay for it
...

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If I'm going to contribute ANYTHING to this thread it will be to say this: Plus! is not worthless and some of Patchou's features had been done before he ever did them, especially when people ask him to put in something they saw in another program.

If someone wants to sell their messenger plus program they have every right to, we don't KNOW they stole the ideas from Patchou and even if they did then just remember they aren't selling Plus! just their cruddy version. Are you going to say every 3D shooter is a rip-off of Wolfenstein 3-D?

=mek=

one of their progs,

AAA Color Picker

is soo lame...why would i want to use that? take a screen shot place it in some paint program and i can take colours from there too....so lame

yah, maybe it makes work easier but spending so much money(yes, im poor) on such useless stuff wont make my job any easier...

Couldnt be bothered reading through every single reply... but after having a look at their site, and reading what they say about the product..

"The main feature of this tool is it will automatically save your chat log and it has an explorer style Log Viewer to let you view your history chat log. It can also speak out the message you received and define shortcuts for frequently used text. The tool costs only $14.95 and you can evaluate the full function tool for 20 days."

Sure, Log saving and shortcuts are the same, but as of 1.42B, MsgPlus doesn't have a viewer (something I would dearly love to see), or some kind of speaking-thing, like MS Sam.

I hate to sound like I'm advocating it, but it doesn't sound like it's a complete rip-off, so maybe you guys should just cut the guy some slack? Sure, its a similar name to MSN Plus!, but yeah, some people just dont have much imagination

Considering how many pov bastards like me are on the net who never pay for any software (especially if they can get freeware), good luck to him if he makes any money off it... I doubt he'll be able to buy more than a hamburger.

* reisyboy slaps gramasoft.com for ripping Plus! off and charging around a bit with a large trout.

Whatever you say, you can plainly see that it is a rip off of plus. Although there isn't much you can do about it.

Spread around that it is a bad software and then no one will buy it and they will stop making it. lol

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uhmm... [cough]mail bomb[/cough].

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Me again...

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SO, who is the one to make some nice freeware/open source/public domain versions of these software?
It are really not advanced programs.. BUT GAMMASOFT IS ASKING $14,95 FOR IT!!! I think we should provide peope a free alternative

I'm waiting... who will be the fist one to create...
Super-EasyWMA Converter v2.0 ...and...
ABC Color Picker Pro.....
for free!!

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Note: Joke about the mail bomb gfd... I dont agree with it.

Downloaded it and had a go and yeah its more or less the same as yours!

They couldn't even think of a good name for their product so they just practally copied that

[cough]I like the mail-bomb idea[/cough]

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Originally posted by Johnny_Mac
Note: Joke about the mail bomb gfd... I dont agree with it.

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Originally posted by Patchou
some monthes ago I found a software called "Advanced Messenger Plus". [...] On top of that, this is a shareware so they make profit on it.

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lol, thank you for the suggestion but the source code of Messenger Plus! is mine and there is no exception

Good for you, it yours not their but some sort of copyright would be quiet good thow.

Any amount of copyright is irrelevant, as it costs too much to persue it through a court.

Even then, it isn't really possible to copyright the stuff Plus! does, you would need to get a patent on it, and it doesn't really justify a patent. Putting it under the GPL is a different issue to do with copyright of the source code, and they haven't used the source code from Plus! anyway.

What they are doing is most probably legal.

So what i still like the idea lol

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Originally posted by gfd
And I was wondering, has ANYBODY received any official response from Grammasoft?

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I don't know if anyone has posted this, but there is a version 2 out for "Advanced Messenger Plus"....is this possibly a rip of mp2? i haven't downloaded it yet....I was just wondering about that...

No... I know the Advanced Messenger program version 2 has been around for a while.

Ive posted about this advanced thing but when i found it it was only ver 1.summat

hmm, Patchou i think everyone loves your prog so much!

Patchou

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Originally posted by Raddie
hmm, Patchou i think everyone loves your prog so much!

Patchou

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Originally posted by Muss
And MP2 will be able to be changed into wma format   

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Originally posted by Patchou
lol, thank you for the suggestion but the source code of Messenger Plus! is mine and there is no exception

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Just remember everyone, as the old saying goes imitation is the most sincear for of flaterry.  I.e. they only use the say name n stuff because they can only hope that one day they may be half as good as Messenger Plus 2!  Great job Patchou keep them on their toes.

Damn, should have posted earlier, 'cause it pisses me off.

Down-right (correct ?) disgraceful I think, but aren't there laws that apply to this kind of abuse, like selling programs that use capabilities of other programs that are free of charge, that way, u can stop them from releasing this bullsh*t (can I say bullshit on international teleforum ?).

And anyone who is sort of defending Gramasoft, you are wrong. I've seen post where they say things such as
"there have been programs that to things long before Patchou did them"
-- Probably, people usually get their ideas from other software (most of us have very little imagination when it comes to developing software)
"they have a log viewer"
-- Er, open up explorer, there's ur log viewer right there, and it only cost u two keypressed (WIN+E) (and some mouseclicks ) Sure, not so user-friendly, but hey, you've worked with Windows before, right
"they have other programs such as blah-blah and ye-ye-ye"
-- Sure, but look for it on the net and u'll find tons of freeware and at least one is bound to be better (trust me, I looked)
"i like their aaa colorpicker"
-- U're an idiot, buy a book of Visual Basic or go fetch one at the local library, read three chapters and make one urself

And off course, they didn't answer my mail either, probably because those kids are most certain younger than 6 and just asked their dad to put up a link to ur program.

Anyways, don't bother to much, guessing from reviews from several sources, their program is as popular as a public toilet (and smells about as good too) (again, pardon the expression, it ain't my day )

[edit] didn't mean to be offensive in any way, but I do agree that Gramasoft ripped Patchou's ideas [/edit]

Greetz

What Gramasoft is doing is TOTALLY illegal. Well at least in Australia, but i think we share international copyright laws.
Patchou's "Messenger Plus!" was an original concept, and by law, Patchou has the legal right to that concept. It doesnt have to have the little symbol to make it copyrighted, as this imposed by default.
You could easily prove GRAMASOFT to be in breach of copyright.

I have sent complaints to CNet and ZDNet (same thing???) alerting them to the issue, and suggesting the file be removed.

Any idea what country GRAMASOFT is based in?

The IP it's registered under appears to be Chinese > 61.135.129.91

Registrant:
Jian Qiu

Hang Zhou, Zhe Jiang 310020
Hang Zhou,Zhe Jiang,CN 310020


Domain Name:gramasoft.com
Record last updated at 2002-09-02 11:23:51
Record created on 2001/11/6
Record expired on 2003/11/6


Domain servers in listed order:
ns.dns.net.cn 61.135.129.11
ns7.dns.net.cn 61.135.129.16

Administrator:
Qiu, Jian clevermouse2001@hotmail.com 0571-89697074

Qing Chun Road 907# 701
Hang Zhou,Zhe Jiang,CN 310020

Technical Contactor:
DOMAIN, SOHU yuming@sohu-inc.com Fax: +86.1065102179

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Originally posted by Strobe
I have sent complaints to CNet and ZDNet (same thing???)

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