Just idling my time by during my Fall Break from college (sorry US fans :( ) I stumbled upon a email from a random person in my inbox stating:
Hello fellow cheater,
I seen a cheat on gamewinners from you. I need to find out if you are the original author or did you copy it from another website to share it.
Someone else is claiming that they are the original author but I think you are and you submitted it originally on gamewinners.com! So this is causing some issues.
If you discovered it yourself, please describe how you did with a reply.
Please, Please reply, this is majorly important!
Did you write the following?
URL : http://www.gamewinners.com/Cheats/index.php/ Dragon_Ball_Z:_Budokai_Tenkaichi_2_%28Wii%29
"
Finding Dragonballs
Smash through breakable objects on battle maps and run into the Dragonballs to get them. You must also win the battle.
John I
"
I am not from www.gamewinners.com and have no affiliation with it.
-Jeremy
G3
Seeing nothing too much wrong here, I replied stating that in fact I was that same person who submitted the cheat..(they post the email of the submitter and I've been using the same email address for well over 6 years) to which I received the following in response:
Hello,
I figured you were the original author! I hope it makes you mad someone else is claiming they are the author but that is just the start of it I am afraid. I desperately need your help and officially claim that text! It is pretty easy for you to help. Let me explain in detail:
I am not from Gamewinners.
Have you heard of Cheatcc.com and the owner Dave Allison? He has a laundry list of publishing content without permission but now he has gone even further.
I believe Mr. Allison copied this particular cheat you gave gamewinners to his website. The significants is that he has been copying cheats from gamewinners for many years and he was able to get a copyright on his website. He claims he is the SOLE author of all cheat code content on his website. He is then suing other companies and people that own gaming websites that have similar cheats.
To verify please see this page: http://www.muddlawoffices.com/cases/allisonvwise.htm
Dave Allison sued me almost 3 years ago and I have been fighting every since. He only provided 12 examples of cheats I had the same. I own cheatmasters.com and you can imagine how many cheats I have on cheatmasters that has been running since 1994. CheatCC started in 1997. Allison has sued at least 4 others that we now of for sure. I am the only one that is fighting the issue but I am also fighting a medical condition that keeps me from finding another job. I have a sever type of arthritis attacking 20+ joints throughout my body. I do not want sympathy it is just a fact that res tricts me from getting just any job. The income from my websites is the only income my family has. Dave Allison is demanding I turn over my website to him for a settlement or a huge amount of money which I could not possibly pay. Most others he has sued gave up their websites to him and may have paid the legal fees as well! Allison now runs those websites!
We have contacted Al Amaloo, the owner of gamewinners but he would like to stay out of this as you can imagine. They do not have any ownership in the content since people like you are the real authors. Mr. Amaloo has said they keep the emails they get however, so if you do not have the original reply perhaps you can ask for it. Mr. Amaloo has been very help in this matter.
I know this is all hard to believe but I really need your help. It is really a simple thing for you but serious and complicated for me. I do not work for gamewinners but you can send them a quick email asking if Cheatcc is being investigated for copying their content. Others have and got replies fast confirming. So I encourage you to ask them if that helps you.
I would like for you to sign a simple document that states you are the original author of that particular text found on gamewinners and that you did not submit it to cheatcc. We can let the jury decide how similar it is on cheatcc.com. I am asking many gamers to help out in this way. My lawyer thinks I should find 100 People! The issue is that the copyright law does not allow anyone to copyright someone elseÃÆ’¢â‚¬â„¢s work. Clearly Dave is not the author of all cheats on his website but try to explain that to a Judge or jury that may not understand the gaming community! They will understand people coming forward saying that they wrote a particular paragraph (cheat) however.
I will need your full name and country/state where you live to prepare the document if you decide to help me out. I need the name for the signature and the state for the notary. Any other information is optional. I will not ask for more information then that.
I do ask you to research this all for yourself. Look up your cheat(s) on cheatcc.com! I hope it makes you mad like the others I have contacted that Allison is claiming he wrote that text when he clearly copied it and hundreds more directly from gamewinners!
I have attached an example document so you see how simple it is. You only have to sign and date it one like this. Nothing else needs filled out but is optional.
I have a ton of information to give you and I hope you have an interest to find out more. Dave Allison claims he wrote your cheat and that you are not the author! I hope you help put and end to this jerk. Your signed document would really help a LOT!
Use google too. Search for "cheatcc and crave online" , " Cheatcc lawsuit" "cheatcc steals";
Here are some examples to research some to show I am telling the truth about the situation:
http://www.daledietrich.com/gaming/ heatcccom-and-crave-online-media-settle-cheat-codes-dispute/ comment-page-1/#comment-35430
http://www.wired.com/gamelife/2007/02/stupid_lawsuit_/ ( This was actually about my lawsuit at the time, the first one)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cheat_Code_Central - read "Controversies"
http://www.candiedskull.com/bully/index.html - read the top ( hard to miss)
Can I count on you? Please, it would greatly help me and my family fight this jerk! You can not believe how much of a nightmare it has been fighting this since he has an official copyright!
Want to verify all this? My Lawyer:
http://www.muddlawoffices.com/cases/allisonvwise.htm
Charles Lee Mudd Jr. - [email protected]
www.muddlawoffices.com
MAIN OFFICE
3114 West Irving Park Road
Suite 1W
Chicago, Illinois 60618
773.588.5410
773.588.5440 facsimile
Now, being the wary internet user I am I did in fact check out the links and it seems pretty legit while also being a pretty unfortunate situation. It's only that much more believable in that I looked up an even older cheat code submission for Dragonball Z Tenkaichi 1 on PS2 from gamewinners I did(yes, I am/was a hardcore DBZ fan & I'm John I by the way for the finding dragonballs cheat), and it appeared word for word, punctuation for punctuation on the cheatcc website also. Seeing as the guy doesn't seem to want much info wise, I'm pretty doubtful of it being a scam but still wary in that I could be somehow dragged into such a lawsuit...I'll make a final decision later on...It's somewhat odd though that this same cheat code central with non working cheats/codes I recall visiting back in elementary school (I'm now a 2nd year college student) still exists and even still has shady activity....But who knew submitting a single cheat code could get me potentially involved in something like this..What a interesting evening tonight turned out to be..
Oct 20 2009, 3:59 pm
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Yammen
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Interesting.. If what this man says is true, it seems like it would be a good thing to help him with.
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I don't buy it. My advice is sign it with a fake name and say you're from north dakota or something. Then he'll probably ask for more stuff after that to follow through with his scam, if not, then you just sortof helped him out.
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I say help him out.
The internet is srs bzns. | |
Don't sign stuff with fake names and information if it is going to be used in a lawsuit. You might end up getting in trouble for submitting false information. Even worse, you might get someone else in trouble.
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Ham Doctor wrote:
Don't sign stuff with fake names and information if it is going to be used in a lawsuit. You might end up getting in trouble for submitting false information. Even worse, you might get someone else in trouble. If he's not asking for your address and contact information, then there's no harm in submitting a fake name since you're never gonna talk to him again. It's probably a scam anyway. | |
It definitely doesn't seem like a scam to me... The fact that so much of the story seems to check out, and that the contact so far is much more personal and targeted at you specifically (rather than being a completely generic form letter) lends a lot of weight to the legitimacy of this request...
I'd say help him up to any point where anyone asks for potentially harmful information... It's up to you to decide where that line is, though... Obviously stuff like banking info or info that could lead to other forms of identity theft (like your equivalent, if any, of our Social Security Number) would be out of the question, but would you be willing to give him (or his lawyer) your phone number or address for further contact? For the time being, I doubt simply adding your name to his list would cause any harm... But I'd read things over a bit to make sure there isn't any fine print...lol | |
Mecha JDI,
My name is Stuart Wright, which means nothing to you I know but I can confirm this situation is real. I run cheats websites myself and have come across this case many times - i've been keeping an eye on it as of course it is relevant to my own business. This Allison guy has sued and closed down many smaller cheats sites in this way - hence the references on Wikipedia - and I know that help from an original cheat author such as yourself would be a huge plus for Jeremy Wise' defense against him, I also know other original cheat authors have been contacted regarding this - all of which are genuine original cheat authors who have appeared on GameWinners just like you and were then copied over to CheatCC who are now claiming copyright of those cheats! I find it hugely annoying, the guy is pretty much trying to say he has invented all cheats! You have a chance to help put this guy in his place with a simple statement, i'm sure any help would be appreciated by Jeremy Wise, and the owners of cheats websites Dave Allison will sue next if he is allowed to get away with this again and again. I believe this is the first time anybody has stood a chance of 'fighting back'. Stuart | |
An interesting read, i my self own a cheat codes website and most of the cheat website owners are familiar of this case and know Allison's shaddy tactics to eat up smaller websites, just because he has more money he sues original authors for their content and drag them to court and then claim their sites to make more money. Cheatcc is famous for stealing content from several sites and that is why they banned term cheatcc and allison at gamefaqs.com.
I think you should not be scared of this as you won't get into any trouble at all, i also think you should do this because that is what ethics teach us. To prove my point further, i had dug up few stories in past which showed some shaddy tactics Cheatcc rolls out. Check out these http://web.archive.org/web/20080116170800/http:// www.debate.eu/2007/11/14/ gaming-site-attempts-to-game-socialnetworking-site/ and http://digg.com/gaming_news/ A_Big_Cheat_Site_Attempts_To_Game_Digg At the end, you are not alone, there are a lot of authors which are joining hands against this battle. | |
I was contacted a while back by this same user wanted confrimation on a cheat that I had submitted to Gamewinners years ago. I was well aware at the time that cheatcc.com just simply copies-and-pastes information from other websites onto cheatcc.com. I had contacted the webmaster of gamewinners asking why my contributions were being copied with no credit to me at all, and I got a response saying that they would investigate it. Nothing after that.
My name is Shadow, and if you play the Xbox 360, then chances are you've seen my contributions somewhere. I'm the one who figured out the Lone wolves matchmaking trick to get into games with your friends. (The changing of the language, then searching by language.) I'm the one who also ruined Two Worlds and Too Human. If you look on Gamewinners, you'll see my contributions. Most of them say "Shadow King X" because that was a former Gamertag of mine. Even though I have changed the Gamertag and put my current Gamertag for the contributions, the email still remained the same, and yes, I do still own that Gamertag. I used to visit cheatcc.com years ago, back when I had a Nintendo 64. It's only because of the advertising that the site even became popular. (I mean, have you seen it now? Pop-up blockers are a must) I made the transistion to Gamewinners simply because it had more information. Even though the site may look drab and not of modernization, it still remains a site that has more information on it. This is because of the people making the contributions; the gamers. When people make contributions, they tend to stack, creating more and more information. Cheatcc.com simply copies what is on Gamewinners, and doesn't give any credit. Well, I'll take that back: there is credit for about 0.00002% of the information on that website now. I may not be the leading contributor of Gamewinners, but I'm a very respected person when it comes to finding information on games. Mr. Allison needs to be put to rest, not literally, simply his site needs to be taken away from him like a 4 year old having his candy taken away from his mother. I want to hear him scream and cry because he can't have what he wants. If it wasn't for advertising, he wouldn't have even been put into that position. Advertising alone has ruined so many markets and coorporations. I suppose the best example I can think of is radio. I remember when there used to be music on the radio, now you're lucky to get through the verbal ads, talk shows, and now talk shows WITH ADS IN THEM! It is time we helped shut down cheatcc.com and have Mr. Allison pay his dues. He knows what he did was wrong, and now he's starting to fret. He will do almost anything now just to try and win a case. The solution here is simply, we need to unite and help Mr. Wise make his case. We need to show that cheatcc.com is, in fact, copy-and-pasting our information on that website. Sign the documents, show some spirit. Show that gamers are people, not machines. Show that we have the ability to do something about this. If cheatcc.com is allowed to conitinue their reign, then there will be no credit to anyone. If you find a cheat that changes an entire game, don't you want credit for it? I'll say it again, stand up and stand out. Show who you are and what you believe in. These injustices need to be made correct. And to Mr. Allison if you are reading this, we are coming for you. =) | |
I was just recently contacted by him as well. I didn't submit anything too helpful to Gamewinners, but it was still copied on to CheatCC. It isn't a scam, and shouldn't cost you anything at all. As far as I know, you wouldn't be dragged into it.
All I had to do was sign an affidavit, get it notarized, fax it to his lawyer, and send him the original. It was pretty simple, and didn't take long at all. It did cost me about $5 since I don't have a fax machine and the store here with that service is costly, but it's not like he gets the money and if it helps take down that crazy Allison guy, then great. He copies so many people's stuff and claims he makes it all. Because I had nothing better to do, and wanted to help him more, I ended up looking up cheats on Gamewinners and CheatCC and sending him which cheats were obviously copied, and the email address of the author on Gamewinners. In fact, I did it for that DBZ game, so it was interesting to find this. I was all like "Oh...so this is John I!". But, yeah...this is not a scam, and really doesn't take much work to just sign some things and fax them. One of my first replies to him was telling him that it sounds like a scam with the way he puts it. Guess I'm not the only one :P | |
I've been talking to him since July, it's been eye opening. Before this, I had never heard of cheatcc, and I'm glad that I hadn't. Turns out they copied a bunch of my stuff from Oblivion and Kingdom Hearts.
Allison reminds of that Langley guy, they one who has the copyright on the word edge. They just go around taking what they want, nobody can stop them. Until now, that is. | |
Ok i am WolfLink22 and here is:
Jeremy Wise contacted me because Cheat CC had stolen a bunch of my codes i had sent as well.For example is one of the following hints that was stolen from Game Winners where i gave them access to use it on their site: Training mode: Picking up spares gold medal Knock down the pins with a single throw. Twist your wrist to curve the ball. If you knock down all the pins on seventeen lanes you will earn a gold medal. Z1234 Yes i use not only this username called z1234 on GameWinners.com but i also use WolfLink22 on that very same website as well. Cheat CC stole that code and they also stole the following one after it too and here it is: Training mode: Picking up spares platinum medal Knock down the pins with a single throw. Twist your wrist to curve the ball. If you knock down all the pins on all twenty Lanes you will earn a platinum medal. Note: Lane 20's pin is only a single pin and will be easy to pick up. Z1234 You can help me confirm that i sent the latest hints and references to GameWinners.com as well and here they are: Extra lives In World 2, you can jump on the turtle as done in New Super Mario Bros. to get extra lives until you choose to stop or until time runs out. WolfLink22 If you are riding on a Yoshi and jump on the bullets seven or eight times you will get as many extra lives as desired. WolfLink22 Kill eight enemies with a star on you to get an extra life. You can keep it going until the star runs out if you are fast enough. WolfLink22 Kill eight enemies with a turtle shell you will get an extra life. You can keep hitting the turtle shell until there are no more enemies if you run fast enough. WolfLink22 Jump on seven turtles to get an extra life. You can keep jumping on the turtles until there are no more to jump on if you are fast enough. WolfLink22 Freeze the Pokeies then do a quick Ground Pound to get at least five extra lives. WolfLink22 Super Mario Bros. and New Super Mario Bros. references Reach the goal with a time of 11, 22, 33, 44, 55, 66, 77, 88, or 99 to see from one to nine fireworks. WolfLink22 Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Galaxy reference During the introduction sequence, you can see Bowser Jr. and the other Koopalings leave after kidnapping Princess Peach and taking off in an airship from Super Mario Bros. 3 and Super Mario Galaxy. WolfLink22 I asked them to credit me as WolfLink22 or Z1234 for those new hints and references before the game has come out. Cheat CC has not taken them as of yet but this way you all can help me confirm even tho i placed them on my own website that i sent them to Game Winners with the following e-mail replies from Game Winners: Hi, Thanks for the tip! I'm posting it on the site with the next update, with credits in your name. For your reference, it was posted on GameWinners.com at 2:47 PM EST on Wednesday October 21st. Take care... That was for the Air Ship reference. The next one is for the Hints and References i listed just above: Hi, Thanks again -- these tips have been posted with credits as you indicated. For your reference, they were posted at 3:47PM EST on Wednesday October 21, 2009. I even spotted an error in my Air Ship Reference and here is there reply for that and i allowed them to reword the hints and references where needed as you see here to what they are now too: Hi, Thanks for catching that -- its now been fixed. So you can help me prove that i sent that stuff to Game Winners first even tho i have a website of my own and have those hints and references listed on my own codes section too. So thanks for reading this long comment. | |
He contacted me too. At first I was a bit wary like you. When he gave me info about the case I had to check out CheatCC too and I looked for the cheat that I submitted to Gamewinners and there it was, word for word and punctuation for punctuation.
I decided I wanted to help him because finding lots of people to get on his side for such a ridiculous lawsuit can be really difficult. I think he needs all the help he can get. "All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing." | |
Honestly, are you surprised that CheatCC stole your code? I've had many codes stolen, ranging from games like New Super Mario, Bully, Banjo Kazooie 3 and Indiana Jones.
Dave is allowed to get away because he steals your codes and copyrights them, Jeremys lawsuit will prove to the world that Dave is a cyber-criminal. | |
Hi, My name is Farreg, I am a semi-regular poster of cheats on gamewinners.com, I have been in contact with both Jeremy Wise and Al Amaloo regarding this unfortunate situation.
I was skeptical at first but have done my research. This is a legit situation, and I have offered my help. I know this is not the first time that CheatsCC.com has done this and he will continue to do so as long as he can get away with it. What some of you don't know is that in order to stop Jeremy Wise from contacting some of you, Dave Allison has now targeted Jeremy Wise with a defamation suit. Don't tolerate this kind of thing, if we can stop it now, cheats will be available for all gamers to share, otherwise, you may find yourself ending up paying an access fee to get them. I won't post my email here, but if you know gamewinners, you will know how to reach me if you want any of my own research done into this. | |
Hey, I too have been contacted by Jeremy and have made me aware what Mr. Allison has been doing. When he first told me this I was very interested and looked into this. I looked onto one of his cheat code pages and have found that the exact cheat I submitted to gamewinners was duplicated word by word onto cheatcc.com. I am not aware if he has any more of mine, but one is enough to prove what he's been doing. It was a cheat on Call of Duty: World at War and I have submitted numerous amounts to gamewinners to share with others. Not for someone to take credit from me and get away with it. I am currently trying to help Jeremy notarize an affidavit so he can have possibly use this extra evidence to share. I am definitly willing help stop this now that I am aware of how many people have been plaigarized. I hope an end will come to this and people can realize who the orginal authors are to all the worthy codes people take time into finding. Michael Webb | |
I've been debating on if I should go ahead and send him the info he needs. I'm the one who posted the trick on how to easily summon Porunga in DBZ: Budokai Tenkaichi 2. I think I might after all...
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I also found where they have added to or edited codes by people who originally submitted them to GameWinners.com as well for example is some of my New Super Mario Bros. DS Codes:
Special background patterns When you load a saved game file that you have completed the game on, you will find a new blue Toad House at the beginning of World 1. Inside are four background patterns you can choose for the touch screen. You can purchase these with Star Coins. The fifth and final pattern can be purchased for 20 Star Coins when you have collected all star coins, complete all stages, and find all hidden exits. Wolflink22 That code is the one i submitted to gamewinners.com and Cheat CC thought i would not notice the edit or rewrite but here is the rewrite/edit: Successfully complete the game, then load the completed saved game file to< find a new blue Toad House at the beginning of World 1. (from find a blue toad house at the beginning of World 1. to hidden exits. was copied.Anything with >< was reworded)Inside are four background patterns you can choose for the touch screen. You can purchase these with Star Coins. The fifth and final pattern can be purchased for 20 Star Coins when you have collected all Star Coins, completed all stages, and >found< (Allison edited Find to found to make it look as if he wrote it.) all hidden exits. Unlimited Toad House items When you load a saved game file that you have cleared every level, including the lettered bonus levels, Toad Houses will no longer disappear after you take the items. The only exception are the ones that appear based on your timer when you finish a level. Wolflink22 Again note that i sent that one to Gamewinners.com as well.Here is Cheat CC's rewrite or edit: Infinite< Toad House items (There he changed level to stage) Here is a Hint that i will share credit with the other person who submitted it after i did but gamewinners gave credit to as well: Play as Luigi Hold L + R and press A to select a saved game file to play as Luigi in single player mode. Wolflink22 and Stevo Smith Here is the rewrite or edit: Play as Luigi At the "Select A File" screen, highlight a file, then< >hold< L + R and press A to play as Luigi in Single Player mode. Again please note the >< marks how i have them that way i can easily note to you what Mr. Allison edited in or reworded to make it look as if i did not submit those hints/codes to Gamewinners.com as well. Don't just look for your codes at Cheat CC look for little rewrites and edited text spots like i pointed out too.It will also help prove your case and help Jeremy Wise put an end or just add extra fuel to help Jeremy Wise win his case vs Mr. Allison as well.If you don't find the little rewrite or edited text spots Allison will say that he did not copy no such thing.Thanks if you all who have been keeping up with this are watching Cheat CC like i am doing now. Since Jeremy has been watching Allison has seemed to stop but it is time for us to be the Starlow of Mario and Luigi Bowser's Inside Story and make Jeremy the Bowser in this case turn into Gaint Jeremy to stomp on Allison the Fawful or Dark Star/Dark Bowser of this case into the ground for good. | |
I like how every single person who commented from #5 to #18 has only joined since October 23. It doesn't seem the least bit fishy or strange.
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