Difference between the FlightGear paid and free Version?

[VercraftetYT]

Hello, i have a Question, I bought FlightGear, and Then i saw that there is also a free Version. I want to know where the difference is.

Thx

[wlbragg]

Depends on where and what you bought. Most likely you got clipped (ripped off) by an unscrupulous scam artist who has basically repackaged (at best) FlightGear. There is no need to ever "pay" for FlightGear unless possibly purchasing one of the few products such as the world scenery disks that helps monetarily support the project or donating to the cause. If you bought a packaged version of the entire thing, then you my friend basically just got ripped off. I know of no package of a "paid" FlightGear that has any value added qualities. Whenever possible we try to warn people and with a little research you could have saved yourself a few bucks.

[VercraftetYT]

I bought it in Media Markt and It names FlightGear 2019, but there are also 2 Disks with more than 530 Planes

[wkitty42]

looks like you got a repackaged version... i do not know who bvh software is but what they are doing is not illegal, really... they are the ones that have to support it, too... we cannot do that here because we do not know what they have done to the code, if anything...

flightgear, itself, does sell FG on media... mainly for folks that can't download everything... for those that can download it all, no $$$ have to be spent...

here's the URL i found... i had to pump it through google's translate so i could even read it...
https://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=de&u=https://www.mediamarkt.at/de/product/_flight-gear-flugsimulator-2019-simulation-pc-1665884.html

[Isaak]

I think it would be wise to point Media Markt Austria to the official FlightGear website, so they can take their conclusions regarding this seller. Although what they do is in principle not illegal, there's much to say about ethics. Also it would be good to check the license they're using, as I see you're buying some kind of license key if I read it correct. Anyway: FlightGear is completely free, so I'm afraid you've bought a scam product for which we cannot provide support without knowing what the seller has changed to it.

[icecode]

Depends on how much OP paid for FlightGear. If it was around 5 euro, I'd say there are definitely no moral issues here. Repackaging and selling the "product" in CDs to save people from the trouble of downloading everything is common practice and even encouraged in other open source projects. There are also some places where internet speed is a concern. However, if they paid 20 to 50 euro, unfortunately I'd say that the OP has then been scammed.

Even if FlightGear officially sells CD copies, I don't think there is a legal distinction between official and unofficial physical distributions of GPL licensed software. The moral issues depend on the price set by the seller, i.e. are they trying to make a profit, or are they just selling it at a fair price considering the cost of the CD itself and their working time?

I wonder if some of these cases could be solved by trademarking "FlightGear". But I guess that would complicate things even further in other cases...

[Thorsten]

Okay, been through the Media Markt offer - they sell for 19.99 Euro, and at least according to the package information, there seems to be added value in terms of charts for German/Austrian (?) airspace.

I'm not sure if bhv Software can legally claim to be manufacturer (?). The fact that the software supposedly has copy protection is decidedly weird, and so is the idea to sell one unlimited license - I would guess the 'one' is a restriction not covered by the GPL which contains no such provision.

Another slightly weird fact is that following the link to the supposed manufacturer (bhv-software) one comes to a page on which FG is not offered for sale. So it's not quite clear to me how the source code would be available in this setup.

[Thorsten]

And one can also buy the Manual online:

https://inter-commerce.de/product/flug- ... -handbuch/

Weird - as 'similar products' are listed:

* exercise sheets for pre-schools 2018-2019
* the power of colors - stress reduction and relaxation
* Jesus' dark secret

Um... right.