121 replies to this topic

[handsome_rob]

The stop fruit theft campaign

Upon seeing my layouts for sale *yet again* on ebay I have decided to take action.
This wasnt an easy one to tackle, especially as the perpetrators roam freely on these forums.
So, Ive thought long and hard on how to stomp these blood sucking f***ers out, and have come up with a pretty good plan.

I have setup and email account called

Stopfruittheft@hotmail.com

And will in future be planting the pic below in my layouts to one side and locking them.
If we get one report that will do fine, I will then send all the sellers details to empire, jpm, barcrest, red and any other trading fruit machine company.
Locking my layouts again has been a hard and painstaking decision to make, but if I leave them unlocked the art can be altered, removing the banners.

it will also add some ugliness to DX's, but at least it will stop someone taking my efforts and making money from them.

I trust every member of these and other forums and download sites will support me and this campaign fully, and would *genuinely* appreciate other layout designers taking the campaign and its ideas onboard and offering me their full support.
Afterall, we are all here for the same thing and it seems the general consensus is utter annoyance and anger at profit being turned from fruit machine emulation.
Not only that but recent acts have cost the scene valuable bandwidth on our one and only large download site.
This has to stop, and I know that the sale of machines until now may continue, but at least it will make sellers think twice before continuing to sell layouts in the future.
I also suggest that emulation authors make the below pic an embedded backdrop in the emulators to enfore the seriousness of the campaign.
its also an easy way for them to protect their hard work from being sold on ebay.

This isnt suppost to be a debate, its a serious attempt at stopping people selling emulation once and for all.
for once I expect everyone to stand together and offer their full support.
I trust you will all do so.


Please make this thread sticky so that people will see it now and in the future.

Thanks for reading.

A

[Jez_Shaw]

Couldn't agree more mate, good luck with the campaign.

[PJ]

The stop fruit theft campaign

...it will also add some ugliness to DX's...

Why would it add ugliness to DX layouts - is it the logo itself, or are you talking about something else?


PS - those bastards want stringing up by their cherries...

[ady]

Total support HR!!!!.........I mentioned this before in the Forums........Nice just to buy one and see who it is!!!!!............

[Pgamblin]

He he.. we should do it sort of like that programme on tv where they catch the dodgy workers....

If anyone could find one of these people selling them we should offer to send black cd or something for them to copy and then we could get em...........

Sorry my Bully instincts coming out.. im 6 feet 7 tall and wide also so you have my muscle if required...

[judd]

I saw some for sale at my local computer fair,on a blank cdr for a fiver pop along to anyone there at most of them! I think it's a bit late for a campaing,even though i support it! I have 100 rom's as do most of us we could copy and sell if we wanted too?I dont see the point.These disks only had ten or so machines on aswell !

[Pgamblin]

Name and Shame time

http://www.dragoninf...k/fruitmach.htm

[Pgamblin]

Even better do this ........

Subj: Fruit Machine Cds.. Must Have
Date: Wed, 10 Dec 2003 3:48:22 pm GMT
From: Pgamblin21
To: weborder@dragoninfomart.fsnet.co.uk




I am interested in one of your Cd's however, They are free to download from respectable web sites so why do you charge for the discs ?

To make it leagal i have submitted your site and its details to the respectde companys from which you have emulated and will let them sort it out.

Im sure they will be interested to know that you are charging for something they offer for free. Maybe they will even demand the money recieved from this offer after all you dont seem to have permission from these retail companies so they might do that.

Last chance, Either stop selling these rubbish disc's and remove your site or let it be dealt with by a higher power.

Your Choice.

[closed]

Silly twats. Stop wasting your time and getting your blood pressure up over something that does no harm to anyone and which you'll never stop.

Hilarious "threatening" letter, though, cheers for the chuckle.

[fruitymad2003]

Silly twats. Stop wasting your time and getting your blood pressure up over something that does no harm to anyone and which you'll never stop.

Hilarious "threatening" letter, though, cheers for the chuckle.

Not harming any1!!!!!
I think it is.
People are paying for the CDs at £5-£10 a time when they can download them off fruit-emu for FREE. My self and other layout designers spend a lot of time creating these layouts for FREE use on websites to download and play for FREE!

So in future please think before posting

[closed]

How is that harming anyone? Maybe the people paying the £5 just don't want to spend their whole life downloading hundreds of megs of files.

[fruitymad2003]

How is that harming anyone? Maybe the people paying the £5 just don't want to spend their whole life downloading hundreds of megs of files.

Or maybe they are being ripped off!
When the owners of these discs know they can download them

[closed]

You'd have to be an idiot not to know you can download these things for free. If you type "fruit machine emulation" into Google, the VERY FIRST LINK points you to this very site. Therefore, anyone paying for a CD must actually want to.

[fruitymad2003]

f***#@#@#@# wrote:

You'd have to be an idiot not to know you can download these things for free

Does that mean im a idiot?
Before i became into fruitmachine emulation on google i typed in "simulations" it came up with various sites also ones with these CDs.
So some people don't search for emulation.

[fruitymad2003]

Also after reading this whole post all over again twice!
This is your opinon.
in future try and put it over so it wont provoke others and make them bite like i did.
Thanks

[TheBaron]

Good luck with the campaign.

It's not nice to see this sort of thing happen, but I suppose it was always going to when you consider what happens with music and software.

You lot should really get your heads together and start taking this further, you're selling yourselves out it you don't try and go far with your talents.

"Also after reading this whole post all over again twice!
This is your opinon.
in future try and put it over so it wont provoke others and make them bite like i did.
Thanks"

Mwahahaha!

That's one of the funniest posts I've ever read on any forum!
Do I smell..........poo?! lololol!

[ady]

Fruitymad.......Don't waste any time on FW..........Just do what you have been doing best buddy and get some more bloody more good releases out here!!! you 2 have a good team so where are they!!!......
99.9% of people are really grateful of what all you designers do, I would be happy to pay for them------but only to the right people!!!!....the people who spend hours in front of their PC's for FREE!!!!.......God knows when Razor sleeps!!

[Pgamblin]

The Saga continues.

I got a reply from Mor0n

This is my reply. see text below for original answer.

Your missing the point... Yes they are free to download much like shareware but if you take a load of share ware and bung it on a cd then offer to sell it your breaking the original agreement of shareware software.

The reason i am so interested is a recent enquiry by the authors of the rom files you are selling arent seeing any of this £5 a time or whatever you keep selling your cds for.

I know most of the guys who have created these layouts and there cutting a campaign to sink people like you who make money from their work.

Your site doesnt exactly offer the games for free is says the guides are free and the fruit emu's are what you are paying for...

Re-word your site if that is the case...

I did check ebay and others are talking to those sellers too..

Get a life thats funny,, how about get a decent job that doesnt mean your selling other peoples software to make proft for yourself..
...........................................................................................


In an email dated Wed, 10 Dec 2003 6:05:11 pm GMT, "tony" <dragongoch@dragoninfomart.fsnet.co.uk> writes:

>>however, They are free to download
>Go ahead and download them then.
>
>Why are you so interested, if you know where to
>download them.
>The actual disk is *not* dowloadable, only the individual
>items.
>The content *is* downloadable from the Internet.
>However, the cost involved here, is for the information only,
>the actual games are not being sold.
>I have merely compiled the items for free.
>
>If you'd like to waste your time further, please feel free
>to visit ebay, where you will have a more varied selection
>of the fruit machines.
>Thanks for your interest.
>Get a life.
>

[Pgamblin]

I sort of shotmyself in the foot now as he changed his site to say the money was towards the cd and the roms were a bonus..

I did a bit more and went onto ebay and everyone who had bid for one of these cds i sent them an email to say this................



Do you realise you are buying something that is free to download from the web ?

If you cancel your bid i will gladly tell you where you can download these fruit machine emulators and 10 times more games than on this cd for nothing.

Cheers

..........

So hopefuly people will stop supporting these morons who profit from your work and we can get more members etc here.

[thing50]

Yes they can be downloaded for free...and yes, there are people just getting new computers who do not know what they are doing, and buy them unaware of this. There are adverts on ebay for information you can easily get via google (the winXP messenger spam for one)...just type it into google! Yet people are buying this information for a pound a go! Unfortunately these CD's are aimed at a market of computer novices...I have also seen MAME roms, SNES roms, N64 roms etc etc. Not once does it state in these adverts that they are in fact easily downloadable from the internet and they are providing a service to avoid long downloads. Judging by that persons attitude in his email replys, I gather he really could'nt give a TOSS about this community or the people who have worked so hard to create it. I suggest contacting Ebay and explaining the situation to them, including the persons ebay ID. These people have no sympathy for others and deserve a good kick up the arse. I put them in the same group as the people who sell links to pyramid sites...I saw one poor sod had bid up to 40 quid for one of those links...again, net ignorence...the sort of person these people prey on.