Vas Blagodarskiy's WP Vicom Copyright Infringement

Thanks for your post Mark. I'm getting into the habit of searching 'product name warrior forum' every time I see something on JVZ.

Do you think it's still ok to go ahead and purchase the original Visual Composer plugin through WP Bakery - from what I understand there's really no difference between this and WP Vicom right?

Hey! Long time no see I thought the thread was pulled down. I've already notified 2 affiliates that mailed this since they're putting themselves and their list in legal danger.

Visual Composer is an awesome plugin. Support the original developer and buy directly through them. WordPress - Visual Composer: Page Builder for WordPress | CodeCanyon

Vas here, WP ViCom product creator. It is imperative that I respond.

I've a deep respect for licensing rights and this thread is, pardon my French, a load of crap. I have paid Michael mid-$xxx in licensing fees for not one, but three of his products; after tinkering with them independently, my programmers decided to combine them all into one plugin. Then after testing it, they urged me to add one more 3rd party software into it, to make it a "whole package" that the JVZoo community would like. They were correct: for the third day in a row, we are JVZoo's #1 best selling product.

Any developer can acquire the Extended license, but if you're making an "end-product" for resale, you have to manually apply for a special "stock item" license. WP Bakery does not issue these through Envato (they have their own system). Furthermore, they do not just issue it to just any random user. You can verify that they are still practicing this:

Visual Composer In Stock Usage - WPBakery Knowledge Base - ref. URL 1

Visual Composer "In Stock" Usage License Upgrade - ref. URL 2

Furthermore, Michael the creator has shown gross lack of understanding of the term "illegal software" and the notion of software rights as a whole. In a private conversation with one of my affiliates, he has said that "GPL is nonsense. There is no option for GPL on CodeCanyon for Visual Composer" and in a public Twitter post he has stated that he thinks it is illegal because it doesn't look like it is. Why not just ask your customer (me) and get the answer?..

http://screencast.com/t/mLhsIoL1 - ref. URL 3

http://screencast.com/t/vb9Anp35jpnp - ref. URL 4

In conclusion, I am attaching the approved license that was issued to myself approximately a month ahead of this launch (the public is invited to verify these details with Envato). The point is, this is all on record, it has always been on record, and the record must be set straight. I have invoices and receipts to show for it, they're available upon demand.

LICENSE CERTIFICATE : Envato Marketplace Item
==============================================

This document certifies the purchase of:
ONE EXTENDED LICENSE
as defined in the standard terms and conditions on the Envato Marketplaces.

Licensor's Author Username: wpbakery
Licensee: Vas Blagodarskiy

For the item:
Visual Composer: Page Builder for WordPress

WordPress - Visual Composer: Page Builder for WordPress | CodeCanyon
Item ID: 242431

Item Purchase Code: 7561f8f4-2066-42fa-953c-dc4011696f78

Purchase Date: 2014-06-19 22:00:12 UTC

For any queries related to this document or license please contact Envato Support via Open a Ticket - Envato Support

Envato Pty. Ltd. (ABN 11 119 159 741)
PO Box 16122, Collins Street West, VIC 8007, Australia

==== THIS IS NOT A TAX RECEIPT OR INVOICE ====

Regards,
Vas.

What about the VC Customizer Add On that's included also, did Rafael give permission for his plugin to be resold? I doubt it.

Vas can bleet all he wants, it's pirated software and he knows it.
An extended license doesn't give anyone the right to resell the plugin and definitely doesn't give you rights to let your customers resell it.

clg21: No this is perfectly legal. They have authors permission and are selling that according to license.

Michael is here... from WPBakery. First of all I would like to thank everyone who supports me in this situation. I will try to sum up everything. What Vas is doing is illegal and he puts a lot of people in very compromised position.

So why it is illegal?
1) There's no license on CodeCanyon that will allow you to simply combine multiple plugins together and sell them as "uber cool unique product". If you zipped them together, doesn't make you an author.

2) "he has said that "GPL is nonsense. There is no option for GPL on CodeCanyon for Visual Composer" Items on CodeCanyon are sold under the split license. Why and what does it means? a) This is done to make it legal and follow GPL license that WordPress originally have. And that means that php and html code that is WordPress related are covered with GPL license, because WordPress released them as GPL. All other resources eg: images, css, less, javascript, ..., are covered with other license that is available on CodeCanyon ("single use" or "Extended license"). Period. Looks like you are magician, and somehow changed other part of license to gpl... not sure how that is possible.

3) You have stolen images from our description page and are using them on your sales page. I've never, gave my permission to anyone to use them. We designed them for our own purposes. They are not in the zip file you download from CodeCanyon, you simply stolen them.

4) In your video, you are using parts from videos that are available in our Video academy, again, there are released under the license which doesn't allow commercial use. So again, you stolen them.

5) In private emails to you. I wrote: "I'm not giving you my permission to use WPBakery name in your wildcat venture. And please don't think that we are partners... We will never be partners - trust me." Why the heck you still refer to our "collaboration"? And put our good name in compromised position?

Vas is screaming on every corner that he's doing it all legally and with support from us. BS! Vas is lying... It doesn't matter how bad you want it to be legal, it still not!

I'm not related to vicom.
But WP was created with 100% GPL.
If theme and plugin creators do not wish to go with GPL,
they should create their software on other platforms.

I've gone to Code Canyon and read the licenses and I'm not sure I understand the problem. If I buy an extended license I can create one end-product that I'm allowed to resell. (From what I understand, I'm only forced to get into an agreement with the creator of the product if I want to distribute on Code Canyon).
If Vas did buy the Extended License, why would his end product (ViCom) be infringing?
I agree that he shouldn't have used the sales page material without permisssion, but if he paid for the extended license, doesn't that give him permission to create an end product he can resell?
I've waited to see clarification of this and now the earlybird price is gone :-(
The fact is the product IS interesting and would answer my needs.
Any solution on the horizon?

Plus, there's even more potential fraud going on, as:

1. I seriously doubt Michael is going to offer ongoing support & updates for a product which has been pirated from him
2. Knowing Vas' track record, I doubt he'll be providing any updates (even though these are promised in the sales copy)
3. So it's another example of "pump and dump" - albeit with a "ripped off" product.
4. This is why Vas probably didn't launch this as a WSO - as I doubt the WF owners would be party to such practices.

Michael should be (If he hasn't done so already) reporting him to PayPal, his hosting company and any other relevant parties and anyone who purchased should be refunding.

Edit: Nowhere in the above license does it grant you the rights to sell resell rights, vas.

Let me explain in very simple terms why this is piracy.

In the license Vas quoted (below), it quite clearly states the extended license is purchased for use in a THEME (Theme Name: WP ViCom)

YET

Vas clearly states in his sales particulars:

"All in one hassle free award winning PLUGIN...." (see screencap here: http://i.imgur.com/L0AhQIt.jpg)

Seems like a slam-dunk to me in Michael's favor.

I am one of those affiliates that Jesus contacted. I know and trust Mark's judgement and immediately pulled down my affiliate link (and offered a make up bonus for those that may have purchased through my link).

Regardless of if this is true or not, I will no recommend this product to my customers for numerous reasons.

This smells bad for so many reasons. As a software creator and someone who values his customers, I would never want to benefit at the risk of a possible financial loss for my subscribers or the financial loss of a fellow product creator (wpbakery).

Andrew Hunter

I`v read the thread carefully and i can say for sure that there`s 2 choice here:

1- The wp vicom author have and IQ of 50
2- They are not honest people

That`s very evident that someone can't buy a license like that and do what they do with the code, seriously stop trying to defend yourself, you are wrong, that`s all.

Hello and this is my first post with WF. I find this thread interesting as I was about to purchase the vicom plugin and popped the name into Google and this thread became a topic of interest for me.
The reason being, because of a plugin that I recently purchase called WP Aviari - (which I should be refunded for). But no success in support reply, as of now.

I would never want to hurt someone's income stream, but there should always be a element of
trust in the game.

So it's funny to read this thread and the same NAME appears with the same problem that I encountered with WP Aviari - i.e. (Yesterday's launch was a HUGE SUCCESS so this one
limited-time offer is still rocking. Still confused about WP Aviary?) FYI, watch the spelling.

While trying to get my key I run into a problem with Aviary vs. Aviari. I started to try and solve this problem and wrote the the creator of the plug in, who wrote me back after inquiring what the problem was with the plugin and ask for a purchase number.

"Hi Myron, thanks for sending me the details of your purchase.
However I'm not related in any way to the site you purchased from. I'm quite upset because not only those guys are selling my plugin in contrast with the license but they're also leaving my contact inside the plugin."

IN closing.
VAS, I don't know what to believe. But if you are associated with this product, I won't go there. I just know what I have personally experience since your 4th of July sale. Which is why I now am on this thread with my comments. And may not have written if your name had not appeared.
I'm a marketer and consultant working on my craft investing in a tool to grow my business and help others. So for me, it's about being straight-up and respectful in the game.

Regarding the OTO with Master Resell Rights, I now get notifications in my inbox that other people are beginning to release WP Vicom as their own products on JVZoo. I think that it's important that JVZoo get notified about this before everyone starts to sell this. It's being spread all around the web as wildfire as more and more people are picking up the OTO...

Hey everyone, I don't know what to think about this. I did buy the resell rights to wp vicom. I really though that wp bakery or Michael (I don't know this person) was a part of this offer. I don't know what to do about it so if any of you have suggestions please let me know.

If it's true that Michael did not know about this or say it was ok then it is wrong obviously. The one thing I noticed just today is the images on the sales page.

The thing is you can't get mad at people who purchased white label license and are reselling it. I mean, I had no idea. I had never heard of the plugin or wp bakery ect...

As far as the legal thing, it would be hard for wp bakery to have a legal stance because of wordpress licensing.

I'm just trying to figure out the deal on this.

I'm just going to take my site down because I think that's the best thing to do.

I agree that affiliates or resellers had no idea. I mentioned about not blaming affiliates in the first post.

But who do you think customers are going to turn to when they contact Michael for support and he tells them he's not supporting it because it's an illegal copy?

Who are they going to turn to? They are going right back to the site they purchased the plugin from.

Then what are YOU going to do as a reseller?

Look at what someone said in this thread about the last plugin he purchased that Vas released when he went to get support:

To All Concerned Parties:

Under normal circumstances, JVZoo would not get involved in disputes regarding copyright or licensing issues, without being served a properly formatted DMCA takedown notice or court order. We have adopted this mindset because we could not possibly have all of the information necessary to make judgement without, what would equate to, a mini trial. However, we are making an exception for this case.

In a perfect world, the two parties would resolve their disputes privately and we would honor the decision of the parties, a presiding court, law enforcement, or a government agency. This is not a perfect world and this is certainly not being resolved privately. With that in mind, in accordance with our user terms of service, we have made the decision to remove this product from the JVZoo marketplace until a time when we hear from both parties that there is a green light to reinstate the product. This decision should be considered final.

We wish all parties the best of luck in coming to a quick and painless resolution.

Warmest Regards,
E. Brian Rose & the JVZoo Team

Well played JVZoo... well played.

Professional all the way.