Suspected Pirated F-35 on .To

[collensr]

Noticed on my flightsim.to feed this morning that there what looks like a pirated version of the IndiaFoxTecho F-35.

Posted by "Liamh- This is the Fully working indiafoxtecho f-35 addon with all F-35 types including F-35A, F-35B and F-35C"

Lots of comments pointing this out but it seems to have been up a good few hours with no sign of action from the host site and disappointingly some folk are downloading it.

Interesting to see how it plays out

[Priller]

It's taking flightsim.to very long to respond to this. Over 10 hours now...

Priller

[Priller]

Thinking about it, this might be a portover of the older P3D model which is now freeware.

Priller

[collensr]

I hope that's the case ...

[Daube]

Well, I just checked a few seconds ago and I can't see it anywhere on the .to. So looks like they removed it finally ?

[DaveKDEN]

I emailed them about it last night. While it did take overnight, I had an email from 04:05AM (MDT) this morning stating they deleted it...

"Thank you for bringing this matter to our attention. As a responsible website, we take copyright infringement seriously and do not condone such activities.

We have taken action to remove the file from our website and have permanently deleted it from our servers. Please be assured that we will take appropriate steps to prevent similar occurrences in the future. We appreciate your cooperation and thank you for bringing this matter to our attention.
Best Regards
Exquisite / Christoph from Flightsim.to"

[Priller]

One last thought: you have to be pretty stupid to post pirated software on a legit site...

When I checked this morning, it had already been downloaded 68 times. That's 68 people who don't care about copyright. 69 when you add the uploader.

Priller

[DaveKDEN]

One last thought: you have to be pretty stupid to post pirated software on a legit site...

When I checked this morning, it had already been downloaded 68 times. That's 68 people who don't care about copyright. 69 when you add the uploader.

Priller

I downloaded it to check and see if it was an older FSX port over vs. the new for MSFS2020 model. I deleted it as soon as I realized it was the new model and emailed Flightsim.to about it. My guess is there are more than a few people who downloaded it without realizing what it actually was. I give people the benefit of doubt in this case...
PS: I was a beta tester for Dino's old FSX F-35 model, so it was very easy to determine that it was the new model.

[LostPilot]

I downloaded it to check and see if it was an older FSX port over vs. the new for MSFS2020 model. I deleted it as soon as I realized it was the new model and emailed Flightsim.to about it. My guess is there are more than a few people who downloaded it without realizing what it actually was. I give people the benefit of doubt in this case...
PS: I was a beta tester for Dino's old FSX F-35 model, so it was very easy to determine that it was the new model.

I add to the download count for these too, usually. I download them, look at the manifest and the addon content itself to see if there are any obvious indicators of it being payware (or even freeware that should not be redistributed without the author's permission) to properly report it to the site and the dev. It used to be a fairly common occurrence, but I will say that Flightsim.to has gotten better about handling these quicker.

[collensr]

I hope they take some action against this individual (Dino will presumably do so anyway)

Not sure what one should expect or what the "industry standard" would be for a host site like this to act but every second the file is up is potentially lost revenue to the Developer.

[DennyA]

I'm not sure the 12+ hours it took them to pull this down is responsive. Didn't help that trying to report it to them off the website said "only content IP owners can report violations." I PM'd Dino on FB right away, but of course it was the middle of the night in Europe.

I hope they train whatever mod approved this to be a little more alert. The description even said IndiaFoxtEcho in the name. Ridiculously sloppy and doesn't give me much faith that Flightsim.to is doing any kind of reasonable checks on what they allow people to post.

It's very, very unlikely the poster will see any consequences. Maybe Flightsim.to will ban their IP address. There's no practical way for Dino to find or prosecute this person.