Sothink’s Name Cleaned On AMO ! BUT Is There A Stolen Code Problem ?! (The Scumbags Hall of Shame - part 3) Update From Paul
Please read the Update from Paul we have added after our post.
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Hi friends!
It was a false positive. ! … Like a few 4Free’ers have supposed on The Scumbags Hall of Shame (part 2) . Sothink confirmed on the list ?.
We can only be glad for this happy-ending for Sothink and maybe the interesting debate on 4Free had a very small contribution ( among other articles on other sites, of course ).
Please note that Sothink SWF Decompiler 4.5 ( worth $ 71.99 ) was acclaimed on 4Free … And the promotion still works ( HAS ANYBODY TRIED THE FREE LICENSE WITH THE LATEST VERSION V5,4 ? )
Thanks to Alan Baxter for letting us know about the official Update on the AMO Security Issue … And thanks to all who have contributed !
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Update on the AMO Security Issue
Last week, we disclosed two instances of suspected malware in experimental add-ons on AMO. Since that disclosure, we’ve worked with security experts and add-on developers to determine that the suspected trojan in Version 4.0 of Sothink Video Downloader was a false positive and the extension does not include malware. The same investigation also confirmed that the Master Filer extension included a valid instance of a trojan. Our estimate of 6,000 affected downloads has been revised to under 700. The Sothink Video Downloader has been re-enabled on AMO. We apologize to our users and the developers of Sothink for any inconvenience this has caused.
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BUT …
We can’t help to notice another issue on this Sothink product LOL ! See Slashdot.org -Sothink Violated the FlashGot GPL and Stole Code and the reaction from Giorgio Maone the developer of the well-known Flash Got Firefox add-on.
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Update - Paul’s comment tells us that - similar to Liberkey ( see HERE ) - Sothink has practically recognized their fault and already solved the problem by releasing their code/modifications under the GPL.
Thank you Paul!
It’s exactly like the Liberkey situation with one exception, Sothink has openly changed its ways after this incident not by shooting another salvo at FlashGot but by answering to Giorgio Maone on the subject in the Mozilla complaints pages here
If you read everything (top to bottom), you will see Giorgio Maone himself defusing the matter after receiving a letter from Sharon Lee, Customer Service, SourceTec Software.
It’s also interesting to note that this conclusion was not carried over to the original topic that you talk about in the 4Free article making it seem that Sothink is still the monster to beat.
Coming clean should work both ways!
You can also see here (in post #10) ,the clearly suffering from “Paranoia” poster called Brina says: It would be interesting to see what other code they have “borrowed” in “THEIR” work from other software developers !!!!
someone should check it out.
You can see he “assumes” that they are “Evil” and have stolen everything from everybody!
And you know the saying: Never “assume” because that makes an “Ass” out of “U” and “me” :p
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Related posts:
- The Scumbags Hall of Shame (part 2) . Sothink confirmed on the list ? (Update 3: The debate continues ! - February 8)
- The Aimersoft Situation … Leading To … The Scumbags Hall of Shame
- Sothink SWF Decompiler 4.5 ( worth $ 71.99 ) - 4 Free!
- Update to the TrialPay tip
- Has IOBit Stolen Malwarebytes’ Intellectual Property ?
- SWF Encrypt 4.0 (from Amayeta) - 4 Free (Update - Franck’s Rant)
- Prevx SafeOnline - 4Free (Update)
- The Photo Pos Pro Registration Solution From Our Friend Pilgrim And Zott ( Updated )
- Magix Samplitude 10 SE ( worth $49.00 ) - Free License. UPDATE - Installer Found !!
- Free 2D & 3D Content - Content Paradise (Smith Micro) Birthday Gift Bag 2010 (Last Two Days!) UPDATE
9 Responses to “Sothink’s Name Cleaned On AMO ! BUT Is There A Stolen Code Problem ?! (The Scumbags Hall of Shame - part 3) Update From Paul”
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Always a pleasure to see a good (positive) debate
Glad to see Sothink come out clean on this, had worked with them on a giveaway and was shocked to see them like this. Good to see the discussion on 4Free community yielding some real nice results for the software world. Let us now wait and watch what comes out of the FlashGot issue!
It’s exactly like the Liberkey situation with one exception, Sothink has openly changed its ways after this incident not by shooting another salvo at FlashGot but by answering to Giorgio Maone on the subject in the Mozilla complaints pages here:
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Read the rest in the update to the main article.
Thank you Paul!
Its good to here it was a false positive. Keep up the good work I like to here it
My 4.5 email and code does not work for 5.4.
Oh well - worth a try.
Just curious as to why version 4.0 (the version in question) is not available for download. Will it be added back?
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addons/versions/6541
I am glad for Sothink.
We should also realize that it is not always easy being a developer! For dealing with viruses and trojans, a developer is also relying on security software and may not be deploying all 20+ of them to make sure there are no infections or false positives. A developer may not really be at fault if a trojan somehow lands into their software unless they put it on purpose. A developer certainly needs to exercise caution since (a) their software would impact a lot of people, and (b) it could affect their public image!
Coming to open-source licensing, you would think it is easier for developers. Two issues can happen still though:
(1) Of the whole team of developers, some developer may violate open-source licenses without realizing even though the company as a whole is unaware of it. Microsoft fell for this recently and later apologized. This thus maps to the difficulty level involved in educating all the developers in the team, which can be an issue for big companies.
(2) If you have tried to read the terms and conditions of a few open source licenses, you would realize that you need lawyers to interpret it correctly and there still are some gray areas involved. A small developer may not be able to afford those lawyers so readily.
I am not sure if either of these applies to Sothink, but their fixing of the problem is a good sign.
“Thanks to Alan Baxter for letting us know about the official Update on the AMO Security Issue”
You’re welcome. I’m glad AMO did more analysis and posted the results. It would have been nice if AMO had said something like “Preliminary malware scans have indicated there may be a problem with these two extensions. We’re temporarily pulling these extensions while we do additional analysis. We’ll get back to you with the results.” Well, they didn’t. Nobody’s perfect and I’m sure they’ve learned from this experience. Life goes on.
Hello all..
It was such a nice debate.
I enjoyed reading that..
Thank you..