It has unfortunately been reported to myself this evening that a few members of this site are sharing direct links to downloads in the elements area of the gallery. This is not only unethical but it's a downright theft of our bandwidth by hotlinking to them outside our site!

Do these people pay hundreds of dollars to permit users to share their kits and other items on the site? Nope - they just increase our costs by doing the above.

Due to the above we will begin changing how the downloads will be distributed and the access provided to them. We hate to do this; but this area of our site costs a great deal of money to even host and it's a priveledge to many; not to mention those who share them so generously to have their items shared and linked from somewhere they have no idea. They themselves may not want any affiliation with the parties distributing the information.

It truly saddens me a great deal that as freely as we have hosted and provided a place for others to share their work; this type of thing is going on. Completely unethical and not acceptable here at Scrapbook-Bytes.

We appreciate your patience as we work through changing our downloading procedures. Those who have paid subscriber access will receive further updates and priority access when the new download implementation has occurred.

__________________

~ SBB Owner/Founder ~
Visit my blog!

It angers me that there are some who are making things diffecult for those of us who are not gifted in this area.Hopefully downloads will resume soon.Was in the process of trying to catologue my SBB files by matching them up with your file previews and redoing missing zip files from my last pc crash.Had not yet created back up files for something like this happening.Thank you for all your hard work in trying to settle this problem.

There seems to be a spate of this disgusting behaviour at the moment. Those people responsible should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves.............although I doubt it. Those with no morals feel no shame.

__________________
Kim

Ok, I admit i do downlad the freebies, Not to sell or anythng, I'm the only one in my town that does digiscrapping, I've just leart how to make my own elements and paper ect. I go onto the sight to download, I do NOT have a direct access to it. I haven't posted anything becuase i only have access at work and don't have the time to sit and chat.

I'm sorry if that offends anybody but i don't see that i'm in the wrong. I use your amazing kits for home use only, i don't post my layout because i don't remeber where i get the kits from and odn't want to affend people with not mentionning them in the layout. The designers of the kits are really talented and have a way with this kind of thing that i don't.

If i'm wrong for doing the above well then i'm sorry.

Jacquiline,
You misunderstood. You've done nothing wrong. The problem is that people from OTHER sites/groups are directly linking to the downloads at THIS site. As a member of THIS site, you do have direct access to the downloads as your are meant to.

Imagine you are a member of another site and you come across a link to one of the kits available here............that is what the problem is. That is theft.

You have done nothing wrong.

__________________
Kim

SBB Admin:

There's "NO WAY" for you to tell the difference between a "legal subscriber" using the official direct download link (sent to them via email by you) at their work; AND a "thief" who was forwarded the link illegally. Chances are a lot of ladies (on dial-up) are taking advantage of the download links (sent to them via email) at their offices, a friend or family members home. We can all understand that this may be a vulnerability that you would want to correct for your peace of mind, but to accuse people of theft without knowing, is irresponsible and can hurt Feelings. If you don't believe what I am saying, ask your Technical Contact. There is nothing wrong with a valid paid subscriber going to their brother's house and downloading to their usb drive through his 8 Mbps connection.

I've debated about posting this for the last 7 hours... as of lately... I've become very afraid to say much of anything "about anything" on too many of the SB boards for fear of my head getting bit off... I've watched a lot of Innocent get slaughtered lately, all around with Harsh words flying so freely.

Firstly, let me start by saying I'm not absolutely positive that I understand what is meant by direct link sharing... BUT... if it resembles anything to the following??? of what I'm going to share -- I Honestly DIDN'T know what I was doing was WRONG... but I may be misunderstanding what is meant by direct link...

and I want to mention as a second point that I do have a PAID membership/subscription...

Before the site went down... not recently... There was a way to "Subscribe" to the Downloads Gallery to be notified when a new upload was submitted/added by the elements team. The emails would be sent straight to my inbox letting me know that such and such element zip was uploaded to the download gallery. So... a lot of the time (to save myself the hassle) I would just click on the link within the email to download the zip file... instead of pulling up the SBB website and then searching through and finding the new uploads and then downloading them on here through Mozilla... I would then delete the email. I NEVER sent it on to any one else, as I felt why should anyone give something for free when it already was free - they just had to pay $10-15 for the same access I had paid for a wonderful privilege.

I guess I decided it was worth explaining all this because from what I understand I would consider this directly accessing a download link. But I DO NOT consider what I did STEALING!!! I PAID for the membership just like everyone else, and I'm not sharing these with anyone else... I think I feel as the lady before me just posted, that I'm being made to feel guilty for something I did that wasn't wrong. AND I do realize I may be totally misunderstanding, but since she posted... I now know I'm not the only one misunderstanding all of this if I am... and it's not a GOOD thing that so many of us might be feeling so bad for this.

SO all that to say that if other people were Subscribed to this gallery the same way I was, which I know people are - as someone taught me about how to subscribe to the gallery to be notified almost 6 months ago... Then we may be being Falsely accused of something we are not wrong for doing.... Now if there is a rule that we are not supposed to SUBSCRIBE to the gallery, I've never heard it. And why is there even a button to push to Subscribe to the gallery if it is wrong?

Like I started this whole post off: I MAY be totally mis-understanding of what "direct links to downloads in the elements area of the gallery" means... and I REALLY sort of HOPE that I am because I feel like I'm a BIG fat CRIMINAL right now from what people are saying about all the people who are doing this... I PRAY that this is not what is meant by direct links and that it is totally something different... But if it's not - I Guarantee you that there are several people who had NO idea we couldn't do this or that it was wrong.

Please tell me I'm wrong!!! and that what my good side is telling me is that you are referring to people who are knowingly stealing only by giving the links to someone else who is not paying to use this service...

Signed -- Seriously Confused about this whole thing, and hoping that I'm still a good guy and not a BIG Mean Bad Ugly Guy???

*** Anonymous999 User - For my own protection, to be able to have a life if I'm not wrong...

This has NOTHING to do with anyone forwarding themselves links from work to home etc. that have paid subscriber status or anything like that "anonymous".


This is people SHARING the link to direct downloads bypassing the site alotogether on YAHOO GROUPS and other groups... ie: sharing SUBSCRIBER ONLY items by directly linking to the kit/s without having a paid membership, etc.

Hope this clears any confusion. This is NOT about those who download as they are meant to; it's about those that are blatently and directly linking to this site's downloads who do not have permission or right to (ie: they are either a) not registered or b) not a paid subscriber).

__________________

~ SBB Owner/Founder ~
Visit my blog!

Yep - this is not directed at those who are using the site properly. We are not "punishing" those who have used the site properly. We are merely and temporarily disabling this while we restructure it this week and promise we'll do it as speedy as possible.

At this time I have made it so that only paid subscriber's have their access; all others should have permission granted again soon

__________________

~ SBB Owner/Founder ~
Visit my blog!