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What would you do?

O

OleBoy

Charter Member 2015
Having recently purchased a Seagate external hard drive off eBay, and it arrived in perfect working order in reasonable time, I opened the box and hooked it up. All worked well. My next step (because it was a used drive) was to reformat it.

Upon right clicking "my computer", then "manage"....I saw that the drive was not wiped as noted in the listing. Upon seeing that there was 62 gigabytes of hard disk spaced used. My thoughts...Hmmm. Lets see what's there.

I saw there was a folder on the drive labeled MAC. After going into the folder I found MANY pirated software programs!!! I was shocked as my jaw hit my desktop.

Mind you......I bought this hard drive from a (supposed) church organization.

What would you have done?
 
Absolutely nothing.

Can you even be certain that the programs were pirated?

Even if I WAS sure, I wouldn't do anything.
 
Skittles said:
Can you even be certain that the programs were pirated?
Click to expand...

Oh yes you can. IMHO, to do nothing is to condone piracy.



If it were me, I'd turn it in as is so the Law could go after whoever owned it for being pirated. Their ID will be on it someplace and the law will deal with them.
 
Hi,

The first question is "what the original owner (moron) had to do?"
Format the disk or at least clean it before put it on Ebay :)

What would I do ?
Format the disk and be happy to have a new hard disk to fill :)
 
Skittles said:
How could you possibly know? Out of interest. :salute:
Click to expand...

I have seen pirated game files downloaded by an ex stepson-in-law, that's how. :p: And he bragged about doing it. I then gave him the option.... get rid of them or I'd turn his skanky a$$ in to his Commander, and Microsoft for his pirated OS. Which he laughed off. While he was out to sea I got rid of them and destroyed the CDs he put them on, when my stepdaughter left him.

I do not condone piracy...... thankyou very much.
 
How do I know it was pirated software? Torrent files, read-me, cracks and how-to information for iso images (copies) of cd's and dvd's. Adobe Photoshop CS4, Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7 Ultimate. Right along with one of the biggest Audio/Video editing softwares that had DVD tutorials and everything else related to that particular program. I can't recall the name of it, but that alone was 57gigabytes!!!. All this stuff for MAC OS.

I sent the seller a message through eBay messaging. Told them that the listing was falsely listed. They had said that the drive was wiped of everything and tested. Anytime I buy from eBay, I take a screenshot of the complete listing for added assurance for wrongly listed merchandise to back my receiveing end if needed. I showed the seller the listing description again after their response stating that they wiped the drive the best they could. They quoted me. I showed them the screenshot to let them eat their words...that they had stated they wiped the drive clean. I told them I was not happy getting the drive with all this stuff on it and that I could easily be accused of putting this stuff on the drive myself. I then asked them what should we do about the situation. I also then stated "if they were infact a church organization, I was curious of other illegal actions they do?" They then told me I could ship the drive back to them and they would cover shipping. That's odd. Anyone who knows anything about eBay...which I do, does not pay for return shipping unless they are guilty, or at fault for said item(s) Red flag I then responded bak that I had one of two thoughts going through my head. And one of them was not returning it. But turning it into the authorities.

Needless to say, I wiped the drive DOD3 and left them negative feedback on eBay. I'm sure eBay will get in touch with me and ask why.

I got a 400gig external hard drive for $29.00 delivered
 
All that bitchin for what ? Yer lucky that Seagate didn't eat itself when you formatted it, we scrap em all the time because low level formats tend to destroy them (even with seagates software).
 
MaddogK said:
All that bitchin for what ?
Click to expand...

Bitch'in....who's bitch'in? I was going to wipe it regardless. Was it indeed a church organization? Who knows? If they were, they need to be more careful if they think their religion will protect them from illegal activity.

The whole purpose of my posting was to get member thoughts.
 
OleBoy said:
Bitch'in....who's bitch'in? I was going to wipe it regardless. Was it indeed a church organization? Who knows? If they were, they need to be more careful if they think their religion will protect them from illegal activity.

The whole purpose of my posting was to get member thoughts.
Click to expand...

NP, all I was saying was if your going to wipe it anyway why drag the old owners thru the mud on this forum, and ding them on ebay. Besides, I got a kick out of some of the comments here, how do some of these peeps find the time to shine their righteous armour. Like someone would really turn the old owners into the copyright police, gimme a break.
 
Talk about going over the top. You've managed to accuse a church organisation of conducting illegal activities, then suggest that they're trying a cover up when they offer to allow you to return the product and even refund the postage?

Child pornography? Get the cops involved. Multiple programs on an external hard drive? Wipe the disk and get on with your life, and as you said be glad for the fact that you've got a bargain.

Edit: Maddog - To be honest, if the HDD did get turned over to any authorities it'd be frisbee'd into a bin ASAP.
 
So what are you legally going to do about it?To be honest im sick of churches and religious folks who hide behind their religion spouting off holier than thou BS when they themselfs are crooks.My company wont even deal with religious organizations anymore as they dont want to pay the bills or after the work has been done they want a deal because they are just a poor little organization ( in a multi million dollar building i might add).
If this happened to me i would notify the authorities as i cant stand people that dont want to play by the rules the rest of us are expected to follow.
Sorry for the rant but this crap just gets under my skin

PS isnt thou shall not steal a commandment anymore or has that been changed? Practice what you preach
 
First lesson on religion, it has NOTHING to do with Christ..
Faith is Our Lords thing:not some religion, or group that call themself's religious..

It is interesting to note if they were true Followers of Christ they would never do these things.

So all you have are those who claim, to be followers of Christ, who in the truth of it are doing everything possible to make a Mockery of what OUR TRUE LORD is and desires for All mankind..

So before you say that religion has anything to do with Christ,
Perhaps you should study (not just read) what our Lord wants for you.
And you may find religion it has nothing to do with Chirst..

As Paul said to the greeks "I see you are a religious people".
But as is Known their pagan religion could not save them..
Only faith in Christ, can save you, Not a religion..

So concider what you have dealt with a Group that may be religious, But Not Christian..
There is a BIG Difference..
 
Ok....

It was not properly sold it appears...improper advertizing..Very possible, or honest mistake???

Hidding behind religion??? maybe they are??? happens every day...Still does not justify the action..

Oldboy....I think it comes down to what would make you satasify your morols on this one..

And its really not the place to bring up and or place blamb on a religious deal here...

We fly planes and build stuff here...lol
 
Well put, HouseHobbit.

:salute:


Some of us fight so hard to do the right things, and then bang, pure temptation is sitting on your desk. It is a battle. I can understand your spiked emotions OleBoy.

Glad you have a HD though that is working. Pirated software is now gone. Happy ending..



Bill
 
OleBoy, I run across pirated crap all the time when I repair computers. I have turned people in to the authorities and they did absolutely nothing. Unless it is kiddie porn they just don't give a rat's butt. I just wipe the offending material if I am sure it is pirated. I also leave a warning on their bill about pirated material. In your case you could have told the pastor what you discovered. He may have been able to find out who it belonged to and counseled them. Most pastors are conscientious about those things but there are a few rogues in "the cloth" too.
Ted
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txnetcop said:
OleBoy, I run across pirated crap all the time when I repair computers. I have turned people in to the authorities and they did absolutely nothing. Unless it is kiddie porn they just don't give a rat's butt. I just wipe the offending material if I am sure it is pirated. I also leave a warning on their bill about pirated material. In your case you could have told the pastor what you discovered. He may have been able to find out who it belonged to and counseled them. Most pastors are conscientious about those things but there are a few rogues in "the cloth" too.
Ted
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Click to expand...


I went through the same deal in my last job. A good 60-70% of computers returned for repair had pirated software/movies. It was also amazing the amount of folks who had images/video of a sexual nature starring their wives/girlfriends!!!
On one occasion we received a ~€10k personal computer for repair from a well to do foreign business man. We found a number of photographs and one video clip depicting kiddie porn (The owner of the PC was clearly visible in these). We contacted the authorities immediately, who contacted their counterparts in INTERPOL. The guy was arrested and an active kiddie porn ring was discovered and shut down with several people winding up behind bars.........hopefully for a veeeeeeery long time.
 
Best way to avoid this to start with is quit buying used crap. You can never tell where its been.
 
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