VideoUserManuals.com who were one of the first to create a WordPress plugin featuring video based manuals within the dashboard has published an open letter to the WordPress community that tells us their side of the story in what looks to be another ugly mess for Incsub LLC.
At the end of the agreement period in June 2011, I checked in and saw that our videos were still being used so I sent James an email requesting they remove the videos and written manual from their membership site. We received an email back informing us the videos and manual had been removed. This was not the case. I waited a couple of days and checked in again to see that the videos had been re-voiced and re-shot on a different computer but were still using our scripts. In fact, in some of the videos I could see our script in the WordPress visual editor that was being used as a prompt for the person making the videos.
We’ll have to reserve judgement until we hear the other side of the story but if the past is anything to go by, this could be another black eye on the company. However, if any of it is true, it’s a crummy way of doing business. In a seperate issue, a claim of copyright infringement was brought up earlier this year on June 3rd 2011, where Joost DeValk published a post claiming copyright Infringement for his WordPress SEO Plugin.
*Update* James Farmer has added his side of the story within the comments of WPCandy.com
And people still ask why anybody wants to use a DRM…..
It seems to me that even if everything which was claimed has happened that way, it is still a very gray area. Was it specified in the contract that incsub are not allowed to use the scripts, and if not will they be able to prove that the videos weren’t done while they still had license to use them. In addition, there are not many ways in which you can make a tutorial about creating a new post, so claiming a copy right on every video which describes it is a little bit far fetched IMO.