Comments on: Updated (Solved): Honesty exists, yes. But not for everybody.

By: Pier

Pier — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 04:27:15 +0000

Dear PZ,
congratulations! You are now officially part of the successfull set in the world.
People copying, selling, cloning, counterfeiting and generally making money out of your free themes, should make you proud and not sad. Nobody copies a crust… But everyone would love to show off a Gauguin or a Monet or a Botticelli in their living room.
You have to accept the fact that people are more than willing to pay for your free themes (like me for example… remember or long emails about the Silver Theme?) so, exactly for that reason there will be plenty of people that want a piece of the action and will try to steal from you and resell to innocent ignoring folks who just need to have one of your themes.
Rejoice! You are now part of that small group of successful people that can sell their work and not just give it away…
I know it's tough to see your babies being sold on ebay.
But it is a very clear sign of your success so… Ok get mad about it for 5 minutes… smash a few phones on the wall… but then think of all the loyal customers who are reporting to you all illegal actions.
This is what you should focus on…. the good people around you… not the bad ones…
Take care and enjoy your success.
Ciao,
Pier Francesco

By: PiZero and the criminal mind | Bollywood Gallery - ifeed.ws

PiZero and the criminal mind | Bollywood Gallery - ifeed.ws — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 16:00:49 +0000

[...] fraternity. Summary: people are re-selling his free themes for profit – you’d better read the full story over at PiZero’s site. How on earth do these rip-off-merchant’s minds [...]

By: Expired Certificate problem fixed! | PiZero Nokia & Symbian Design

Expired Certificate problem fixed! | PiZero Nokia & Symbian Design — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 12:12:37 +0000

[...] pop-up during installation, telling this website’s name. I hope this will help preventing abuses on free [...]

By: thephoneclub

thephoneclub — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 04:41:37 +0000

que maricon saliste PIZERO por unos cuantos temas suvidos a foros ya te pones a llorar Joto

By: Ganesh

Ganesh — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 10:05:08 +0000

Hi Pizero!
There will be always, some people who make money by cheating or by exploiting dumb users… If someone posts, on the ebay, those who pay to get those themes, should have some common sense. They should know that, there ALWAYS ARE free alternatives! If they (those who pay and buy) think that they can get good things, only by paying money, they are the fools….

And as for you worrying, please don't worry about it! It's the way world works and you can do very little about it. As long as there are dumb people, there will be exploiters…

A few measures, which might help you. When installing a theme, you can show that your themes are free and display your site name. You can also embed your site name within your theme (like you've done in some themes).

By: Y-Red

Y-Red — Thu, 18 Sep 2008 01:32:34 +0000

支持你PiZero！

By: meraj

meraj — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 12:22:57 +0000

I'm glad it has been solved, and I hope we have contributed to the pressure, here is what Handango's PR said:
“It is a high priority for Handango to address potential copyright and trademark issues for our developers' products and to do so as soon as we are made aware of potential claims. Unfortunately, this was brought to our attention while several of our content team members were attending the Handango Future Forum at CTIA in San Francisco last week. We have addressed this process issue and you can count on Handango to respond more timely in the event this type of issue should arise again in the future. In the meanwhile, we have now deactivated the “symbianShow” products from our site. We apologize for the delay and any inconvenience for PiZero.”

I will post on that later

By: cembellines

cembellines — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 05:22:13 +0000

Cooooool!! Wait everybody, you're about to see the best Pizero theme ever to celebrate this!! jejeje. It's a joke! Congratulations, very glad.

By: de3pkeeper

de3pkeeper — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 03:32:45 +0000

I just think that in order to reduce to some extent the recurring tendencies of theft you can start building your .sis files with UID within the protected range so that they require signing. And as I found out in my own experience there is no way to repack a .sis file with a new UID to be installable on all devices. This should put off copycats from messing wiht your themes.

By: MrJackHammer

MrJackHammer — Wed, 17 Sep 2008 02:38:53 +0000

“With a little help from your friends”!!!

MrJackHammer

By: Elyaradine

Elyaradine — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 23:40:30 +0000

No, I don't. But hi.

By: PiZero’s free themes misused! « Mobile Pakistan’s Blog

PiZero’s free themes misused! « Mobile Pakistan’s Blog — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 20:42:17 +0000

[...] September 16, 2008 One of my favourite theme-makers PiZero of http://www.pizero.net had an experience of someone taking his Free Symbian Themes and using them for profit. Read his story here [...]

By: jpranarco

jpranarco — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:27:25 +0000

Hi Pizero,
Wow .. I read all of your post here. I really surprised that there are people like that living.
I really understand how mad you are knowing the fact that sick people take advantage
financially from your work.

You are a wonderful theme-maker. In my N95, there are only original theme from Nokia and from Pizero.net. First time I had my N95 I check other sites, but in the last 6 month, I never check other sites,
just check your site.
If it's easier for me to deliver money, I will buy you a beer ..
You really deserve that.

Hopefully I will have a Paypal account in the near future.

Best regards.

By: Stefano

Stefano — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 16:23:47 +0000

So glad, that eventually this bad situation has found the RIGHT solution!!

And now..Keep coming your wonderful themes my dear friend

Best regards

By: Gigi Fibra

Gigi Fibra — Tue, 16 Sep 2008 14:21:21 +0000

Hi mate. Just to say good luck in your investigation. Your themes are great and I think I tried few of them (the free ones). In regards to your concerns, well ... as stated, i really wish you good luck in catching the offender. I am not sure why are you surprised though -- that's the Internet today, that's the piracy today ... This defenitely doesn't promote the EXCELENT free software (unfortunately). The only thing some people get left wth is PRIDE! Pride that they are helping others, pride on the quality of the software they provide.

I'd say you'd need to take a judgement call:

1. kepp persuing scammers - you might catch one or two, but not all of them!
2. Stop doing what you do for free
3. Keep doing it, for free, and move on!

All the best
2.