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brothersoft.com
miran
Member #2,407
June 2002

Does anyone know what http://www.brothersoft.com is and who is behind it? I don't have time to click through it, I'm just asking if anyone knew.

The thing is, I just got an e-mail from them asking me to confirm registration at their site. As if someone registered there using my email address or something. And they added one of my games to their site (http://www.brothersoft.com/allegro-mini-game-collection-2-258531.html) without ever asking me. They stamped their logo over my screenshots and put the game package on their server for download. Not that the project is really worth anything or that I really care about it, but I see google ads on the site, which means they're making money with it, so I'm not sure if I should be happy with this... :-/

Actually that game was a joint project and I might have at some point given someone permission to do whatever they like with it (and forgot about it), but it still bugs me a bit... :-/

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count
Member #5,401
January 2005

Sites like this get pretty common these days. They just collect free games and put them on their site. Normally they don't inform you about this.
There a was a thread about a diffrent site some time a go where another member found a site with his games and he was not informed about it (can't find it right now).
So I don't think that somebody registered there with your mail, they probably did it themselve. Which will only work when your email adress was in the readme or somewhere?

I have no idea what one can do about sites like this.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
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I've been receiving about two emails a day from them, owing to the large number of (mostly valueless) projects on my website. I also did not register. Having checked the site, they give the outward appearance of being an ordinary download repository and have been taking both Mac & Windows versions of my stuff, so it's unlikely they're grabbing a bunch of existing software, throwing in rootkits and using us to infect people. Or, ummm, whatever your most paranoid theory was.

count
Member #5,401
January 2005

He had no paranoid theory :)
It just doesn't feel right that they are making money (through ads) with his work.

Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
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I think they're probably above Google in the moral sense; that they're sending me only twoish emails a day suggests they're actually testing these products in some way, so they're another self-filling listing service with ads, but possibly also doing something other than switching the computers on and going home.

Of course, "above Google" isn't the most elevated of moral standards.

Neil Walker
Member #210
April 2000
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From memory, they are one of the worst ones, with regard leeching, posting stuff without telling anybody, etc.

They did that with some of our games, i.e. they listed our games, set the download to take from our site and took all the advertising.

I'd ask them to remove it straight away and quote your distribution notice (we have one saying no games to be distributed without prior consent) and if you want to post it, get it with one of the 'better' ones.

Neil.
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CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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Softpedia did that to me, too[1] :P

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Paul whoknows
Member #5,081
September 2004
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Under what license did you release your game? it was freeware or not?

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CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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It was, but the point is: I never registered my account there :P

I believe it also happened to others here, if my memory serves me well.

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Trent Gamblin
Member #261
April 2000
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My games are on dozens of sites I never put them on. I don't mind, it's just extra publicity.

Todd Cope
Member #998
November 2000
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I've received seven e-mails from them in the last two days. My software is typically licensed such that if a distributor intends to make a profit they must contact me for permission. So far my games do not appear in their official listing so they haven't broken the license agreement. I haven't given them permission yet and don't intend to.

blargmob
Member #8,356
February 2007
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Spooky :o

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miran
Member #2,407
June 2002

Two more mails this morning saying two more of my games have been successfully released. ::)

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CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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The best part about softpedia is that they didn't even take the finished product :P (I never even completed the damned game) Yet, they still posted it on their website :P

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Thomas Harte
Member #33
April 2000
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So it's probably safe to assume that they've recently indexed allegro.cc and are following all the links stemming from it?

FrankyR
Member #243
April 2000
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So it's probably safe to assume that they've recently indexed allegro.cc and are following all the links stemming from it?

Definitely sounds like it. I also got a bunch of emails from them in the past week.

All my games are released completely free and open source, so I don't really mind.

CursedTyrant
Member #7,080
April 2006
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I wouldn't mind so much either, if it wasn't a version of the game that doesn't work well :P

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kazzmir
Member #1,786
December 2001
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So what you should do, clearly, is write a program that DoS's these sites and wait for it to be uploaded to the site. Then unsuspecting users will download the program and create a DDoS. When the site goes to investigate what happened they discover that it was their own fault!

MiquelFire
Member #3,110
January 2003
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Softpedia appears to at least test the games first, even if it's to create their own screen shot (depending on how they test it, they may not add your DoS program if they noticed the network being used a bit much)

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ImLeftFooted
Member #3,935
October 2003
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Noo, our games are releasing themselves. Now where will I go to release games no one knows about :'(

Edit:
Ah! They have one of my games too. Creepy.... [1]

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