What do you do when someone offers your (free) game asking for money?

[alkis21]

I ended up in this site by accident while I was searching for screenshots of the 256 colors version of Deja Vu.

It's one of the dozens of sites that offer games for download under the pretense that they're 'abandonware' (let's not go there). I clicked on 'O' and Other Worlds was there. I then clicked on 'download' to see if the site hotlinked to either AGS or my web page, and I was prompted to enter my credit card number to cover for their "increasing service maintaining costs".

I didn't search the web site for long, but I saw 'The New Adventures of Zak McKracken' there and I'm sure it has more AGS games.

The question is: should we do something about it? Or is it better to not fight a war you can't win?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Ayuh, it's a doozy. You might be interested in this thread:

http://www.adventuregamestudio.co.uk/yabb/index.php?topic=29625.0

[alkis21]

Ah, I didn't know we had discussed this before. Feel free to delete/lock this thread dear mods.

[Emerald]

What I don't understand is where they got that whole big essay on Other Worlds...

Edit: Nevermind. On closer inspection, it turns out they pikeyed it from JustAdventure...

[alkis21]

It's a partial copy & paste of the JA review.

I see several "essays" in their game descriptions, all probably leeched from one web site or another. They have one for The New Adventures of Zak McKracken too.

[Frodo]

This guy is well known for stealing games and stealing reviews.   

He stole my review of Return Of The Phantom that I wrote for Abandonia, as well as all the other extras I uploaded to Abandonia.

Here is his stolen link - http://free-game-downloads.mosw.com/abandonware/pc/adventure/games_p_r/return_of_the_phantom.html
And here is the original - http://www.abandonia.com/en/games/882/Return+Of+The+Phantom.html

So he leeches games (freeware & abandonware), he steals reviews.  What exactly is he charging for?   

[Shane 'ProgZmax' Stevens]

He's hoping to snare any free-roaming idiots into buying stuff that doesn't belong to him, that's all.

[m0ds]

Indeed, what a nob-cheese. If anyone should be h4x0rr3d it should be him.

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

On the other thread, someone suggests swamping his server with hits, or something, to overload it to heck and back. Or something.

Sounds feasible? ANyone up for whatever-it-is,-even-though-I-probably-misunderstood_the-concept?

[alkis21]

Has anyone tried the polite approach? Something like, please remove all AGS related games from your site?

[Rui 'Trovatore' Pires]

Oh. What a novel suggestion.

I assume no one tried it on the grounds that he's stealing from pretty much everywhere as it is, apparently. You could give it a go, though. You've established yourself as a company, as it were, and are selling your own games now, you probably carry more weight than most of us.

[Nikolas]

Whil atropos could probably stop Other Worlds, it would have little power for the rest.... Of course  atropos could have some kind of lawsuite threat letter or seize and desist, but still...

What about EVERYONE contacting him/her/them?

[Frodo]

Has anyone tried the polite approach? Something like, please remove all AGS related games from your site?

I requested several times that he remove my review, my walkthrough, the manuals I scanned etc to be removed from his site, as well as other work he stole from Abandonia.
My requests fell on deaf ears.  I got no reply at all. 

But as Rui says, Alkis is a 'company' now, and may have more power than the rest of us. 

[Dualnames]

Why don';t we just kill the guy?

[alkis21]

If he won't listen to reason, I doubt he will respond to threats. But I promise to try soon.

[ManicMatt]

Does he have anything on that website he made himself? Steal it!!

[m0ds]

Check this, I think it's a good way to get an answer:

Do you provide a phone support? [top]
Basically not. However if you really wish to call us, you can reach us at +420 723 225 754 (please see your rates to Czech Republic), between 8:00 and 21:00 GMT (3:00AM and 4:00PM EST). However we prefer email communication over phone, because that way we have enough time to explore possible problems, test something etc. Please have this in your mind before you decide to call us.

What I think he's saying is; "That way, I don't have to respond to the many people I've pissed off." Time for some prank calls then, my friend?

[Nikolas]

Let's organise a bit...

Having each author contacting him won't really work.

Let's see how many games from AGS are in there. There could be all of the games as far as we know. Let's make a list, let's get the authors to make a note, or take their names at least, etc and then let's contact one of the AGS forum members who know a bit about law (sinister, or Rick, or someone anyways) to make a letter. After that we'll see.

I really don't like to see games that are intellectual property of people in here, to be listed there and that you have to pay in order to get them, while they can be found for free over here in AGS...

[vertigoaddict]

If I ever find 'Project hecka' in his site for pay, I'll try to contact my old friend Khzir and hack the hell out of his damn site!

or cause a massacre, whichever is more stress-relieving.

Seriously though, someone with high athority should do something...

EDIT: That's a good idea Nickolas.

[alkis21]

I agree with Nikolas. If someone can prepare a list for me, I'll be happy to have my lawyer contact him.