I was informed the code is encrypted for this software and will remain that way

If this is the case I am sadly disappointed :(

I was really looking forward to installing this within my forum when it was released and purchasing the full version but I simply will not allow code to be executed within my server that I can not see and examine myself.

I hope that you will change this in the future or for atleast the paid version because this in my opinion will be a unacceptable risk for large sites.

Thanks for your time

Edit: There is no way this script would ever be installed on my server!

ANTI-PIRACY AND EULA VIOLATIONS
vBSEO™ reserves the right to include mechanisms for the detection of the vBSEO™ software piracy and/or general EULA violations.

First off I am not going to allow a script to run on my server that is encrypted
Secondly, add to the fact that this encrypted code has code within it to scan your website for possbily inappropriate posts and god knows what else

No thanks!

Links of interests:

Thread: http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showt...=153936&page=2

Highlighted Posts:
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...6&postcount=18
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...6&postcount=19
http://www.vbulletin.com/forum/showp...4&postcount=26

Hi Brent,

I appreciate your concerns and I certainly hope that you reconsider selecting vBSEO to play a fundemental role in your overall SEO strategy for your forum.

However, since you have expressed your disappointment in discovering that vBSEO has encrypted source code, I would like to provide a more detailed explanation of our company policy regarding this issue.

Although vBSEO 2.0 Lite will be distributed for FREE, vBSEO is a commercial product offered by Crawlability Inc. As such, we must take all necessary steps to protect vBSEO from:

(1) violations of the EULA,
(2) un-authorized redistribution or piracy,
(3) reverse engineering,
(4) access to the source code by current and/or future competitors, and/or
(5) repackaging or rebranding it as a competing free or commercial product.

To protect the value of vBSEO to Crawlability Inc., vBSEO will be distributed in encrypted format only:

This is not a new distribution model. In fact, it is very much a traditional practice considering that the majority of applications running on your PC are compiled source code that cannot be viewed or edited.

However, a few vB admins have voiced their opinion that this a major disincentive to installing. Unfortunately, this will preclude them from adopting vBSEO and significantly improving SEO for their forums.

vBSEO is a new product being introduced to the vB community. However, I am 100% committed to gaining the trust of all vB forum admins. Obviously, releasing a product that could potentially compromise a user's data or embedd malicious or "spyware" type hidden functions would be an expedient way for me to fail to achieve my goal of gaining your trust. Not to mention that these techniques are most likely illegal.

Please note:

vBSEO is NOT spyware, nor does it contain any backdoor or malicious code.

You posted a portion of our vBSEO EULA, regarding anti-piracy. Here is the full section:

From http://www.crawlability.com/vbseo/license/
ANTI-PIRACY AND EULA VIOLATIONS
vBSEO™ reserves the right to include mechanisms for the detection of the vBSEO™ software piracy and/or general EULA violations. These mechanisms may include the transmission of data from your server to Crawlability Inc. servers that identify your unique vBSEO™ license key and forum URL information. Note: NO ADDITIONAL DATA other than what is required to validate your vBSEO™ license will be transmitted. Forums found to be running unauthorized copies of vBSEO™ will be flagged for review and/or automatically disabled. Anyone found to be running an unauthorized copy of vBSEO, or to be in violation of the Acceptable Usage Policy or general EULA terms, will be contacted and requested to uninstall vBSEO. Those who do not comply will be subject to legal action as outlin the issue. Crawlability Inc. will seek damages of not less than $2000.00 per license violation to cover the cost of piracy detection, enforcement, and legal fees.

You have clearly taken this out of context. Therefore, it is important for us to clear up your misconceptions for the benefit of all vBSEO members and guests viewing this thread.

As per:

Originally Posted by BrentWilson

Secondly, add to the fact that this encrypted code has code within it to scan your website for possbily inappropriate posts and god knows what else.

Brent, I can assure you that vBSEO does not scan your content looking for inappropriate content! In fact, if your website has content that does not comply with our Acceptable Usage Policy, you will not be allowed to test or purchase vBSEO.

FYI For further information on this topic see the thread created by our member "Katrina's Korner". Katrina has also been posting similar information on vb.com within the thread you mentioned, under the member name "free thinker" (See no licenses for websites containing "any" adult content ?)

Here is a more notable section of the 'ANTI-PIRACY AND EULA VIOLATIONS' section that you did not include:

These mechanisms may include the transmission of data from your server to Crawlability Inc. servers that identify your unique vBSEO™ license key and forum URL information. Note: NO ADDITIONAL DATA other than what is required to validate your vBSEO™ license will be transmitted. Forums found to be running unauthorized copies of vBSEO™ will be flagged for review and/or automatically disabled.

Unapproved forums (i.e. those running pirated copies of vBSEO 2.0) will not be granted a license key. IF, for any reason, we have any questions about your content, we'll simply Google you once vBSEO gets all of your threads indexed!

I hope that this calms your fears and makes you a vBSEO convert. And (for the conspiracy theorists among you all), NO - vBSEO will NOT:

• drink your RedBull while you are on a bathroom break,
• loosen the screws on your ergonomic chair,
• steal your first born while you are not looking, or
• activate your webcam, take photos of you, and post them on HotOrNot.com

We are far too boring for any of that. In fact, all we do is improve SEO for your forums!

Originally Posted by Juan Muriente

Hi Brent,

I appreciate your concerns and I certainly hope that you reconsider selecting vBSEO to play a fundemental role in your overall SEO strategy for your forum.

However, since you have expressed your disappointment in discovering that vBSEO has encrypted source code, I would like to provide a more detailed explanation of our company policy regarding this issue.

Although vBSEO 2.0 Lite will be distributed for FREE, vBSEO is a commercial product offered by Crawlability Inc. As such, we must take all necessary steps to protect vBSEO from:

(1) violations of the EULA,
(2) un-authorized redistribution or piracy,
(3) reverse engineering,
(4) access to the source code by current and/or future competitors, and/or
(5) repackaging or rebranding it as a competing free or commercial product.

To protect the value of vBSEO to Crawlability Inc., vBSEO will be distributed in encrypted format only:

This is not a new distribution model. In fact, it is very much a traditional practice considering that the majority of applications running on your PC are compiled source code that cannot be viewed or edited.

First thank you for responding.

I would like to ask you one thing will all do respect:

How is vBulletin, the software for which this very product is designed to work with, able to provide non encrypted code for thier customers? What is the specific challenge you face that vBulletin is able to put to the side?

However, a few vB admins have voiced their opinion that this a major disincentive to installing. Unfortunately, this will preclude them from adopting vBSEO and significantly improving SEO for their forums.

Most of those admins that I have seen are admins of large boards with plenty to lose and I believe they are right in their concerns.

vBSEO is a new product being introduced to the vB community. However, I am 100% committed to gaining the trust of all vB forum admins. Obviously, releasing a product that could potentially compromise a user's data or embedd malicious or "spyware" type hidden functions would be an expedient way for me to fail to achieve my goal of gaining your trust. Not to mention that these techniques are most likely illegal.

Please note:

vBSEO is NOT spyware, nor does it contain any backdoor or malicious code.

You posted a portion of our vBSEO EULA, regarding anti-piracy. Here is the full section:


You have clearly taken this out of context. Therefore, it is important for us to clear up your misconceptions for the benefit of all vBSEO members and guests viewing this thread.

As per:


Brent, I can assure you that vBSEO does not scan your content looking for inappropriate content! In fact, if your website has content that does not comply with our Acceptable Usage Policy, you will not be allowed to test or purchase vBSEO.

FYI For further information on this topic see the thread created by our member "Katrina's Korner". Katrina has also been posting similar information on vb.com within the thread you mentioned, under the member name "free thinker" (See no licenses for websites containing "any" adult content ?)

Here is a more notable section of the 'ANTI-PIRACY AND EULA VIOLATIONS' section that you did not include:


Unapproved forums (i.e. those running pirated copies of vBSEO 2.0) will not be granted a license key. IF, for any reason, we have any questions about your content, we'll simply Google you once vBSEO gets all of your threads indexed!

I hope that this calms your fears and makes you a vBSEO convert. And (for the conspiracy theorists among you all), NO - vBSEO will NOT:

• drink your RedBull while you are on a bathroom break,
• loosen the screws on your ergonomic chair,
• steal your first born while you are not looking, or
• activate your webcam, take photos of you, and post them on HotOrNot.com

We are far too boring for any of that. In fact, all we do is improve SEO for your forums!

We shall see if I am a convert when the product is released and we get feedback from the community. I am a little calmed by the response you have given.

Thank you for your time.

Hi Brent,

Excellent question. Explanation below.

How is vBulletin, the software for which this very product is designed to work with, able to provide non encrypted code for thier customers? What is the specific challenge you face that vBulletin is able to put to the side?

vBSEO takes a very unique approach to static URL rewriting. Our approach has allowed us to achieve things that were previously missing from other hacks that relied on the more common rewrite techniques. This is why the success of the previous mod_rewrite hacks have been somewhat limited, whereas vBSEO just plugs in and does its job from Day 1 onwards.

vBSEO works near flawlessly and it is available to you WITHOUT hours of programming to get it installed and working right (or a large consultant invoice for completing the task on your behalf). On top of that, if you upgrade vBulletin, vBSEO easily upgrades with you.

Basically, there is no other similar SEO hack that has achieved this level of sophistication to date.

But, we have an unfair advantage. vBSEO is not a hobby for us, it is a full time job. In fact, we built our company, Crawlability Inc., around it.

Here are some of the general highlights of what we have been able to achieve because of the vBSEO approach:

1. Compliance - With vBSEO all of your existing vB functionality still works, including moderation features, "go to post" redirections, email redirections, etc. Even vB error messages are handled correctly (invalid thread, member, or forum pages, etc).

2. Minimal Overhead - The biggest challenge of a script as complex as vBSEO, is to have it not only function correctly, but to do so with minimal overhead or performance impact. vBSEO is non-intrusive, installs in less than 5 minutes, and works as well on forums small or large in size. FYI By saying "non-intrusive" I mean, vBSEO does NOT require template changes OR signiicant changes to any core vB scripts, etc.

3. Flexibility - SEO is a moving target. We knew that if we created a hack that implemented static URLs in only one way, we would be critically limiting vBSEO users from testing their own SEO theories. We are the only static URL rewriting hack that give admins the power to completely customize their URL formats. We are NOT a 1-size-fits-all solution. Many of our testers have advanced SEO knowledge and actively work with their vBSEO configurations to try to find the best possible SEO solution for their forums. After hundreds of iterations before anyone even knew vBSEO existed, vBSEO now makes this possible.

In order to achieve all of this, and to continue developing the product in the future, we have to protect our ability to generate revenue from the sale of vBSEO.

Now, why is it that vB can distribute with readable source code and vBSEO does not?

FYI vBulletin has approximately 585 files and (upon quick review) over 6 MB of PHP code. vBSEO, by comparison, is a very specific SEO application and accomplishes its job within 4 files and approximately 240 KB of code. So, you see, it is far easier to completely steal vBSEO code and re-brand it as another hack. Granted, we could police the Internet, examining the source code of similar hacks to look for copyright infringement, but do you think this time intensive process and litigation is really a good strategy for a start-up company to get involved in?

Another important point to note is that vBulletin's popularity as one of the leading software applications for Web forums was largely solidified because of its readable source code. An entire hacker community exists to develop extensions/mods/plugins/templates for vB. vBSEO on the other hand, is a very specific application. The 4 top reasons anyone wants to see our source code are:

(1) Hesitant about security issues (What is inside of vBSEO?)
(2) Want to try to fix bugs they discover on their own.
(3) Are curious about the code (because they are hackers).
(4) Want to see how we've implemented vBSEO (because they are current or future competitors)

- Item 4 is a huge risk. IF it materialized, Crawlability would be forced to find a new product/service offering or cease to exist!
- Having concerns as in item 1 is understandable, but vBSEO is already in use on several live forums. We are NOT a spyware application and these forum admins know and trust that. As we become more widely known, everyone will realize this, and forum admins who were hesitant regarding security will become vBSEO users because they will want to benefit from the SEO advantages we provide for their forums.

This is a very simple cost/benefit analysis: The potential cost of distributing readable source code is very high (loss of our revenue channel) vs. the benefit (reassuring a small minority of users with higher than average sensitivity to security/privacy issues). vBSEO will certainly not benefit by having readable source code as much as vBulletin who has built an entire community of hacker enthusiasts (including us) around this concept. We are too tightly focused.

FYI - We have already observed indications that our risk assessment is on target:

(i) 4 days after annnouncing vBSEO publically, we had a user come onboard and request a test license. That user subsequently launched a competing website (for profit) with an inferior hack that contained critical flaws. After criticism from the vBSEO and vBulletin user communities for his covert attempts at securing a license, the user converted the website to a free hack. What would this user have done with the vBSEO source code had it been distributed as readable?

(ii) Even with a small group of privately approved vBSEO testers, we estimate that there are approximately 25 pirated copies of vBSEO already in use. FYI Testers are provided with a single license (for 1 forum) only. What does this indicate regarding the importance of having an anti-piracy mechanism in place?

I have been a vBulletin forum owner for over 5 years now. I feel that vBulletin IS and WILL CONTINUE to be the leading software application for community building on the Web. I love it for the same reasons you do. My intention in developing an application to improve SEO for vBulletin is genuine. Including any type of spyware functionality in vBSEO will not help me to achieve any of my goals. I am as strongly against spyware as anyone else on the Internet!

The Internet has created a whole new environment for conducting business. As an entrepreneur and small business owner, I am extremely happy and amazed that an individual or small website team has the ability to control a large market share in a particular niche... even when in competition with a large, well funded company! http://webmasterworld.com is a great example of someone who started small and achieved success by making the right moves at the right time - and the site is now one of the leading authorities in the world for webmaster info.

This is the true magic of the Internet, and I believe I can contribute to helping the little guy/gal achieve success by providing vBSEO to them as their SEO solution & to help them accelerate their growth and earning potential. That is my philosophy in a nutshell.

Therefore, to achieve my mission, I have to protect my investment. In so doing, vBSEO will continue to exist and will be available for anyone who wants to improve SEO for their forums for many years to come.

Hopefully, over time, it will become absolutely clear that Crawlability has no interest in building a spyware or adware application. Our interest is purely "VBulletin Search Engine Optimization" - better known as vBSEO. For those forum admins who realize this now, they simply get a headstart!

Although, our choice of encoding and our 'Acceptable Privacy Policy' are two different issues entirely, some of the forum postings we have read seem to be confusing the two. I know that some admins with adult (or other content) restricted by our 'Acceptable Usage Policy' will continue to lecture us on free speech issues and complain that they are being unfairly excluded. However, we feel that the majority of vB admins are hosting forums with entirely acceptable content. Therefore, I am completely comfortable sacrificing potential company revenues by providing vBSEO licenses only to forums in compliance with our 'Acceptable Usage Policy'.

I hope that clears up any remaining questions as to why vBSEO's source code will remain encoded as well as our stance on acceptable usage.

Thank you and it does concerning the encryption of your software!