Cheers Curt,
I'll keep writing letters to any e-site that publishes his material. I've also
asked my facebook friends to click on his ads, then go back and remove them for
being misleading.
For at least the last 20 years I've happily stood up and raised my fist against
many persons or organizations (governments included) who have willingly
disadvantaged others, through greed, racism, bigotry, fascism, religious
intervention, and more. As you say its OK to rebrand and sell fgfs, but the
slimy means by which this scam makes its money gets a raised fist from me. Most
of us do an honest days work in this contrived monetary society - those who
gather wealth to the disadvantage of others (there are a LOT of these) should
beware - it might only be matter of time before the economic crisis and other
world issues serve as a catalyst for critical mass of actions from angry people.
Regards,
Chris Wilkinson, YBBN/BNE.
________________________________
From: Curtis Olson <curtol...@gmail.com>
To: FlightGear developers discussions <flightgear-devel@lists.sourceforge.net>
Sent: Wed, 1 December, 2010 3:30:47 AM
Subject: Re: [Flightgear-devel] (no subject)
Thanks Chris,
Your letter seems pretty fairly written. What's emerging as my biggest concern
with this guy is the number of people we are hearing from who haven't been able
to get a refund without filing a complaint with their credit card company and
going to extreme measures. That makes the prosim 100% moneyback guarantee
sound
pretty flimsy ... not that a new person would know that.
So from my point of view:
- rebranding and selling flightgear: ok and within the terms of the GPL
- doing everything possible to hide the fact that it's flightgear: slimy
- proflightsim marketing tactics: extreme sliminess, pushing ethical boundaries
- not honoring your 100% money back guarantee and taking care of your
customers:
that could be downright illegal.
If this guy would take care of his customers, he wouldn't have to work so hard
to find new ones. :-)
Thanks,
Curt.
On Mon, Nov 29, 2010 at 8:43 PM, Chris Wilkinson wrote:
To whom it may concern,
>
>I note that you are hosting articles created by author Dan H Freeman. Please
>be
>aware that Mr Freeman appears to be running a scam. He says he is behind
>ProFlightSimulator, or software with variations on that name. The software can
>be purchased over the internet, and various claims are made as to it be being
>the most realistic simulator ever. In reality this software is nothing but a
>copy of open-source flight simulator FlightGear (fgfs), and an out-of-date
>verison of that at best. That fact is barely conceded or alluded to on his
>website.
>
>Please also be aware that "Dan H Freeman" may be an alias. Previously the name
>"Charlie Taylor" was used on his website, but was recently removed after I
>linked that name back to a historical figure in aviation history, Charles E
>Taylor, the "3rd Wright Brother", whose work ensured the Wright Flyer was able
>to take to the air. It is my belief that other opensource softwares are being
>scammed by this same person or organization. A software named Celestia (an
>opensource astronomy software) has also been "copied", and the person
>mentioned
>on the website for that copy ("John Bayer") also relates to a historical
>figure
>in astronomy, Johann Bayer, who created the first complete celestial atlas
>hundreds of years ago. It is obvious that the names put forward for each
>software are taken from historical data related to each software, in an
>attempt
>to hide who the scammer really is.
>
>FlightGear is released under the GPL v2, which allows some concessions to
>selling the software. However it is my belief, and the belief of a number of
>people within the FlightGear opensource community, that the conditions of the
>GPL v2 licence are not being followed completely with the sale and
>distribution
>of this software.
>
>Hence I would like to request that you consider removing Mr Freemans articles
>from your website until such time as the validity of his enterprise is
>determined. However legal Mr Freemans enterprise may or may not be, his
>ethical
>and moral standing is without doubt very poor. There are a number of people
>who
>recently have attested to being ripped off by this man, so to prevent more
>people losing money to this scam please consider this request seriously.
>
>Best regards,
>
>Chris Wilkinson, Brisbane, Australia.
>FlightGear community member.
>
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--
Curtis Olson:
http://www.atiak.com - http://aem.umn.edu/~uav/
http://www.flightgear.org - http://www.flightgear.org/blogs/category/curt/
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