1st Benison Software
Ulf Maier
ulf.Maier at h3c.de
Fri Nov 25 16:25:21 CET 2005
Hello,
as i recently posted, the All Converter from 1st Benison Software is a
cheap Copy of CDex with a changed User Interface. So i thought it would be
interesting to take a closer Look at 1st Benison Software Products.
A Google search for Benison shows me approx. 38,000. A Company with so
many References and existing for nearly 7 Years can´t be that bad you
think?
EVERY of their 9 Products contains GPL code! They should be ashamed.
First let me show you their Introduction on http://www.1stbenison.com/ ---
Founded in 1998, 1st Benison has quickly grown into a premiere software
provider. Our reputation has been built by providing individuals and
enterprises around the world awards-winning multimedia and security
software solution. 1st Benison will continue to develop new, more powerful
and robust yet highly intuitive software through on-going research and
development. We are committed to our customers and promise that we will
not only make the latest technology development available and affordable
to all Windows users, but continue to support the products and our valued
customers afterwards in the best way possible.
Our multimedia software includes: DVD Ripper, DVD Copy, Video Converter,
mp3 recorder, Sound Editor, Sound Converter , CD Ripper and CD Burner.
Click on a product and have a nice try!
---
I soon got an Idea how the 1998 founded Company has grown into a premiere
software Provider.
The Homepage presents us 9 Products:
1st DVD Ripper
1st Video Converter
1st DVD Backup
1st DVD Backup Pro
1st CD Maker
1st CD Ripper
All Recorder
All Converter
All Editor
Let´s take a look. Tools I used were a Hex Viewer and the free
PE Resource Explorer
(http://www.wilsonc.demon.co.uk/d7resourceexplorer.htm).
-------------
1st DVD Ripper
-------------
Interesting Strings in DR.exe
http://dvdtool.us/
http://www.xmediasoft.com/
http://www.1stvideoconverter.com/
"vcdbuild -p -v -t %s -c %s.cue" at 0x152644
Many references to "lame", the Lame encoder
--- Position 0x1A63A6 ---
"lkCDRtools" and many more Strings that are coming from the lkCDRtools
(https://sourceforge.net/projects/lkcdrtools/) Package.
GPL Violation !
--- Position 0x152b54 ---
Strings starting with "MPEGEnc:" are here. I found many of these String
in a OLD Release (Branch 0.6.0) of Transcode
(http://www.transcoding.org/).
Happily you can Browse the CVS of Transcode Online:
http://cvs.exit1.org/cgi-bin/viewcvs.cgi/transcode/bbmpeg/Attic/dovideo.c?rev=1.1.1.1&only_with_tag=TRANSCODE_0_6_0&view=markup
Here are just some of the Strings i Found in dovideo.c of Transcode AND in
DR.exe:
"Cannot allocate memory for blocks."
"Cannot allocate memory for pred frame."
"Cannot allocate memory for aux org frame."
.
.
.
Compare them to the Calls to DisplayError() in the CVS Repository...
-------------
1st Video Converter
-------------
-- Position 0x20D50C --
"lkCDRTools" and many More Strings from the lkCDRTools
(https://sourceforge.net/projects/lkcdrtools/). This String is e.g. from
the lkCDRTools Package: "WRITER had to wait %d times for
reader-thread". A GPL Violation!
-- Position 0x1B680C --
"vcdbuild -p -v -t %s -c %s.cue -b %s.bin -l %s %s"
-- Position 0x1B7182 --
"deflate 1.1.3 Copyright 1995-1998 Jean-loup Gaily"
zlib Libraries from zlib.net were used. Thats OK (ZLIB is not under GPL)
but the ZLIB License says:
"If you use this software in a product, an acknowledgment in the product
documentation would be appreciated but is not required."
Not nice but Ok.
--- Strings at 0x1B8A0C ---
"Application transferred too few scanlines" and many more are from the
DICOM ToolKit distributed as part of the Independent JPEG Group's
software.
Look at the Source File and compare the Error Strings:
http://support.dcmtk.org/docs/jerror16_8h-source.html
The License says:
"... free access is hereby granted as a license to use this software,
copy this software and prepare derivative works based upon this
software. However, any distribution of this software source code or
supporting documentation or derivative works (source code and supporting
documentation) must include the three paragraphs of this copyright
notice."
--- Strings starting from 0x1BC174 --
They contain different Strings that seem to be coming from ImageMagick
(http://www.imagemagick.org/).
If that is true the License "requires you to provide clear attribution to
ImageMagick Studio LLC for any distributions that include ImageMagick
software." ... "It does not require you to include the source of the
ImageMagick software itself, or of any modifications you may have made to
it, in any redistribution you may assemble that includes it.".
Benison did not Mention anything about ImageMagick in their License.
-------------
1st DVD Backup
-------------
The 1st DVD Backup Installer installed diffrent .OCX Files in
C:\Windows\System32\
Filename: C:\Windows\System32\DGBurnPlus.ocx
Right Click->File Info -> Company shows "DGPDev"
I Googled for "DGPDev" and found "DGPDev Tools" from
http://www.sharewareorder.com/DGPDev-Tools-Subscription-download-17653.htm
There was a Link (Author: "Dion Galbreath") to http://www.devnetmedia.com/
selling OCX Objects for DVD and Video Processing. This could be the source
of the OCX Files
By the Way their Product "DVD Transcode X" is a nice Name
(derived from http://www.transcoding.org/ ?)...
--
Filename: C:\Windows\System32\DeDVD.ocx
-- Position 0x69A4 --
String: "Found enough occurancies of the same key. Scan stopped."
The Word "occurancies" (correct would be "occurencies")is a typo made by
the Developer of DeCSS that makes this String unique, look here:
http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~dst/DeCSS/Gallery/DeCSSplus/DeCSSplus.c
The DeCSS Code is afaik under the GPL!
--
Filename: C:\Windows\System32\wimadll.dll
Right Click -> File Info -> Version -> Internal Name ->ImageISO
-- Position wimadll.dll 0x89E --
String: "GVMat32 optimised assembly code written 1996-1998 by Gilles Vollant"
This file seems to come from the Winimage Sharewarepackage
http://www.winimage.com/winimage.htm
I wonder if 1st Benison obtained a License...
-- Other Installation Files --
C:\WINDOWS\System32\DVDInfoX.ocx
C:\Windows\System32\cipher.dll
C:\Windows\System32\ActiveCmd.ocx
-------------
1st DVD Backup pro
-------------
Nearly all above mentioned Violations also apply to "1st DVD Backup pro"
-------------
1st CD Maker
-------------
Look with PE Module Explorer at the tring tables and compare
String 3205 to CDex. If you want to see more, just search
the .exe for "CDex".
-- Position 0x64338 --
"CCDexApp::~CCDexApp()"
GPL Violation !
-- Other Files --
C:\Windows\system32\NCTAudioCDWriter2.dll
A Software from http://www.nctsoft.com/ (?)
-------------
1st CD Ripper
-------------
-- cr.exe Position 0xB08F0 --
"Lame Encoder does not Support sample Rates"
Does this statically Linking Comply with the Lame LGPL?
-- Position AD0FB --
String: "ReadCDAudioLBA" ... an other Function Names.
Looks like AKRIP:
http://akrip.sourceforge.net/api/api3_11.html
The AKRipper Project has already been discontinued due to increasing
amounts of license violations.
-------------
All Recorder
-------------
ar.exe
-- Position 20C4D4 --
"Leaving CCDexApp::~CCDexApp()"
CDex was used: GPL Violation!
-------------
All Converter
-------------
In my Previous Post
(http://lists.gpl-violations.org/pipermail/legal/2005-November/000591.html)
I showed already that the All Converter from
http://www.sofotex.com/All-Converter-download_L6637.html
had CDex Sourcecode stolen.
-------------
All Editor
-------------
ae.exe
--- Position 0x1534A4 ---
"Leaving CCDExApp::~CCDExApp()"
Stolen CDex Source. GPL Violation!
-----------------------------
Files used with MD5 Checksum
-----------------------------
If you like to compare my Results, you can download the Files
from 1st Benisonsoft. In case they change the files, please mail
me, i can send you the original Files.
Files from http://www.benisonsoft.com/download/[FILENAME]
1st DVD Backup pro - /dbpsetup.exe - c2f4b679393d711264e6ae26e9795efa
1st CD Ripper - /crsetup.exe - 2d129a09fe5ee34d59f7419ad55b8333
All Editor - /aesetup.exe - d605bf22b86d3a201dc0c74bf242250e
All Recorder - /arsetup.exe - ac79d245972c0a4666620ec0f7cdd7d7
1st CD Maker - /cmsetup.exe - bb7ec7e83eec8e26d47bd476c92413c7
1st DVD Ripper - /drsetup.exe - b0dbde8e7216ac02665f9be386139329
1stDVD Backup - /dbsetup.exe - 51a46b3483b694ef549c4c8a3454ed05
1st Video Converter - /vcsetup.exe - a5854291ed35bf51708050e8bd9d54ec
AllConverter - /acsetup.exe - 6eaeefe1a3d202aee0965a4865d09baa
All Converter from my previous Post:
ftp://ftp.sofotex.net/rg/acsetup_sofotex.exe
e3410025c87a95ab2f73636d26735b45 acsetup_sofotex.exe
------------------------------------------------
www.regnow.com and www.regsoft.net Links to Buy
------------------------------------------------
Maybe they should be blocked.
All Converter
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-1
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=56248
All Recorder
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-2
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=52117
All Editor
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-3
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=54715
1st CD Ripper
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-4
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=57426
1st Video Converter
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-7
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=61245
1st CD Maker
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-8
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=66583
1st DVD Backup
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-9
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=66972
1st DVD Ripper
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-10
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=57583
1st DVD Backup Professional
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-11
http://www.regsoft.net/purchase.php3?productid=67485
Huh? Whats This? Another Piece of Art from Benison:
1st Video Splitter
http://www.regnow.com/softsell/nph-softsell.cgi?item=8273-12
There are many more Companies with stolen CDex Code, it seems to be the
easiest way to take a finished and well supported Product,
introduce a new User Interface and Sell the Product as Shareware.
CDex is the Best Candidate for this, sadly.
Regards,
Ulf
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