Beware of the SCAM: WS Encrypter

[cerb]

If any of you have come across the program called WS Encrypter, please beware!
It is illegally sold by a company WCWS who never designed it and refuses to withdraw it from their pages. That program was written by me to encode files and never intended as an encrytion program... I never gave WCWS any right on selling my code and they are so stupid to continue ruining their reputation further trying to steal from everywhere. They have removed once the page (after my insistance) but they simply changed page name and reput the program up...

Anyway, given they are so stupid not to understand that I have written that code and know it inside-out, I want simply to make sure it is useless.

To do that I have written a simple decoder:

http://www.5gnow.com/cgi-bin/decodewcscweb.pl

I hope you did not give any money to these web-thiefs, but if you did, ask refund and see how easily your alleged 'encrypted' code is decoded...
You have been warned! If you look for security in your script, better to avoid this scam-company, which is only capable to place their names on somebodyelse code!

 

[cerb]

I forgot to mention: I posted here as WS Encrypter is targeted to perl programmers (as it 'encrypts' perl code)...

BTW: if anyone is interested I can also explains exactly how it works, but be careful not to buy it!

 

[PaulTEG]

Surely you have some recourse with GPL (Gnu Public License).

Post this on perlmonks.org and see if theres anyone willing to take it on, and no results there go direct to Hunter Goatley, Founder of GPL (I think, if he isn't he should be so there) - King of Mad Goat Mountain, long live the king

Regards
Paul

BTW When you settle for serious damages you owe me a "beer" aka 10% heheheh should been a lawyer (then I've got legs, and a beer belly) (No offence to litigious fraternity hehehehehehehe)

It's important in life to always strike a happy medium, so if you see someone with a crystal ball, and a smile on their face ...

 

[cerb]

Paul,
thanks for the suggestion. But the situation is even worst than you imagine. My code was NEVER released open source.

It is entirely proprietary code I have been using for another project.
WCWS tried to buy a (usage) license of my software for encoding some of their program and not expose their code openly outside. But after they have seen it, they simply went mad and put it on the web with their own copyright. The original sell of the usage license was immediately cancelled (I never received any single cent for it) and they were refunded. They were asked to remove any of my code from their servers (they had set-up a selling area in a couple of days!).

They removed the page the first time (the original page can still be seen on google cache:

http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cach....net/wsencrypt/+perl+encrypter&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

)

They even copied word-by-word my readme file
(

http://216.239.57.100/search?q=cach...rypt/readme.txt+perl+encrypter&hl=en&ie=UTF-8

)
just replacing my name and copyright with theirs and deleting the license that was included in the readme file.

The WCWS chief during a discussion we had when I asked him to remove immediately any of my code from sale, started asking to negotiate for the selling rights on this code. I gave him my offer for those rights, he accepted on a chat conversation (still have it saved) and a few minutes later changed his mind. I told him to delete the whole sale page and stay away from my code...

But after a few days, thinking I would drop the whole thing, they simply installed a new selling page, with a different URL:

http://www.wcws.net/eeas/

They even started advertising it on freashmeat:

http://freshmeat.net/projects/wsperlencrypter/

and also on different perl directories

This is pure and simple a criminal organisation of web-thiefs which believe they can do whatever they want.

This is why is I immediately released a full decoder for my simple program, and I ask everyone to make sure they peers know about this scam and avoid any business whatsoever with such company in the future.

If anyone has any suggestion, I am more than welcome to go ahead. I have full proofs of the whole things, as well as of my code being resold under that name still now without any authorisation whatsoever.

 

[PaulTEG]

If the code was never released GPL, then you would have a case in law based on Intellectual property rights (IPR), and depending on the amount to go to court, you could get a handsome profit.

Go and see a lawyer for a beer to see if there's a possibility of a no-win/no-fee case coming out of it. They're liable to negotiate up 40 or 50 per cent of the settlement, but half a loaf beats no bread.

Another important factor is jurisdiction, where did these events occur.

NB This is not advice, explicit or implied

HTH
Paul

It's important in life to always strike a happy medium, so if you see someone with a crystal ball, and a smile on their face ...

 

[cerb]

Just last note I forgot:

If anyone wishes to help me, one thing I would like to do is to make sure that my free decoder page comes high up in the search engines (for example for searches for 'perl encryption' or similar).
This way any potential customer of these web-thiefs coming from Google or other web searched can be alerted of the scam and see the decoder immediately (which makes the program effectively pointless).

I don't know much about web engines.
So if anyone can help me making sure that the decoding page comes up in the search engines, this would be appreciated.

 

[cerb]

Paul,
I am considering a lawsuit... but look at where these web-thiefs are based... they do not care at all about laws.

The best we can do for now is ruining their reputation and making the program useless.

But if you know of any lawyer that would be happy to take this on with no-win/no-fee, I would pass any detail.... I am based in UK.