UPDATE: Digiarty Software has officially apologized for their mistake. Click here to learn more.

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Digiarty Software (WinX DVD Ripper Platinum) officially apologizes to SOS members

Hi friends,

SharewareOnSale has had a good relationship with Digiarty Software, the makers of WinX and MacX brand of software, since we ran our first giveaway and discounted sale together 4-5 months ago. They provide good software, we provide software lovers; we make them thousands of dollars, their software helps drive traffic to our website — it is a win-win situation. Unfortunately, that relationship will now end… at least temporarily, maybe permanently.

Last October we ran a promotion with Digiarty Software consisting of a giveaway of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition (a fully functional, lifetime license freebie) and sold WinX DVD Ripper Platinum at a heavily discounted price. People who bought the discounted sale license are having no issues. People who took part in the giveaway? They aren’t as lucky. As it turns out, Digiarty Software never intended on actually letting people use the WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition giveaway for lifetime.

Recently I’ve received multiple reports that Digiarty Software has locked WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition (aka stopped people from using the freebie any further), telling users the following:

Due to the update of the kernel, the way to read the license code was changed. Please note any license codes which were largely leaked to Internet, torrent, rapidshare might not be recognized by this version built on Jan.24, 2014. And we are deeply sorry for the inconvenience. Please contact [email protected] to get new license code. Thanks for your understanding.

The key thing to note here is, Digiarty Software locked WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition for everyone — even people who did not update the program to a newer version. The giveaway came with no free updates and updating the program would cause you to lose it — but even people who didn’t update it lost it due to Digiarty Software’s actions.

I thought there must have been some misunderstanding; I’ve worked with Digiarty Software in the past and they’ve never done anything like this before. Maybe someone flipped the wrong switch somewhere. Or maybe someone updated the program when they should not have. So I shot an email to my contact at Digiarty Software and was told the following:

During 2013 Halloween promo, we did create a special edition of this program – WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition as you know. Because it is our premiere product and has been cracked in the giveaways before. You can search WinX DVD Ripper Platinum crack, WinX DVD Ripper Platinum torrent in Google to see, and lots of license codes have been disclosed on the internet. We have been trying to ask users to keep the code for personal use and not to disclose it. But we can’t stop all. Under this circumstances,  we were forced to try special edition in Halloween promo. If the code disclosed again, we had to change the register process and that finally happened. That’s why this user see the “upgrade-to-full” page.

The truth is, the registration process has been written into the program file before we published it as holiday giveaway, and fully controllable. If the license code hadn’t been disclosed in large scale, we would never run the process (popping up a window and ask users to upgrade to full). But on the contrary, if it had been largely leaked to internet, torrent and rapidshare, till then we ran that process. We never set a specific date to make it expire. It all depends on the situation.

I don’t know about you, but I call bullshit. Digiarty Software literally gave out the license key for WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition — of course it is going to spread all across the ‘net, that is the whole point of a giveaway. And how the hell do you “crack” or “leak” a publicly available giveaway?! No, my friends, I suspect they had this planned all along. I don’t know if management has changed over there or what, but apparently this time they decided they weren’t going to offer an honest giveaway like they have in the past.

However, I was willing to give Digiarty Software the benefit of the doubt because, as I said, I’ve worked with them on many occasions and they have never done something like this before. I figured, okay, maybe they genuinely screwed up by making this move. So I told them the following:

One of the ways to combat this [leak] issue is to put a limit on when users must register by, which you did. Or, if you are so worried about such “leakage”, then don’t do a bloody giveaway in the first place. Or, if you do a giveaway, then issue a unique key to everyone. However, running a lifetime giveaway and ending it a few months later is not the way to do it. That is nothing more than a scam.

You need to make this right. Here is what I want from you. I want you to write an apology letter I can give to my readers, explaining the mistake you made. And I want you to allow me to extend the giveaway of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum we had earlier this week [on the 21st and 22nd] until the end of Monday, the 27th, to make it up to those whose Halloween WinX DVD Ripper Platinum expired but missed our earlier promotion [on the 21st and 22nd of Jan]. Please do this ASAP, seeing as you will be going on vacation for the next two weeks.

They came back and told me that we just did a giveaway with you this past week; that giveaway is a real lifetime license, it is not any special edition, and it won’t be locked like WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition was — so we don’t want to extend that giveaway. They also told me to direct people to email them for a new license if their WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition was locked and they missed the recent giveaway on the 21st and 22nd. Lastly, they said they will be doing a promotion in February and they will leave a relevant comment on the promotion post then.

I said, OK, fine — let’s find a compromise. I told them you did indeed just run a recent giveaway with us and as long as that giveaway won’t be locked like you locked WinX DVD ripper Platinum Halloween Edition, we don’t need to extend the giveaway. I further told them, sure, we can do another promo in February. However, I asked them to issue an apology letter to SharewareOnSale and its readers, along with instructions on how people should email [email protected] if they still have WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition.

Unfortunately, I have yet to receive that apology letter from Digiarty Software and I likely won’t for at least the next two weeks. Why? Because it is now past work hours in China (which is where Digiarty Software is based) and, because of the Chinese New Year, Digiarty Software staff will be on vacation for the next two weeks or so.

As such, I’ve made the decision to terminate our relationship with Digiarty Software until they make this right. I’m still willing to give them the benefit of the doubt due to their positive track record (excusing this blimp), but we will no longer be working with Digarty Software until they decide to company-up to their mistake and apologize to everyone.

If you have Digiarty Software products and you like them, please continue to use them. As I said, the giveaway of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum we had this past 21st and 22nd is unaffected (and, of course, the people who paid for the free lifetime updates license of WinX DVD Ripper Platinum are unaffected). However, if you have a bad taste in your mouth, then swiftly uninstall their software and stay away from this company until they do the right thing. After all, they aren’t the only fish in the pond — there are many companies that offer DVD rippers, copiers, etc. and who won’t run scam giveaways.

Folks, I know many of you are probably thinking: “What do you expect, they are from China“. Let me say, please don’t fault all Chinese companies for the actions of one. There are plenty of honest Chinese companies who offer quality products and won’t cheat you. In my book, Digiarty Software was one of those companies but now I’m questioning my judgement. I’m hoping they will come back from vacation and fix their blunder, but I’m not holding my breath.

As a parting message, the following is an email forwarded to me by a SOS’er. His WinX DVD Ripper Platinum Halloween Edition was locked and he emailed [email protected] to get a new (giveaway) license; this is their response:

Hi,

Sorry for the inconvenience!

We are really sorry that the code is only able to activate the program during the giveaway only.
You can keep the full version unless you try to update, remove the license yourself, format/replace the hard drive or reinstall the whole system once you registered the program before the deadline.

However, it is declared that the giveaway version is not available for updates when we were doing the giveaway.
To make it fair to our purchased customers, free updates are offered only for our purchased customers. And we hope you could understand this.

Moreover, we are glad to provide you only $29 to get the full version if you can purchase now.
It saves a lot and you can enjoy the following benefits:

1. FREE lifetime technical support via e-mail, guaranteed reply within one business day.
2. FREE lifetime update to latest version.
3. Get discount for purchasing other products.

As we do not get a single buy link for $29, would you please pay here:

https://secure.avangate.com/order/checkout.php?PRODS=4542872&QTY=29&CART=2

Note: Please email back after the payment, I will send you the code manually.

Best Regards,
Digiarty Support Team

So much for emailing Digiarty Software for a replacement giveaway license.

Feel free to leave a comment below on this whole situation.

Take care,
Ashraf
Mr. Boss @ SharewareOnSale