Comments on: Another thought about piracy

By: Display Eater: Captures More Than Just Your Screen | MacApper

Display Eater: Captures More Than Just Your Screen | MacApper — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 11:37:01 +0000

[...] find up-to-date information regarding the functionality of this bizarre app. It seems, from various sources that I’ve come across, that the developer responded to the numerous complaints and open [...]

By: arri

arri — Sat, 17 Mar 2007 05:07:54 +0000

just so you all know:

using VLC, you can just type ‘ screen:// ‘ in the “Media Resource Locator” textfield, and specify to either dump VLC’s output to a file (re-encoded or raw) or stream it over the network…
appearantly not officially supported (yet), but works great on PPC (on intel there’s a huge hue shift)
no need to pirate shareware (or whatever name it uses)..

By: seo services uk

seo services uk — Wed, 07 Mar 2007 08:55:28 +0000

That’s great ! he charges a money for such programs…

By: Gui Leite » Blog Archive » Cuidado com programas piratas

Gui Leite » Blog Archive » Cuidado com programas piratas — Thu, 01 Mar 2007 18:13:42 +0000

[...] criador e outros desenvolvedores. Ao preparar um screencast usando o Display Eater como exemplo, Karsten Kurche, que trabalha para a Brinksoftware, se deparou com comentÃƒÂ¡rios no cÃƒÂ³digo do programa e se [...]

By: Blake C.

Blake C. — Wed, 28 Feb 2007 02:57:46 +0000

Thank you Marc- I also didn’t notice the second update until Karsten mentioned it to me. It’s good to have this wrapped up. Thanks all around- to Karsten for bringing it our attention, to woz for suggesting further investigation, and to Reza for stepping up with the facts.

By: Marc Gray

Marc Gray — Tue, 27 Feb 2007 21:26:09 +0000

Behind The Curtain With Display Eater:

You may have seen the discussion recently about an app called Display Eater by Reza Hussain. While the author has not responded to the latest discussion, he allegedly admitted that the whole thing was a hoax to deter potential pirates. Reza has just replied with a public letter. While the discussion has been lively, the investigation has been nonexistant. So here it is.
[...]
you can read the whole post over at Yet Another Mac Dev Blog.
(edited by Karsten..there’s no need to post the whole article here, it’s enough to link it, which was already done in the 2nd update )

By: Blake C.

Blake C. — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:52:27 +0000

V.V.- Would you shop at a store where a security guard shoots you on sight if the magnetic reader at the door beeps when you walk past? The issue here is not pirates, it’s the method Reza chose to punish them.

By: V.V. Pointer

V.V. Pointer — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 23:04:28 +0000

Software pirates are _thieves_ who steal because they can and because they lack the moral responsibility to not steal.

In the Land of the Free and home of the brave, being able to use software free of charge is _not_ a Constitutional right.

Would you take an expensive item from a shop without paying for it because you’re poor? Those who do are thieves, and sometimes when they are caught, they are arrested and go to jail.

Why should software be treated differently?

If you want to use something that has a price, you should pay for it; if you don’t have the funds, don’t use it. Make do with what you have, or use only open source software.

By the way, there is no guarantee that open source software, doesn’t have any rogue code hidden within it.

Does anybody remember Ken Thompson’s speech when he accepted the Turing Award? It had something to do with subverting the C compiler: http://www.acm.org/classics/sep95/ .

By: Chris Buckley

Chris Buckley — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 15:57:56 +0000

I hope anyone who has suffered the unauthorised deletion of their ~home directory, goes straight to their local law enforcement office. In the UK, this type of activity would be covered by Section 3 of the Computer Misuse Act 1990. The authors of this program are committing a crime in the eyes of most Western Governments’ laws.

By: Blake C.

Blake C. — Sun, 25 Feb 2007 08:01:36 +0000

Here’s my take on it, with decompiled code.

http://yamacdev.blogspot.com/2007/02/behind-curtain-with-display-eater.html