Recently I became aware that www.cmsmart.net is pirating two my modules Dynamic Category Products Extension, (proof) and Gift Promotions (proof) and selling it from their website as their own work.
This would not do, as they are literally stealing from my 16 month old daugher, to whom all the proceeds from ProxiBlue goes to, via a special account setup for her.
I decided to do something about this.
The article describes the quick and easy steps I followed to have the webpage removed.
I call on all other developers whom are affected by this blatant act of piracy to do the same. Lets shut them down!
Firstly, I do not know if all, or everything on the website www.cmsmart.net is pirated. Maybe some of it is in fact their own work, I really don't know. However, since I caught them red-handed pirating my software, logic dictates that they will be doing the same to others. For all I know everything on their site is pirated....
The owners of the site (see what they look like via their facebook page) are located in VietNam. This was a bit of a bummer, as there would not have been much that can be done due to that location, BUT, they host their site in the USA.
This means that I can use a DMCA request to have the page either removed, or blocked by theit Hosting Provider.The hosting provider has to act upon my request, by Law, or else they could be held liable. NICE!
A few lookups later reveal that cmsmart.net host with 'websiteswelcome.com', which turns out to be a reseller account/private DNS server for HostGator.
HostGator made it really easy to submit a DMCA request. They have an online form :)
It took only a few minutes to complete the form. I pointed them to my page of proof
A couple of hours later, I got a response: My DMCA request was processed and accpted as valid.
Not even 24 hours later, the page, and product was removed from cmsmart.net list of magento products!
SUCCESS
It was soo easy to get done, and it cost me nothing, but a bit of time!
I thus call onto all developers who are having their code, and hard work stolen by these pirates, and act to have it taken down. Together we can hopefully get the entire site taken down, especially if HostGator start to get an influx of requests to have content removed.
CMSmart.net has messed with the wrong developer. How dare they re-sell, and claim, my work is their own! How dare they literally steal money from my daugher!
I will be keeping a close watch on them, to make sure they don't put the content/code back for sale.
PS: As a side note, another site www.ribsoft.com, is also getting this special treatment from me. A DMCA request has been issued to their hosting provider (DreamHost.com) this morning. To note is that they must be affiliated with cmsmart.net. Some product live demos from cmsmart.net end up on the ribsoft.com domain.
I hope this information was helpful. It woudl be great to leave some comments about your success / or failure in getting any of your software removed, or simply ping me with a tweet @proxiblue. It would be great knowing I helped another developer solve their pirating issues via this article.
Additional update. I just found my Gift Promotions Module listed on their site. An old version, but it is clearly mine (Admin screens are idential, 95% of frontend is identical - they seem to have change a few things, but they are minor.)
The Gift Promotions extension was also removed. I also had their blog posts in regards both modules removed.
HostGator was great. Without their help, none of the above would have been possible.
Enjoy the source!