Fake or real dev site?

[Amane Kagari]

Ok so someone recently found an article off of this site about some RPG Maker MV dev being interviewed by the site listed below. But that someone later warned that this site might be a scam because that someone saw some ripped plugins that this "company" is trying to sell off of their site as their own. And I've looked at it too and it seems that there were some red flags. But I'm not sure. Can someone please verify if this site is real or not?
I'm just checking because there's been a lot of fake rip sites lately. I don't mean to assume anything but I kinda found this a little fishy too.

Here's the link:
https://www.foundat.io

 

[waynee95]

Yanfly published a post concerning that site. http://yanfly.moe/2019/04/16/avoid-purchasing-plugins-from-foundat-io/

 

[Foundation]

Hi guys. It has just been brought to my attention that there is strikingly similar code found in some of the plugins we just finished developing and other developers plugins. We hired 3rd party developers to develop plugins for one of our games and we recently decided to distribute those plugins. I'm both surprised and very upset about this myself as we were VERY clear with the developers that we needed original work. We were trying to avoid plugin conflicts so we wanted to create a plugin system that wouldn't give us any issues. I asked the developers for many fixes, enhancements and other very specific changes along the way (which they gave me) and I felt proper work was being done. Similarly, they were very upfront if one of our plugins (let's call it Plugin "A") was dependent on another freely available plugin (let's call it plugin "B"). In the document I always found proper credit to plugin B with references. This gave me confidence that the developers were sensitive to this issue. Which is the reason this event has me both surprised and upset. I have already sent the developers an urgent email asking for a thorough explanation ASAP. They have just sent me an email saying they have received my email and will respond back to me once they arrive in their office.

I will keep you posted.

 

[Amane Kagari]

Yanfly published a post concerning that site. http://yanfly.moe/2019/04/16/avoid-purchasing-plugins-from-foundat-io/

Oh okay! Thank you for that article I was a bit confused because there's been too much of these sites going on lately. >_< And I sorta remembered hearing about this but I forgot so I just wanna check because I remembered seeing this guy somewhere before.

 

[waynee95]

@Amane Kagari What other sites do you mean?

 

[Amane Kagari]

@Amane Kagari What other sites do you mean?

I don't mean I see him on other sites I mean I heard of this site somewhere before but I don't remember where until you posted it. But the reason why I brought this site up is because of someone posted that it appears that some new RPG Maker MV dev was duped into being interviewed by this site.

 

[Foundation]

I heard back from the devs and they informed me they are getting in touch with Yanfly now. I will keep you posted.

 

[Amane Kagari]

And here's the "interview" that's mentioned:
https://www.foundat.io/n/game-dev-bets-on-a-bright-future-for-rpg-maker/

To be honest, I'm a bit suspicious of that dev that's "interviewed" too. But I'm not quite sure.

 

[Tea's Jams]

There is a lot of new info on Driftwood Gaming's discord. It appears at the moment that this company hired a scam artist plugin writer and may not have been aware of it. I would say depending on their reaction to the news that the plugins are ripped, they may or may not be a victim.

 

[sephmon]

Hi. My fb post about this actually got in foundat.io/n’s radar. Here’s their response

 

[JtheDuelist]

Yanfly just put this out: http://yanfly.moe/2019/04/16/avoid-purchasing-plugins-from-foundat-io-part-2/

 

[Studio Blue]

We don't usually do call to actions, but this needs to be spread as far and wide as possible. Stuff like this can cause immeasurable harm to a community. Whatever it takes, get the word out so people will beware before doing business with someone who rips off our valuable contributors.

 

[Shaz]

@Yanfly @Galv and any other dev affected should issue DMCA notices on Fiverr and get this guy blocked
https://www.fiverr.com/intellectual-property?source=footer

I hope @Foundation is also able to revise his feedback as I doubt anyone can give a bad rating if they've not done business with him through that site.

 

[bgillisp]

While I do know from coding myself there are SOME things that if everyone codes it, it will look identical (there's only so many practical ways to code hello world for instance), but it looks like they did admit to using existing code and selling it, which is what it looks like the issue is, especially as the code they used is free.

Though looks like Yanfly went for the jugular there too. Ouch.

 

[Mrs_Allykat]

We've already lost too many plugin developers due to this sort of thing. This kind of activity hurts the entire community, coming and going.

 

[Archeia]

While I do know from coding myself there are SOME things that if everyone codes it, it will look identical (there's only so many practical ways to code hello world for instance), but it looks like they did admit to using existing code and selling it, which is what it looks like the issue is, especially as the code they used is free.

Though looks like Yanfly went for the jugular there too. Ouch.

The funny thing is the proof posted in the site is 80% of the "sold" plugin which only has some functions renamed. Some Yanfly and Galv specific code was even used. Like if you set it side by side and know what's in core scripts, it's hard to believe it's not a copy.

 

[Amane Kagari]

I think I get the situation now. This confirms my suspicions after my own "detective work". (Graphics were also ripped in addition to plugins.) The reason why I ask this in the first place was because I'm truly confused because it seems I may have missed something posted about this guy.
Thanks everyone though for clarifying this for me and others who may be confused as well.

Also, I made this topic as sorta a heads up. I mean this guy almost had me (a novice) fooled and I'm pretty sure that he fooled a lot of people (maybe outside of RMW or could be inside RMW community as well.). With all the people trying to pull similar things these days, it's confusing to determine who's real and who's not, especially those who are novices (might not be fully newbies but just don't know much). Hopefully this topic brings more awareness to fake dev sites like this so that people would avoid being duped or lured into being involved in any forms (such as being "interviewed"/inadvertently endorsing the site because it looks legit and look like a "good place" for some publicity boost to their games/projects). (Luckily, I was spotted the red flags but not everyone is lucky enough.)

 

[Tea's Jams]

@Amane Kagari The plugin writer who has obviously stolen code and pawned it off as his own, is not the same as the site that did the interview.

The site that did the interview bought the ripped plugins from the guy. They have since taken them down from their site.

I'm not defending the site, but I don't think there is enough information to decide if they were involved, or fooled by a scammer.

 

[Marquise*]

I wonder in that state if that guy is really innocent there (not on the legal term of the word although it could) but just young enough to take on jobs without questioning who gives it to him and if original creators had a disclaimer not to or if that free code belonged to the client or if it will be resold or well credited.

As a graphic artist, it happened often to me to have someone getting at my door wanting me to copy paste a successful/award winning image concept or clone it. Even if as a personal challenge I could do it, if I was hired by a firm I would do it begrudgingly thinking of my salary and likelihood to find another job, but as self-employed there was very heated arguments about "NO" meant "NO" and not being copyist/thief/criminal/pirate. I wonder if under pressure or money need or innocence some others would just had shut-up and be happy to do as they were told and paid for it... if ever paid. Dunno if it is a uncle thing here, where you are coerced to obey because... Family!

But I myself would growl at art thievery and selling what I give for free. So dunno all about the case but, maybe I would be so mad I would also blinded enough to go to the jugular. That kinda thing drives me mad, but it is rare that a thief is so chatty. I dunno if here it would be an admitted mistake can be half forgiven. But there, hum... One side or the other I cannot tell if it was exploitative theft or honest mistake even with 80% of the code.

 

[bgillisp]

@Archeia : That's all they edited? I think that is more like 99% identical code then.