Niche Socializer (NS) is a social networking product which promised to give Internet entrepreneurs the same benefits and power as other social networks like FaceBook, Twitter, MySpace, etc. This product was launched on 10 April 2009 by Andrew X and Steven Lee Jones as their own creation and had many other renowned Internet Marketers as affiliates to boost their sales.
We also purchased NS for a specific niche market which we wanted to expand, but found their support services to be slow while instruction videos did not cover all aspects of the software. According to postings at the Warrior Forum, it seems that other buyers of NS also experienced difficulties with after sales support. On 15 June 2009, the following message was noted at our website where the NS software was installed:
This Account Has Been Suspended
Please contact the billing/support department as soon as possible.This message was an obvious embarrassment to our company, as visitors may conclude that we are unable to pay our bills or that we may have a poor payment record.
This incident triggered a chain of events as we tried to determine the exact causes of the problem. We have always conducted business honorably, professionally and can never be associated with any product or service that does not comply with our standards or value systems, or which may harm our company’s public image.
It was during our investigations that it was discovered that there may be a conflict of interests concerning the intellectual property of the software at the website. This conflict of interests had to be clarified, so we made enquiries at all the stakeholders about the matter. Here are some of the responses received:
WEBHOST
This was the response from the Hosting provider when we enquired about the message at the site:
...Well Niche Socializer uses phpfox and phpfox is suspended - Your hosting account itself is not suspended...PHPFOX
This is an extract of the response from PhpFox when we tried to determine the relationship between PhpFox and Niche Socializer:
...Andrew X and Steven are not affiliated in any way with phpFox and has been releasing the phpFox Script as their own, with other words the customers who have been running the unlicensed phpFox sites are running on "pirated" sites...
...I am terribly sorry to hear you have fallen victim for these men. You will need to order a phpFox License from us in order to run your phpFox site with a license...
Once you have a phpFox license we can notify our Piracy Team to tell your hosting company that you have valid phpFox licenses...
ANTI PIRACY INVESTIGATORS
This was the response from antipiracy investigators when we enquired there about the matter:
...Niche Socializer [Dot] Com is a scam not associated with phpFoX but selling its software as their product. Obviously the use is unlicensed by the REAL owners and cannot be permitted...
NICHE SOCIALIZER
This was the response from the Niche Sicializer Helpdesk when we enquired about the matter:
...I wanted to personally apologise to you having trouble accessing your websites the past few Hours. Our server has been the victim of a nasty DDOS attack that has affected the website performance. This is not an issue with your hosting account and they can do little to help, we are working to resolve this issue, we are working to ensure everything is good to go. As well as removing the need for your site to be dependent on our servers. Once again, you do NOT need to contact your hosting provider, as we are going to fix the issue at our end. Rest assured, your hosting is fine...
One of the NS affiliates, who also bought the product, got the following explanation from one of the NS owners:
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It's Andrew from Niche Socializer here. Thank you for contacting us.
As you have probably noticed your website is back up and running. I wanted to personally explain what happened earlier today and some of the issues over the past week.
Firstly, the "suspended" page actually had nothing to do with your site or your hosting package. What it was referring to was a php licensing company's website being temporarily suspended or shutdown (not sure which). We pay this reputable third party company a lot of money to 'check valid licenses' of our software, (which is common practice in the industry) so this is what caused your site to go down. We immediately contacted them and got the issue sorted, which is why your site is back up and running.
This truly was beyond our control, and it unfortunately affected thousands upon thousands of other software users throughout the world (as this company services a large number of software products, and all license checks were affected).
As to issues in the past week with speed, it was actually a similar issue with the same company. What happened was this license company changed the server their hosting package was on and our license check uses an IP so the IP we had became invalid. When we changed it to their new IP the problem was solved, as you would have noticed.
The above explanation is rather technical, so if you do not understand it please know that it really doesn't matter. What matters is the fact that your website is back up and running, and that we are working on an additional solution so that this problem does not occur in the future. This downtime affected thousands of software uses throughout the world today, and we're truly sorry that it affected some of our NS customers. If you have any problems in the future please just let me know.
Best wishes,
Andrew
PS We have some exciting NS announcements coming up, as we're bringing out an exciting update which will be free for all our members... so stay tuned.
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The explanation offered by the NS Help Desk and NS Owner seem to differ somewhat, and it is clear that both did not want anybody to contact their webhosts. We have already done that and needed clarification about the piracy allegations.
The Niche Socializer vendors however did not respond to any questions about the piracy allegations, so we decided to publish the issue at the Warrior Forum
[ http://tinyurl.com/lexmru ]. Other buyers of NS also experienced the same issues and also tried to get clarification about the piracy allegations, but to no avail thus far.
Despite the above, it was still no proof that Niche Socializer was pirated. We also needed clarification about what constitutes pirated software.
As far as we could determine, cloned software may have the same look, feel and functions as other popular software, provided that the look and feel is not patented, and the software code (program or script) must be totally unique without copying any part from the original. Our investigations indicated that the Niche Socializer (NS) software and PhpFox software were identical for all practical reasons, except for a few modifications.
Two questions that had to be answered to determine if NS is using pirated software:
1. What are the licensing conditions of the original software owner?
2. Who is the original software owner?LICENSING
The PhpFox software is not Open Source and that is clear from their license agreement that can be viewed by anybody. This is a direct quote from their license agreement: '
phpFox, its source code and files are original works exclusively owned by "Benc Enterprises AB" and subject to Worldwide Copyright Law'.
We did not research the licensing conditions of the 'PHP scripting language or platforms', but assume that it is open for use by anybody, and that the applications built using the language can be licensed. This is different from using Open Source or Linux source codes.
Furthermore a PhpFox license is required for every individual site running the PhpFox script. PhpFox can switch off unlicensed sites while licensed sites can receive upgrades according to the options purchased per site. Apparently that is why the messages were displayed on sites running the Niche Socializer script.
ORIGINAL SCRIPT OWNERS
Any visitor to a site running the PhpFox script can verify the origin of the script.
We investigated some of the sites known to use the NS script and found all, including our own site, to originate from PhpFox. Screen-prints were taken as proof.
It is therefore our conclusion that Niche Socializer is a scam, using the PhpFox script without their permission and in violation of PhpFox’s license conditions.
THE LAW
The law is clear about buying 'stolen goods' or using 'pirated material'. The question NS buyers should ask themselves is on which side of the law do they want to be? PhpFox is prepared to offer discounts to Niche Socializer buyers wanting to get legal. The other options would be to discontinue using the NS script or to stay with Niche Socializer and face whatever comes knocking at their doors.
LEGAL DEMAND BY PHPFOX
This is an extract of a demand we received on 26 Jun 2009 from PhpFox:
...I am an agent authorized to act on behalf of Benc Enterprises AB, Box 16019, 103 21 Stockholm, Sweden who exclusively own phpFoX, a social networking software.
The licensing database indicates that there is no current license linked to the use of the above identified software's (by reported URL or IP address). If you do not have a license, please delete the software or license it immediately...We requested a refund from the Niche Socializer Help Desk, using the above demand as proof that we are unable to continue using their software. Although they refunded us, it is doubtful that other NS buyers will be refunded if they wait too long.
NS buyers should therefore decide if they wish to risk losing it all or else they should demand a refund while they can.BOTTOM LINE
1. Niche Socializer is pirated because their code is NOT unique! It was copied directly from PhpFox and only the licensing part was modified. What are the chances of two original scripts being exact replicas with spaces and notes galore?
2. The PhpFox script is not an Open Source script, which is evident from their license agreement.
3. There is solid evidence that Niche Socializer was pirated from PhpFox, as the origin of the script is clearly indicated. This proves that Niche Socializer did not only copy the PhpFox script, but they were stupid enough to leave the name of the original owner in ‘their’ script.Niche Socializer was sold at $997 each (Excluding advanced monthly memberships at $97). The owners indicated during the launch of the product that sales would be limited to 1000. If this limitation were applied and some buyers opted for the monthly memberships,
this scam would exceed $1Million in value. This is probably one of the biggest scams to hit the Internet marketing community in recent times!
Scam Alert Network
Scam Alert Network
