I was Not a Software Pirate

[Azaad]

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

[Peter Skinner]

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

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

[kgburcham]

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

searched 1 - 10 of 1,360,000 for "Dont piss on my back and tell me its raining"

Hey azaad mohammed you just raised it to 1,360,001

kgburcham

[Marc Lacrosse]

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.

[Peter Skinner]

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.

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?

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.

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.

Is that right?

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.

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.

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?

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.

By the way you say the group sollicited donations to keep its community alive. I never heard of such sollicitations.

You know as well I as do they accepted donations via PayPal.

So I suppose that after such extremely severe accusations you will show us your proofs ?

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.

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.

OK Azaad was one of the organizers of a forum where copyrighted chess material was shared.

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.

Please do not make him out to be innocent by any means.

But the fact that he was caught does not allow you to depict him as a pure devil.

Marc

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.

Peter

PS and you know perfectly well that he is in no way related to any threat toward yourself or your family.[/quote]

[Marc Lacrosse]

I find it absolutely disgusting that someone so revered in this community like yourself would be even trying to defend Azaad.

1.I do not think I am revered in the community and I do not see why I should be.
(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

[Peter Skinner]

I find it absolutely disgusting that someone so revered in this community like yourself would be even trying to defend Azaad.

1.I do not think I am revered in the community and I do not see why I should be.

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

He might not have directly gained financially, but I know the owner did, and the forums did.

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.

[Anil]

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.

[kerostave]

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

Once and for all, this person who calls himself Azzada is a fraud.
Happy Christmas to all:)
Especially for you Peter and all the comunity (yeap we exist too Pete)

Greetings !!!
Kero

[Peter Skinner]

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

Once and for all, this person who calls himself Azzada is a fraud.
Happy Christmas to all:)
Especially for you Peter and all the comunity (yeap we exist too Pete)

Greetings !!!
Kero

Yes Kerostave, I know your community exists.

Oddly enough Azaad apologies here, yet is still a contributing member of the "new" Lionroad.

So much for the apology...

Peter