As many of you know, I am the first one to ferret out a cheap copy of FileMaker 7. I like a deal and many have been offered on the Net of late. Well, apparently, many of these resellers with unbelievably low prices are selling illegitimate copies.
There have always been spammers out there selling software at ridiculously low prices and I ignored them. But I was taken in by these CD-Only resellers who were operating so openly with Google ads and telling stories that they buy in very large volume, etc.. I wanted to believe these were legit deals and encouraged my readers to check them out.
I was wrong. I just recently received a FileMaker Solutions Alliance mailing from FileMaker Inc. informing members about the problem. FileMaker says they only sell full versions of FileMaker to resellers, not CD-Only versions. Even when the CD artwork looks authentic, it may be a well-done counterfeit.
As a supporter and fan of FileMaker Inc. and as a developer of FileMaker applications, I can’t and won’t knowingly support any reseller who is operating outside legal bounds when it comes to this issue. I want FileMaker to keep getting better and I want excellent support. Each of those things depends on minimizing this kind of counterfeiting and other kinds of piracy.
Since I don’t have the time to adequately research the various special offers for FileMaker on the Net, I won’t be flagging these kinds of things in the future. From now on, I’ll be careful to only make recommendations on sure thing legit FileMaker deals.