Response from FTPPro

[FTPPro () FTPPRO COM (FTPPro)]

To Whom It May Concern,

To address the concern that your subscribers have expressed:

     *** FTPPro does NOT ‘glean’ Passwords. ***

It should be noted that the person who originally posted the complaint
against our program is an active user of ‘warez’ sites. Another ISP has
informed us that they have also received numerous complaints about this user
from other companies, who have also received hundreds of invalid
registrations which have been submitted by this user.

This user’s actions have caused damage to our business, as records for our
authorized users have been overwritten. We are currently preparing legal
action against this user, and several other persons who have also
participated in the illegal distribution of ‘warez’ copies of our product.
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It is impossible to run FTPPro without first accepting the terms of our User
Agreement, which indicates that we will send an email message to the Server
which is accessed by any unauthorized user, to inform them of this abuse.
This obviously does NOT require a password.

By first accepting the FTPPro User Agreement, and then using an unauthorized
copy, the abuser is fully aware that their identity will be revealed, along
with their falsified credit card information. Therefore, our email message
to inform this user’s ISP of their abuse could not possibly be interpreted
as a violation of their privacy.
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During the past week, we have received numerous profane and threatening
messages from your subscribers. Those messages have included ridiculous
statements such as the following:

     “the US has no meaning whatsoever in 99% of the world.”

     “you er n idyut”

Your subscribers who use ‘warez’ copies of software should have a LOT more
to be worried about, than just getting busted for their unauthorized use.
Many damaging viruses have been spread by these illegal ‘warez’ programs.
-------------------------------------------
I am sure that your newsgroup/mailing list provides valuable services to
your subscribers. However, the rude and threatening email that we have
received during the past week is not of any use to us.

Therefore:

IMPORTANT: Please immediately remove FTPPro from your Newsgroup/Mailing List
distribution.

We do not wish to receive any more email messages from your subscribers.

Thank you,

Sabine Schmidt
Sabine Consulting