My Turn: I Try to Stop a Wii Homebrew Scam Site

This was really more of an intellectual experiment than something entirely serious. I was tired of seeing so many people complain about these illegal homebrew selling scams so I decided to see exactly how hard it is to take one down. With Daco's (the guy who made Priiloader) help, we quickly found a site illegally selling an old version of Dop-IOS MOD (now known as DOP-Mii). Our target site: http://myhomebreware.com

Almost never does any one person run a website alone. Usually, they use a service to host the website. And in this case, they also used a service to sell their product on the site. So our plan of attack was simple. Send angry letters to the hosting service, the ClickBank transaction service, and last but not least, the website owner himself. With luck, one of these parties would stop the website at least temporarily.

You can obtain the name, address, and e-mail address of the hosting server as well as the name, address, and e-mail address of the person who runs the site with very little effort. Simply go to a site that offer whois domain tools ( like this one http://whois.domaintools.com/ ) and enter in the domain of the site ( for example: http://arikadosblog.blogspot.com ) and you'll be rewarded with all of the information you seek.

When I got the information of http://myhomebreware.com , all I could get was that the site was hosted by http://godaddy.com hosting service. I checked through GoDaddy archives and I could find no existence of the site. In other words, the site was claiming to be hosted by a place it wasn't really hosted. Daco, who has a knack for things like this, looked into it and made a startling discovery. The server was being run through a proxy service! This means that the proxy server would only give us fake information in lieu of the real information. Daco figured out the service they were using (again, he has a knack for this) so I fired off a letter to them to see if I could get them to stop supporting the site. If so, I could rerun the whois check and get the real server information. 

Here is the letter I sent:

To whom it may concern,

Hello, my name is Arikado. I am a Wii "homebrew" developer. This means that I spend my spare time developing unlicensed software for the Nintendo Wii in efforts of scientific inquiry, personal pleasure, and to document my work for people with similar interests to mine. Everything that I do is voluntary, in other words, I have never been payed a single cent for anything that I have done.

 My work on the Nintendo Wii is all fun and games and a great way to pass the time when you're snowed inside. Unfortunately, there are people who wish to sell my freely available work and profit from it without my consent. As my Nintendo Wii "homebrew" software is licensed under the GPL this is illegal to do.

In particular a site which uses your service, MYHOMEBREWARE.COM, is illegally selling my freely made software. I am currently working to immediately cease and desist the sale of my software and possibly even seek reparation in return for the money that was made at my expense.

As MYHOMEBREWARE.COM uses your service, it is seemingly impossible for me to track down who is behind the site. I have attempted to e-mail them directly and I have gotten no response. I have also attempted to e-mail clickbank (an online financial transaction service which they use) and have gotten no response from them yet. If you refuse to allow MYHOMEBREWARE.COM to continue to use your service, I will be able to continue my pursuit of justice with them.

In particular, the software of mine which I am told they are illegally selling is my Dop-IOS MOD program: http://code.google.com/p/dop-iosmod

Another piece of software they are illegally selling is made by my friends called the HackMii Installer. My friends have a webpage with information regarding the illegal sale of their software here: http://hbc.hackmii.com/scam

To reiterate before I close this letter, I am asking you to no longer allow MYHOMEBREWARE.COM to use your service in order for me to continue my pursuit closing them down. As they are using your service to to perform illegal activity anonymously under your service, I find this to be an abuse of your service and justification for you to no longer continue to allow MYHOMEBREWARE.COM to use your service.

Sincerely,

Genya Arikado

Before I go any further, I would like to quickly point out as I mentioned in the letter that I sent a similar letter to ClickBank a few days earlier and had yet to receive a response from them at time of writing this letter.

Months ago, scanff (the dev of WiiGrindRadio and Bash the Castle) had complained to PayPal about a site illegally selling WiiGrindRadio and other homebrew. PayPal, within less than 8 hours, revoked all support for the site and the owner for it's service. The site then used ClickBank in lieu of PayPal. scanff sent the same letters to ClickBank that he did to PayPal. ClickBank told him that they would do nothing unless told otherwise by someone with legal authority (apparently they do not care that the site violated their own user agreement contract). In short: ClickBank sucks.

Anyways, several days go by. I figured that at this point the proxy service was going to be unresponsive as ClickBank and I should just give up. Then I got this exciting e-mail:

Dear Genya Arikado,

Your message concerns the alleged infringement of your (or your client’s) works regarding the domain name MYHOMEBREWARE.COM. We request that your supply the following information in order to process your claim:

1. A good faith certification, under penalty of perjury, stating:
1.  Person making request is an authorized representative of the works.
2. The work infringes the rights of another party.
3.  The name of such said party.
4. The works being infringed.
5. That use of works claimed to be infringing at issue is not defensible.

We appreciate your cooperation in this matter.

William V. Rose

Office of the General Manager

Domains By Proxy, Inc.

generalmanager@domainsbyproxy.com

For a quicker and more convenient process, please submit your future complaints by following the revised instructions found on the Domains by Proxy Legal Page:

 http://domainsbyproxy.com/LegalAgreement.aspx?prog_id=

 

I quickly responded to them:

Dear William V. Rose,

I hereby willingly submit your requested information which is to the best of my knowledge entirely accurate as part of my claim against MYHOMEBREWARE.COM. I will backup up my statements with links to relevant information to further ratify my claims.

1. I am labeled as an owner of the software Dop-IOS MOD which I created by the official subversion repository for the software (operated by googled) here: http://code.google.com/p/dop-iosmod . Furthermore, there is other software being illegally sold by the offending website which I will list in point 4. I do not represent nor do I imply to represent any software other than Dop-IOS MOD.

2. Dop-IOS MOD is licensed under the GPL license: http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/gpl.html . This software is being sold by the offending website for profit without my consent which violates the GPL. As stated in point 1, there is other software protected under similar licenses and in some cases same license which I do not represent but will mention in point 4.

3. I am not the sole developer of Dop-IOS MOD, there is no name for the collaborative efforts of myself and my fellow developers. So I give you the names of all parties being infringed upon by the illegal sale of Dop-IOS MOD (as listed on the subversion repository): Myself; castlevania7689@yahoo.com, Lunatik.CN@gmail.com, giantpune@gmail.com, and themanwithnoaddress@googlemail.com. Other parties being infringed upon whom I do not represent will be listed in point 4 as stated previously along with their infringed software.

4.The Dop-IOS MOD software which I am an owner of and represent is being infringed upon by the sale of it without my consent which violates the GPL. Furthermore, here is a list of other software which I do not represent but is illegal to sell:

[*]HackMii Installer, called boot.elf in the software being sold, owned by http://hackmii.com
[*]IOS38-64-v3610.wad copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.com )
[*]NeoGammaR7.wad which contains code inside it's banner copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.com ) and an executable copyrighted by WiiPower ( http://gbatemp.net/index.php?showuser=139019 )
[*]USB Loader GX-UNEO_Forwarder.wad which was created and licensed under http://wadder.net
[*]USB_Loader_GX-ULNR-r688.wad which contains a banner copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.com ) and an executable licensed under the GPL and copyrighted by the people USB Loader GX Team ( http://code.google.com/p/usbloader-gui/ )
[*]Installer program for cIOS rev 14 which is copyrighted and licensed under the GPL by Waninkoko ( http://www.teknoconsolas.es/blogs/waninkoko )
[*]Homebrew Browser which is copyrighted by teknecal
[*]Bannerbomb which is copyrighted by Comex ( http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/ )

5. I assure you that the sale of the works in point 4. including the ones I do not claim to represent violates legal licenses as evidenced by information contained within the websites I linked to. This is an issue which I find to be entirely non-defensible and highly illegal.

I truly appreciate your response and obvious concern over this matter. You have me deepest gratitude.

Sincerely,
Genya Arikado
castlevania7689@yahoo.com

And then they sent back:

Dear Genya Arikado,

 

We are in receipt of your complaint regarding the domain name MYHOMEBREWARE.COM. 

 

We have forwarded your complaint via email to our customer.  In this email we requested that our customer contact you no later than March 18th, 2010.  If our customer fails to respond to our request, we may then disclose the registrant’s contact information.

 

Domains By Proxy (hereinafter DBP) provides a proxy registration service that allows individuals to register a domain name while maintaining their anonymity.  Since DBP is listed as the registrant of all domain names for which it provides service, it may appear that DBP operates or has an interest in the domain name or website.  That is not the case; DBP is neither a domain name registrar, nor a hosting provider. 

 

As Domains By Proxy does not have the ability to remove content from any website for which we provide our proxy service, you will need to contact the hosting provider.  Generally the operators of the DNS name servers and the hosting providers are the same.  For your convenience, we have listed the hosting provider below:

 

CrystalTech Web Hosting Inc.
1125 W. Pinnacle Peak Road, Suite 103
Phoenix,  AZ  85027
USA

+1-602-263-0300
abuse@crystaltech.com

 

Please let us know if you have any questions.

 

Kind regards,

 

William V. Rose

Office of the General Manager
Domains By Proxy, Inc.

generalmanager@domainsbyproxy.com

 

For a quicker and more convenient process, please submit your future complaints by following the revised instructions found on the Domains by Proxy Legal Page:

 

 http://domainsbyproxy.com/LegalAgreement.aspx?prog_id

So this was wonderful news. I now had the real hosting service behind the site. Furthermore, I would get the contact information of the person who runs the site on March 18th if he did not contact me by then. Rather than e-mail the hosting service, I decided to wait it out.

On March 16th I was contacted by a Chicago lawyer representing the site. Under penalty of law, I am not allowed to release the first letter I received, but believe me when I tell you that it was so poorly written I honestly doubted it was from an actual lawyer. In short, the lawyer informed me that the site does not sell software but instead only sells a guide and that I should eff off. This is actually not true as the site (and I have proof) does actually sell GPL licensed and copyrighted software illegally.

My response was:

Dear Curt Handley,

It is of my opinion that you are either severely misinformed or, if you'll forgive the expression, trying to pull a "fast one" on me. Either way, I find myself rather quite offended by your e-mail. As I go on, I am sure you will understand why.

The way your client's service works is like so: When a customer purchases a product, they are sent both documentation on how to use freely available licensed software (which is fine as you pointed out) and links to download this licensed software from a location on MYHOMEBREWARE.COM. Thus, your client is selling licensed software as it is impossible to access these freely available licensed software programs being hosted on your clients website until after a fee has been paid. I assume you understand that this is entirely illegal as all of this software is copyrighted and in some cases licensed under the GPL..

Here is a list (which was in my original complaint as well) of only some of the software including my own being illegally hosted and sold on MYHOMEBREWARE.COM:

[*]DOP-IOS MOD, copyrighted and owned by myself and others and licensed under the GPL ( http://code.google.com/p/dop-iosmod )
[*]HackMii Installer, called boot.elf in the software being sold, owned by http://hackmii.com
[*]IOS38-64-v3610.wad copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.com )
[*]NeoGammaR7.wad which contains code inside it's banner copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.comhttp://gbatemp.net/index.php?showuser=139019 )
[*]USB Loader GX-UNEO_Forwarder.wad which was created and licensed under http://wadder.net
[*]USB_Loader_GX-ULNR-r688.wad which contains a banner copyrighted by Nintendo ( http://nintendo.com ) and an executable licensed under the GPL and copyrighted by the people USB Loader GX Team ( http://code.google.com/p/usbloader-gui/ )
[*]Installer program for cIOS rev 14 which is copyrighted and licensed under the GPL by Waninkoko ( http://www.teknoconsolas.es/blogs/waninkoko )
[*]Homebrew Browser which is copyrighted by teknecal
[*]Bannerbomb which is copyrighted by Comex ( http://bannerbomb.qoid.us/ )

I would now like to read to a couple of quotes from the main page of MYHOMEBREWARE.COM which show how the site even advertises that it does sell software.

"Within our members area you'll find the guide and software you need to unlock your Wii successfully"

In listing what you get after purchase:

"Backup Wii Games Guide and Software - (Get piece of mind by keeping backups of all your Wii games in a safe place just in case they get damaged)"

"Wii Games Patching Guide and Software - (There is some games out there that you just cant backup. Our Patching guide will show you how to get around these road blocks so you can backup absolutely any game!)"

"Wii DVD Converter Guide and Software - (hin't wouldn't it be great to use your Wii as a DVD player, well now you CAN!)"


As you can now hopefully clearly see, the site advertises software is given to each customer as part of their purchase. And as I have shown, the software is illegally sold because the software is legally protected. This includes my own software of course.


One thing I do agree with you is that I would like to quickly resolve this and avoid an lengthy legal confrontation. Thus I request that your client meets my following demands:

1)Your client discloses his name and address to me. I am under the impression that I am now legally entitled to it. If I am not now legally entitled to receive it and you can prove this to me (cite exactly which laws forbids me from being able to have it legally disclosed to me) you may ignore this demand.

2)Your client no longer illegally sells licensed software. His guide(s) or documentation tells consumers to go download software from where it originated (for example, people who need my Dop-IOS MOD are told to go get it at http://code.google.com/p/dop-iosmod )

3)Your clients site is edited so that it is crystal clear to all of his consumers that they do not purchase any software when they purchase your clients product.

So long as these demands of mine are met, I will immediately cease and desist my pursuit of your client. I am currently not asking for any financial reparations for the illegal sale of my software by your client, but I am liable to change that should my demands not be met.

Have a good day.

Sincerely,
Genya Arikado
castlevania7689@yahoo.com

His response was (which I can share because he did not put the same legal threat regarding me sharing the letter):

Mr. Arikado,

There is no need to be offended.  I am not misinformed nor am I trying to pull a "fast one." 

I am aware that up until my intervention several days ago, my client had placed your software and others for download in their members only area.  This was a mistake on their part, but NOT an effort to force the purchase of yours and others software.  I do not characterize their actions as you do and I assure you that as a fellow developer, I am being critical of the situation.

Even before my initial email to you, I already directed their compliance with the GPL.  I have instructed them to provide the links freely on their website, outside of any pay area.  If you wish them to use the links you have provided, I will insist they do so.  If there are any other links you feel are needed, please provide.

Furthermore, I am in the process of crafting a disclaimer for their website to make it VERY clear that all of the software involved is freely downloadable and that there is no obligation to purchase their guide.

However, there are no laws requiring disclosure of my client's name and/or address.  You do not have entitlement to their contact information as there is no legal action in play.  Furthermore, there is no need as I am acting as their legal representative, so if you have a question, you may direct it to me. 

I will follow up with you once I have confirmation of the completion of the above items.  Thanks again for your patience.

Sincerely,

Curt Handley, Esq.

I'd like to add some commentary in between letters but there really isn't much to say. After this response from Mr. Handley, I no longer doubted that he was a real lawyer but I also don't doubt that he was trying con me initially. Before I got a chance to respond, he sent me another letter:

Mr. Arikado,

My client has made the changes I/you have requested to the site.  Please review and let me know if they meet with your satisfaction.

Sincerely,

Curt Handley, Esq.

My response was:

Curt Handley,

I apologize for not responding to your previous e-mail first. I have been preoccupied by personal matters and just looked at both of your e-mails for the first time today.

Anyways, I am extremely overjoyed to see that you are taking appropriate action regarding the site.

However, I still have a problem with several items on the website. Here they are:

"Monthly Surprise: Every month we surprise you with new and exciting apps for your Wii"
This is obviously misleading as MYHOMEBREWARE.COM does not make any aoftware for the Wii.

"What you get: Softmod files: This is where the majic is!"
1)LOL, your client is a horrible speller.
2)This obviously says that you are illegally selling copyrighted software which you claim you are not

There are many other writings similar to what I have quoted present on the site.

You are STILL hosting mine and other illegal copyrighted and/or licensed software. I have access to the members area of the site which only paying customers are given and it still tells me to download the software from MYHOMEBREWARE.COM . Since this download is not available for nonpaying customers, you are illegally selling the software. Obviously, this is my primary issue.

To be frank, I honestly don't see any changes in the site or how it operates. Exactly what, if anything, have you done?

I urge you to have a good day despite our legal confrontation.

Sincerely,
Genya Arikado
castlevania7689@yahoo.com

His response:

Mr. Arikado,

Thanks for responding.  Hope your personal matters have been resolved.

As to the changes you have noted, I will pass them on to my client as I have all of your suggestions.

As to SoftMods, there is nothing in the GPL that prohibits interactive DVDs from instantiating/running standalone GPL protected code... it is the equivalent of a batch file operation.

As to hosting the software, there is no legal requirement in the GPL that prohibits hosting the software.  Furthermore, the GPL does not prohibit my client from having links inside the member area so long as they have comparable links outside the member area; however, I do see that the link for downloading the software outside the member area is missing.  I will once again instruct them to provide this.

I have also instructed them to include a disclaimer that they do not produce the software as shown at the bottom of the page:

"Look you can freely download all the files with absolutely no obligations to purchase my guide. The files are readily available on a number of other sites and are no way created by myhomebreware nor are we associated with them, but we’ve put together a system that will blow your mind!"

Once they have completed the changes you have suggested, I will be in contact again.

Thanks for your patience,

Curt Handley, Esq.

My response:

Curt Handley,

You're correct: There is nothing wrong with simply hosting GPL licensed software.

However, there is a serious dilemma when the GPL licensed software cannot be download unless you have paid a fee. By doing this, you are selling the right to download the GPL licensed software which is obviously illegal. If this continues, I will be forced to take further legal action which is something myself, yourself, and your client would all like to avoid I'm sure.

Also, allowing people to download any Nintendo copyrighted files from a location other than Nintendos' own servers (referred to as NUS) is illegal. While I do not represent Nintendo, you must take this into account as well. Please see my previous messages regarding which of the files your client is hosting are copyrighted by Nintendo.

Lastly, I strongly do not feel that a small disclaimer on the bottom of the site is enough in the name of increasing  consumer awareness of the products contents as you still have many statements which suggest that you are selling more than just a guide (but then you are selling more than just a guide at the moment). However, I trust you will take care of those questionable statements as you have said you intend to. I would also like to strongly suggest that you place a similar disclaimer at the top of the site as well.

Thank you for your patience as well.

Sincerely,
Genya Arikado
castlevania7689@yahoo.com

His response:

Arikado,

Thanks once again for your responses.  I have directed my client to also have links outside their members area.  They have assured me they will comply with this.

Thanks again for the information on Nitendo.

I will instruct them place a similar disclaimer at the top as well.

Sincerely,

Curt

A few days go by and I get a letter from him claiming that everything is as I requested. I confirmed it. So I sent him this reply:

Curt Handley,

Yes, this is fine.

I could go further with this by recommending to you that the site is rewritten much more clearly to show that it is only a guide. I find the site much too big and that it is confusing too consumers. However, the legally required changes are now present, so I can only hope that consumers are smart enough to carefully read everything and realize that the site only offers a guide and that many superior guides are offered entirely for free and only a google search a way.

But I digress, this is fine as you are no longer doing anything illegal and have consumers much better informed.

Thank very much for your cooperation. It was greatly appreciated.

Sincerely,
Genya Arikado
castlevania7689@yahoo.com
His final response:

Arikado,

I appreciate your review and feedback.  I will inform my clients and ask them to maintain compliance with the items as you provided.

I am happy, as are my clients, that we can bring this matter n to a satisfactory conclusion for all parties involved.

Have a nice weekend!

Sincerely,

Curt Handley, Esq. 

I'm afraid the conclusion of all of this is rather dismal. The site still hosts some files (including the outdated version of Dop-IOS MOD) but you can now download them without having to pay a fee. Also, there are now several small disclaimers hidden in the site reminding consumers that they are only purchasing a guide.

I honestly feel like this was a huge waste of my time. I made a decent mark, probably cost the site owner some money in attorney fees, but overall I did nothing as the scam continues. I probably could have seeked financial reparations for the illegal sale of my software, but I did not feel like hiring a lawyer of my own and then flying out to Chicago for a week.

The only way to truly fight scammers like this site is to increase public awareness. If people know not to buy, then the sites wont make any money. Taking the legal route is pointless: You can't truly win.