Trying To Lure Suckers, Company Resells Open Source Blender 294
sylphsama writes "A company named 'IllusionMage" deceptively resells a 3D open source animation package (Blender) and claims it as their own. The software, dubbed IllusionMage, portrays flagrant similarities with Blender, although outdated compared to the original. The website itself is a patchwork of sorts, using renders from different users and numerous other packages as a way to impress its visitors. Not only is that a breach of copyright, but they intentionally hide that the software is distributed under the GNU GPL license, rendering it free to use. The Blender Foundation itself has spoken out through its chairman Ton Roosendaal." I love that they promise "Free Updates For Life. All From the Thriving Open Source Community, This Software is Forever Improving."
Re:Legit (Score:5, Interesting)
What he's doing is completely legal.
His customers appear happy, and given that he's marketing to die-hard Windows & Mac users (no Linux version mentioned), the fee probably makes them feel more comfortable. It's a feature...
" Wow this software is incredible. I have owned Maya, 3DMax and PoserPro. I can tell you, this is by FAR, the easiest software to use."
Isaac Oneil - Marion, NC
FlightGear (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:Legit (Score:2, Interesting)
Considering that the site has the same layout and colours to many other scam sites (Warcraft Levelling Guide, How To Pick Up Girls Waay WAY Hotter Than Your Ex, Buy These Meds They Will Fix Everything In Existence), one can safely assume that the customers do not exist.
Re:Legit (Score:3, Interesting)
It's a legitimate stance that fraud is a worse crime than copyright infringement.
Re:Legit (Score:0, Interesting)
Re:Legit (Score:1, Interesting)
I thought artists didn't deserve copyrights anymore and lived on a "failed business model".
Always hard to always stay up to date on the current common wisdom of Slashdot.
It's not that artists don't deserve copyrights on their own works, they need to eat too, it's the fact that a copyright is now automatically granted for life PLUS for another 70 years after death. Also, it's not the artist who live on a failed business model, it's the companies who produce and distribute those works that are. The cost of recording, editing, and distributing are now minimal; artists can do it themselves and keep a better portion of the profits.
Re:Legit (Score:3, Interesting)
There's no logical inconsistency in objecting to plagiarism but not copyright infringement.
Special launch offer expires in Date() + 3 days (Score:3, Interesting)
This part is awesome:
Your Dinky One-Time Investment Is Only $47!
(This is a special launch offer only, we're only opening this for the next 3 days only before the offer closes forever!)
Thats right. Your investment for the entire course is only $47 (this launch offer will closed anytime after February 26, 2011 )
Where February 26, 2011 is: // How many days to add to today // Add 10 days
days = 3;
d = new Date();
now = d.getTime();
d.setTime(now + days * 24 * 60 * 60 * 1000);
document.getElementById("offerEnd1").innerHTML = formatDate(d);
function formatDate(d) {
var months = new Array("January", "February", "March", "April", "May", "June", "July", "August", "September", "October", "November", "December");
return months[d.getMonth()] + " " + d.getDate() + ", " + d.getFullYear();;