I was Not a Software Pirate
Moderators: hgm, Rebel, chrisw
I was Not a Software Pirate
For many years I was actively involved in file sharing of chess related software. I never sold software for monetary or other profit. What I did, I did only for my love of the game and to help chess players who could not afford high quality chess materials. I wish to apologise to all commercial chess software developers for my involvement in file sharing. I realise that file sharing harms chess software developers and stifles further development. I wish to thank the developers for providing chess players with software to help us improve our chess. I would also like to thank you for continuing your development in spite of losing income through file sharing. You have given much enjoyment to chess enthusiasts the world over. Azaad
-
- Posts: 1763
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:49 pm
- Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Full name: Peter Skinner
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
Azaad,Azaad wrote:For many years I was actively involved in file sharing of chess related software. I never sold software for monetary or other profit. What I did, I did only for my love of the game and to help chess players who could not afford high quality chess materials. I wish to apologise to all commercial chess software developers for my involvement in file sharing. I realise that file sharing harms chess software developers and stifles further development. I wish to thank the developers for providing chess players with software to help us improve our chess. I would also like to thank you for continuing your development in spite of losing income through file sharing. You have given much enjoyment to chess enthusiasts the world over. Azaad
You were more than just a file sharer.
You were an active member of the Lionroad community to the point that you were a moderator, facilitating ways that your members could post links to chess software without them getting removed by people like me.
The Lionroad community had over 10,000 members actively sharing chess related content from programs, opening books, e-books.. pretty much _anything_ to do with chess.
I posted on your forums several times pleading with your group to stop their actions, yet all I got was threats against my children, attempts to take down my website, and links to websites where people mocked my content. _With_ your support I might add.
I suppose your surprising apology has something to do with the legal matters now facing the Lionroad administrators and you are doing nothing more than trying to distance yourself from that group. Your torrents can be found on trackers all over the place. I won't post where, but I only assume people can just search for Azaad on Google where they will find loads of content from you.
Kerostave, Immortal223 and yourself were the heart of the Lionroad group. Your group solicited donations to keep your community alive, thus the basis I was able to get it shutdown. You _did_ profit from piracy.
Nice try, but the truth is known by more than just me. Your apology means little to nothing here, and no author should accept it.
Peter Skinner
I was kicked out of Chapters because I moved all the Bibles to the fiction section.
-
- Posts: 2016
- Joined: Sun Feb 17, 2008 4:19 pm
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
searched 1 - 10 of 1,360,000 for "Dont piss on my back and tell me its raining"Azaad wrote:For many years I was actively involved in file sharing of chess related software. I never sold software for monetary or other profit. hahahaha
What I did, I did only for my love of the game
hahahaha
and to help chess players who could not afford high quality chess materials. I wish to apologise to all commercial chess software developers for my involvement in file sharing. I realise that file sharing harms chess software developers and stifles further development. ahahahahahah
I wish to thank the developers for providing chess players with software to help us improve our chess. I would also like to thank you for continuing your development in spite of losing income through file sharing. You have given much enjoyment to chess enthusiasts the world over. Azaad ahahahahahahah
Hey azaad mohammed you just raised it to 1,360,001
kgburcham
-
- Posts: 511
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:05 pm
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
Hi Peter
I am somewhat surprised with what you say although I suppose your hate toward these people and the satisfaction to have finally won explain some false allegations in your triumphant post.
As many people here (and as yourself) I had more than once a look at this Lionroad forum.
There were illegal things on this forum.
There were also true computer chess amateurs devoted to tuning, testing and all sorts of perfectly honorable computer-chess related activities.
One thing was evident : Azaad is a guy who loves computer chess and is much more knowledgeable about it than many officially known amateurs.
For what regards myself I mainly saw him taking time to explain simple things regarding computer chess to new amateurs.
Promotion of illegal sharing was surely not his first concern.
Regarding your accusation of Azaad having made direct financial profit from this file-sharing activity I am extremely doubtful as I never saw any evidence of this myself, and your accusation does not all at all fit with all what I know of him.
By the way you say the group sollicited donations to keep its community alive. I never heard of such sollicitations.
So I suppose that after such extremely severe accusations you will show us your proofs ?
OK Azaad was one of the organizers of a forum where copyrighted chess material was shared.
But the fact that he was caught does not allow you to depict him as a pure devil.
Marc
PS and you know perfectly well that he is in no way related to any threat toward yourself or your family.
I am somewhat surprised with what you say although I suppose your hate toward these people and the satisfaction to have finally won explain some false allegations in your triumphant post.
As many people here (and as yourself) I had more than once a look at this Lionroad forum.
There were illegal things on this forum.
There were also true computer chess amateurs devoted to tuning, testing and all sorts of perfectly honorable computer-chess related activities.
One thing was evident : Azaad is a guy who loves computer chess and is much more knowledgeable about it than many officially known amateurs.
For what regards myself I mainly saw him taking time to explain simple things regarding computer chess to new amateurs.
Promotion of illegal sharing was surely not his first concern.
Regarding your accusation of Azaad having made direct financial profit from this file-sharing activity I am extremely doubtful as I never saw any evidence of this myself, and your accusation does not all at all fit with all what I know of him.
By the way you say the group sollicited donations to keep its community alive. I never heard of such sollicitations.
So I suppose that after such extremely severe accusations you will show us your proofs ?
OK Azaad was one of the organizers of a forum where copyrighted chess material was shared.
But the fact that he was caught does not allow you to depict him as a pure devil.
Marc
PS and you know perfectly well that he is in no way related to any threat toward yourself or your family.
-
- Posts: 1763
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:49 pm
- Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Full name: Peter Skinner
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
So you mean the two subforums that posted results from tournaments run with pirated engines, or rating lists from the CCRL/CEGT/WBEC/SSDF in them? And how to get amateur engines running in pirated interfaces like Aquarium, Chess Assistant, and Chess Partner?Marc Lacrosse wrote:Hi Peter
There were illegal things on this forum.
There were also true computer chess amateurs devoted to tuning, testing and all sorts of perfectly honorable computer-chess related activities.
Those "chess amateurs"?
Or in the other 8 forums that had direct links to pirated software, and even catagorized them? If I am not mistaken there were two subforums that contained links to freeware programs and publicly posted games. The rest was pure piracy.
Is that right?One thing was evident : Azaad is a guy who loves computer chess and is much more knowledgeable about it than many officially known amateurs.
For what regards myself I mainly saw him taking time to explain simple things regarding computer chess to new amateurs.
Promotion of illegal sharing was surely not his first concern.
He was explaining programming techniques to amateur programmers? Not in a single post that I saw, and I was on their forums daily removing links on Rapidshare, Easyshare, File Factory.. the list goes on.
Were they not accepting donations on the forum via PayPal? No? Then how is it that I tracked the forum owner "xMr.Lincolnx" to New York? How is it I had his PayPal account removed and the money in it seized? By pure luck?Regarding your accusation of Azaad having made direct financial profit from this file-sharing activity I am extremely doubtful as I never saw any evidence of this myself, and your accusation does not all at all fit with all what I know of him.
They also had a "donation meter" on the website, and oddly enough was set to try and get 4 times the actual monthly cost for their server. So yes, profit was being had.
You know as well I as do they accepted donations via PayPal.By the way you say the group sollicited donations to keep its community alive. I never heard of such sollicitations.
I do not need to show anything here regarding them stealing from this community. It was widely known _exactly_ what they stood for and what they were doing.So I suppose that after such extremely severe accusations you will show us your proofs ?
I told Vas 1 day after Rybka/Aquarium 3 was cracked by that group. I have removed _thousands_ of links from that group to pirated material. They started to get slightly smarter by coding their links or using hxxp:// instead of http:// so that Google wouldn't index their links. Didn't matter.. I was on the forum removing the links daily.
I find it absolutely disgusting that someone so revered in this community like yourself would be even trying to defend Azaad.
He was more than a moderator there. He posted pirated material on torrent trackers like Demonoid.com and thepiratebay.com himself. He posted material to Rapidshare.com himself.OK Azaad was one of the organizers of a forum where copyrighted chess material was shared.
Please do not make him out to be innocent by any means.
Don't let the fact he _was_ caught somehow blind your thinking this guy is a "chess lover". He is a thief, plain and simple.But the fact that he was caught does not allow you to depict him as a pure devil.
Marc
Peter
PS and you know perfectly well that he is in no way related to any threat toward yourself or your family.[/quote]
I was kicked out of Chapters because I moved all the Bibles to the fiction section.
-
- Posts: 511
- Joined: Wed Mar 08, 2006 10:05 pm
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
1.I do not think I am revered in the community and I do not see why I should be.Peter Skinner wrote: I find it absolutely disgusting that someone so revered in this community like yourself would be even trying to defend Azaad.
(I even guess that after these posts i will not have any friends here anymore - but I could not let you depict this man in such a one-sided view).
2. I do not try to defend Azaad.
I just do say that although he acted illegally he is altogether a true lover of computer chess .
I repeat that I would be extremely surprised to get evidence that he did financially benefit from these illegal activities.
I more than once told him that I like free chess and do not like "shared" (or stolen if you prefer) computer chess.
Marc
Last edited by Marc Lacrosse on Wed Mar 25, 2009 10:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
-
- Posts: 1763
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:49 pm
- Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Full name: Peter Skinner
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
He might not have directly gained financially, but I know the owner did, and the forums did.Marc Lacrosse wrote:1.I do not think I am revered in the community and I do not see why I should be.Peter Skinner wrote: I find it absolutely disgusting that someone so revered in this community like yourself would be even trying to defend Azaad.
2. I do not try to defend Azaad.
I just do say that although he acted illegally he is altogether a true lover of computer chess .
I repeat that I would be extremely surprised to get evidence that he did financially benefit from these illegal activities.
I more than once told him that I like free chess and do not like "shared" (or stolen if you prefer) computer chess.
Marc
I get lumped in with Talkchess because I am a moderator here. If I make a decision that someone doesn't like, or the post is illegal or of legal question and I don't remove it, Quentin hears about it.
Being a moderator on the Lionroad forums thus lumps him in with the ownership just like me here.
In his case though, he is more than just guilty by association.
I was kicked out of Chapters because I moved all the Bibles to the fiction section.
-
- Posts: 540
- Joined: Sat Nov 11, 2006 2:56 pm
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
Hi Peter,
Keep up the good work.
Just a suggestion: DO NOT reveal your method for catching pirates as this will only make them harder to catch next time.
Keep up the good work.
Just a suggestion: DO NOT reveal your method for catching pirates as this will only make them harder to catch next time.
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
Once and for all, this person who calls himself Azzada is a fraud.Azaad wrote:For many years I was actively involved in file sharing of chess related software. I never sold software for monetary or other profit. What I did, I did only for my love of the game and to help chess players who could not afford high quality chess materials. I wish to apologise to all commercial chess software developers for my involvement in file sharing. I realise that file sharing harms chess software developers and stifles further development. I wish to thank the developers for providing chess players with software to help us improve our chess. I would also like to thank you for continuing your development in spite of losing income through file sharing. You have given much enjoyment to chess enthusiasts the world over. Azaad
Happy Christmas to all:)
Especially for you Peter and all the comunity (yeap we exist too Pete)
Greetings !!!
Kero
-
- Posts: 1763
- Joined: Sun Feb 26, 2006 1:49 pm
- Location: Edmonton, Alberta, Canada
- Full name: Peter Skinner
Re: I was Not a Software Pirate
Yes Kerostave, I know your community exists.kerostave wrote:Once and for all, this person who calls himself Azzada is a fraud.Azaad wrote:For many years I was actively involved in file sharing of chess related software. I never sold software for monetary or other profit. What I did, I did only for my love of the game and to help chess players who could not afford high quality chess materials. I wish to apologise to all commercial chess software developers for my involvement in file sharing. I realise that file sharing harms chess software developers and stifles further development. I wish to thank the developers for providing chess players with software to help us improve our chess. I would also like to thank you for continuing your development in spite of losing income through file sharing. You have given much enjoyment to chess enthusiasts the world over. Azaad
Happy Christmas to all:)
Especially for you Peter and all the comunity (yeap we exist too Pete)
Greetings !!!
Kero
Oddly enough Azaad apologies here, yet is still a contributing member of the "new" Lionroad.
So much for the apology...
Peter
I was kicked out of Chapters because I moved all the Bibles to the fiction section.