Hi all,

Most will be aware of the recent controversy concerning DVDInfoPro in naming CDFreaks as a source of piracy for the software, amongst several other long-running issues.

Seems NicW has made a formal statement about all this:

http://www.netfarer.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=312

Form your own opinions....

Interesting post, i personally won't get in the middle of that fight, i think its between nicw and freaks...I don't know the story behind so i cannot judje who's fault is what and where...There are times where people do make mistakes, no-one is perfect (for sure only god)..

(in reply to zebra)

One of the root issues has not been fully addressed,

IS there spyware, or an unauthorized "phone home" in DVDinfopro?


I would maintain it's the users right to delete file components or alter registry keys to defeat adware/spyware - and the software author's right to detect that and the program not to run - and nothing gets passge through my firewall that doesn't have good reason to.

As for Nic's behaviour in "outing" the author of certain leaked tools for Liteon tweaking.... well, there aren't words to describe that!

(in reply to emperor)

Interestingly, he has made a new statement:

http://www.netfarer.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=314

I also see this kind of thing as very unfortunate. Sometimes people don't get along and there is bad blood.

Still, I think it's wise to just to try and move on: promote the positive and try to ignore the negative. Criticism is always welcome, but negativity alone rarely takes things forward.

I hope this thing will be over soon and all parties can continue to work on positive matters.

Best luck to you all involved.

friendly regards,
halcyon

PS I try not to get involved in this. The last time I tried to do it in the friendly and constructive spirit of reconciliation, I got sorely misunderstood, mislabelled and attacked against. Tought me a lesson :)

(in reply to zebra)

Your comments are always welcome Halcyon. Your a great idea's man!

quote:

ORIGINAL: zebra

Interestingly, he has made a new statement:

http://www.netfarer.com/forums/index.php?showtopic=314

I think he's made a good decision if he sticks with it. I don't think things can really be "resolved" between both parties... at least at this time.

(in reply to zebra)

quote:

ORIGINAL: Matthew

One of the root issues has not been fully addressed,

IS there spyware, or an unauthorized "phone home" in DVDinfopro?

I realise that users today are aware of, and concerned about SPYWARE." and your question is a valid question One of the most respected and well known programs I know of is Webroot spy sweeper. If a program such as webroot states something is "SPYWARE", then it raises a concern. If my program or site was detected as such I would address it.

My program checks for an internet connection. then check for the "notify for updates" option in settings. If enabled it attempts to download "dvdinfopro3vers.txt" file. This file is a three byte file containing the latest version number. A comparison is then made between it and one you are running. If a newer one is found it reports that.

Thats it!! nothing more, no information is gathered, stored, sent, retreived or anything.

I am not prepared to discuss anything about the other topic. This is the and one and only thing I will mention, so any other replies will be ignored. All I will say is, the information you have is incomplete. So it would be unwise to form a judgement. It would be like trying to write an essay on an entire book, of which you only have access to read one chapter.

(in reply to Matthew)

Nice post, and very true...... I use a firewall, and another program that I won't mention, that tells besides when a file is trying to access the internet, exactally what it does afterwards......

I'll be the first to post what NIC has said is 100 percent true! There is "NO" spyware in his program......

Also, note that I don't use the program (it's a fine program, I just don't need it) but I did fully install 5 versions, and NONE of them contain spyware.

(in reply to nicw)

same here.
I run different spyware scanners and none have detected dvdinfo as such.

*off topic*
if ou don't use dvdinfo, what do you use?
I have not tried the latest dvdinfo but the cpu usage seems to be kind of high

(in reply to MP3Mogul)

In the common parlance, then, it does "phone home", and unless that is executed entirely by user command or with a 100% opt-out, then it will be seen to be "trying to sneak out" - mind you, maybe it's better to catch something making a connection, and assess if it has any business doing so - some things are a lot less honest.

In the scale used by the regulars on my more paranoid newsgroups, that bahaviour would be seen as highly suspect, just like the "phone home" in Serif's free software.

*off topic*
My first scanning program was Doctor CDR
My second was CDspeed
My third was Kprobe
I've got DVDInfopro as well, and DVD Identifier - I tend to use them to cross check identification.

Since a 4x Kprobe plot is the comparison standard at CDfreaks, and I'm a Liteon drive sufferer, I tend to use that more than anything else.

(in reply to S33K3R)

I think that Nicw and all user should pass this whole issue and keep their minds at important issues, like hardware/software etc, as I said there are times, we may angry with some people, its better to solve those issues by personal email contacts by rather coming at open "War" and not contribute anything useful to the community...

(in reply to Matthew)