A Legal Case - Help Required

[khattam_]

Hey ppl,
Help. A legal case here.

*www.i-doser.com has a software called IDoser (which was also given with Digit this month) which is a free software and you need to buy DRuG doses for use available at their store *www.i-doser.com/store at different prices. That DRuG file (*.drg) is simply a Base64 + RC4 decoded text which contains information about the DRuG, picture and the SBG file (Playable with SBaGen, an Open Source Program from which IDoser has been Derived).

Now, I opened the DRuG file in Notepad and saw Base64 in there (any child will guess printable multiline decoded text to be Base64). Then when I decoded (Base64) parts of the text in the DRuG file, I was cluless. Then when I looked at the disassembly of the IDoser player, I found some text reference before the decryption takes place. Then I searched for encryptors that support password protected encryption. And among many, one of them was RC4, a famous stream cypher. When I decrypted the resulting text with RC4 with the string reference as password, I was successful.

Then, me along with some of my friends decided to build an application that could create DRuG files, which are otherwise only available from the IDoser labs. Then, we downloaded open source algorithms for Base64 and RC4 decoding. Also we downloaded source of SBaGen for checking SBG files input by the user. Then built the software, and released it in various websites and forums (including IDoser forum at *www.i-doser.com/forum).

The source is available at request.

Recently a mail hits our inbox saying this:

I-Doser Experience <experience@i-doser.com>


To whom it may concern,



It has come to our attention that you have reverse engineered the I-Doser application and have distributed a .drg creation application along with plans to release additional applications under the I-Doser brand name, and with intent to use these applications to create files compatible with the I-Doser brand software.



We are in possession of your software, email contact information, faqs, and various files that clearly outline your intent to infringe on the I-Doser copyright brand name, and are using code reverse engineered from I-Doser and the licensed sbagen library. It is illegal to use the I-Doser name in any distribution whatsoever, and illegal to reverse engineer software and encryption schemes used in our copyrighted and branded software.



You are required by law to destroy and remove any links to this software both on local and internet related computer. You have 14 days to comply, in written form, or we will be required to take legal action against you in rights of legal copyright laws and software gpl, copyright, and other various laws in which I-Doser is protected. You are also herby required to cease programming on any software related to I-Doser labs or our affiliates.



Please respond to this email or we will be required to escalate this and take legal action.



I-Doser Legal

Lets analyze this mail part by part:

It has come to our attention that you have reverse engineered the I-Doser application and have distributed a .drg creation application along with plans to release additional applications under the I-Doser brand name, and with intent to use these applications to create files compatible with the I-Doser brand software.

Now, the name of our application is titled "_steAlth_'s DRG Author & Reconstructor" and contains no IDoser Brand name. Also, the documentation "FAQ.txt" in the package clearly mentions that we are not from "IDoser labs". And can it be illegal to create application that contains some other brand name. Is Alcohol 120% an illegal application because it contains several brand names such as "Securom" & "SafeDisk". And is it illegal to create files compatible with some other software??

We are in possession of your software, email contact information, faqs, and various files that clearly outline your intent to infringe on the I-Doser copyright brand name, and are using code reverse engineered from I-Doser and the licensed sbagen library. It is illegal to use the I-Doser name in any distribution whatsoever, and illegal to reverse engineer software and encryption schemes used in our copyrighted and branded software.

Again, we are NOT using any of the code from their IDoser application. And using code from SBaGen is legal as its readme says it clearly:

This program is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify
it under the terms of the GNU General Public License as published by
the Free Software Foundation, version 2.

This program is distributed in the hope that it will be useful,
but WITHOUT ANY WARRANTY; without even the implied warranty of
MERCHANTABILITY or FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE. See the
GNU General Public License for more details.

We have also included the SBaGen.txt (containing above info) with our release.

And as it is GNU, IDoser labs should provide SourCode of the modified SBaGen source they use, which they don't so they seem to violate the law. As the GNU included with SBaGen clearly says:

For example, if you distribute copies of such a program, whether
gratis or for a fee, you must give the recipients all the rights that
you have. You must make sure that they, too, receive or can get the
source code. And you must show them these terms so they know their
rights.

However, we are ready to give the source of not only the modified SBaGen code we use, but also the whole program itself. As the GPL states:

If identifiable sections of that work are not derived from the Program,
and can be reasonably considered independent and separate works in
themselves, then this License, and its terms, do not apply to those
sections when you distribute them as separate works. But when you
distribute the same sections as part of a whole which is a work based
on the Program, the distribution of the whole must be on the terms of
this License, whose permissions for other licensees extend to the
entire whole, and thus to each and every part regardless of who wrote it.

So the source of IDoser should also be available for free. This may not be necessary as they only include s1.dll (the SBaGen library) so the exe may not be considered the part of it. But just in case.


And this:

we will be required to take legal action against you in rights of legal copyright laws and software gpl, copyright, and other various laws in which I-Doser is protected.

Does this make any sense now??

And BTW, they have no mention of any Licence in the application or the website which says that DRuG files cannot be created or any software which can create or modify them cannot be created or released. They don't even have any licence agreement included anywhere except when you try to "activate" (aka Open) a DRuG file via their application. The agreement says the following:

USER AGREEMENT FOR DOSE ACTIVATION:

You are about to activate a dose in the I-Doser Application. Once you click the "Agree" button below, you agree to the following User Agreement, and the dose will be ready for administration.

IF YOU DO NOT AGREE WITH THIS USER AGREEMENT, PLEASE SELECT "NO," AND THE DOSE WILL NOT BE LOADED.

You are authorized to use this dose on only one computer. If you wish to play the dose on additional computers, you will need to purchase supplementary copies of the dose. Attempting to play the dose on more than one computer is in violation of this user agreement.

There will be no refunds on purchased doses that do not work due to system software or hardware problems, errors within the I-Doser Application, or general user errors. Doses are purchased as-is.

It is highly recommended that you carefully read through all tutorials, FAQs, etc. supplied through both the I-Doser Application and I-Doser.com. If you have not fully familiarized yourself with the practice and theory behind binaural beat brainwaves, then please select "No," before continuing to administer your dose. Incorrectly administrating a dose could degrade its effectiveness.

I-Doser makes no medical, psychological, physical, or otherwise, claims to the effectiveness of the I-Doser Application or it's included or purchased doses. The use of the I-Doser Application and included or purchased doses should be used for entertainment purposes only.

Can we sue them instead for threatning us and any other charges? We won't but at least we will have a point when we reply to them.

Please help by responding to this post.

 

[praka123]

For GPL codes,u must give the proper credit and credential to the original contributors.but dont get the first part u explained.

 

[khattam_]

For GPL codes,u must give the proper credit and credential to the original contributors.but dont get the first part u explained.

What part??

I recently figured out that IDoser itself was in a case:

*uazu.net/sbagen/i-doser.html