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[Dataflashsabot]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=390176553854

Copy-pasted descriptions, no credit to the creators ('Construct' is mentioned, but only because of the copy-pasting), no permission, includes user-made tutorials, all on one disk for... £1.99! Yay! Misspelled 'dispatched' in their important notice! Double yay! Blatantly violating the license of developers who obviously have no means of responding appropriately (legal fees)! Triple yay! Let's rejoice! Here's a Scirra Forums topic about it!

[Falmil]

It is my understanding that the GPL allows software to be sold as long as the other requirements are met. I also found a link from the GPL wikipedia article to the GNU website that says the same thing. Someone on the linked forum also mentioned the same thing.
http://www.gnu.org/philosophy/selling.html
http://www.scirra.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=3&t=6171#p49150
While its fine to sell the software, I'm not sure about content and tutorials included. Those might be copyrighted. If Construct was proprietary freeware, then there would much more to complain about.

[C.A. Silbereisen]

Legal or not, it's still a scam in my book. I mean, just look at the way the Ebay page is set up... 

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

it's legal and encouraged by the people who wrote the gpl.

linux is sold on ebay too. it's not a big issue. they're providing a service: offering it on a cd in a jewel case for a very low fee. what's the big problem?

[lansing]

I don't see any problem here either.

[C.A. Silbereisen]

Just to clarify, I don't really see it as the developers of Construct being "ripped off", but the text on the page not only makes no reference to them, but also makes it seem like you can't get the software anywhere else (i.e for free on the internet), so someone is probably going to pay for something they might as well have gotten for free without knowing. It's dishonest, that's all.

[Skofo]

We should all gang up on him and make sure that he doesn't make that £1.99 of dishonest profit.

[SidM]

I like how the seller has photoshopped the "Construct" in the .jpg and replaced it with "Game Creator"

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This is clearly misrepresentation of another product as your own.
Analogy: selling Ubuntu as Windows.

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Edit : Just noticed the text is a copy/paste that mentions construct. I'm confused now. Why bother photoshopping the "Construct" out?

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

hmm -- you may have a case there. i know very little about construct, but it seems like you'd have to at least sell it by its real name if you sell it. if he was just selling it as construct it'd be better, yeah. although directx 9 2d game creator is a cooler name than construct. maybe he just thought it wouldn't sell if he used its real name rather than something that sounds cool.

[Radix]

The CD/DVD is locked with a password! Once you receive the CD/DVD you need to register with your details and we will send you your unique password within 24 hours.
Instructions are on the jewel case.

Mondo suss.

[undertech]

The seller probably thought the average joe looking for a "GAME MAKING" software would more likely find it by searching "GAME MAKING" than "construct" in ebay Search. That said, obviously the real name of the software should be mentioned SOMEWHERE.

IF you hate this so much, just spend the money to buy it then give the seller negative feedback. Then pat yourself on the back!

[Mipe]

Another issue is that Construct uses a library - Prof-UIS - with its own license that forbids any sale of software. Of course projects made in Construct do not benefit from this library, since it is used by the IDE only, and can be sold separately by their authors.

So, all in all, Construct cannot be sold at all.

[mjau]

Uh, that license isn't GPL compatible..  If that's true and Construct uses any GPL licensed code they didn't write (they can do whatever they want with their own code, of course), they're breaking the GPL themselves

[ஒழுக்கின்மை]

it'd also be legal to sell construct if they simply told people to go download the dll, rather than including it.

[Mipe]

Well, Ashley, one of the devs, sealed it with the statement that Construct can be freely distributed and whatever according to the GPL rules, it is quite a bit of grey area, really, however user created content (tutorials, example projects and such) do not fall under this license and cannot be freely distributed or sold.

So this eBay deal is operating within the grey area; the buyer is disadvantaged, however there isn't much that can be done about it.

The guy selling Construct also stated he'd remove Construct from his list of products. Given his attitude (even though some of forum members weren't exactly on friendly terms either), I say good riddance.

This incident, however, prompts me to be more careful with my own content. Not that I have anything all that useful to offer, but... eh... I'll just shut up here.