[s-cars] ADMIN: "FA", "ETKA", "ELSA" was Re: Porsche FA now available

[Brett Dikeman]

There has always been a wink-nod-know-the-secret-handshake passing of 
the ETKA from enthusiast to enthusiast for free or the cost of 
postage+the CD blank.  It was low-volume, done quietly, and only for 
fellow enthusiasts.  Audi most likely tolerated it because ETKA isn't 
sold to anyone save dealers(thus not representing lost sales), nobody 
was making a profit off it, it was usually an outdated copy anyway, 
and it made people better customers through faster orders and reduced 
parts returns for wrong stuff.

   Pedro has been practically spamming the list about it(I counted 3+ 
messages today alone, and he is crossposting to virtually every 
list), clearly making a profit, distributing current material 
available to people other than dealers, and distributing it in gross 
quantities.  His high-profile distribution of illegal software now 
presents a significant, serious legal risk to Audifans as the 
communications medium involved(there is a history of lists and forums 
being threatened with legal action for such activities, and although 
it has been successfully challenged in a few cases, do you want to 
start a legal defense fund, or replace the server that would be 
seized as evidence, along with all our backups, etc?) as well as our 
current hosting company(whom we are receiving service from for free), 
and --I am ending this discussion topic immediately.--  Further 
discussion about distribution of this illegal software risks 
unsubscription and blacklisting.  Dan's personal finances(and job as 
well, since he works for said hosting company) and Audifans are too 
important to be put at risk over something like this.

Dan is currently out and I will discuss this with him as soon as he's 
back.  If necessary one of us will post a follow-up.

Brett
-- 
"They that give up essential liberty to obtain temporary
safety deserve neither liberty nor safety." - Ben Franklin
http://www.users.cloud9.net/~brett/