The end of Install0us :(

Yes, you read well, this is the end. The end of Install0us.
Most of you would not appreciate what follows, just as we definitely do not, yet some of you will be strangely happy…
Why is this happening?
Legalities. When I started up solo, it was for legal reasons, and that still stands: I was fed up of hiding behind other people and wanted the freedom to develop apps without being in the shadows of the law.
For Install0us to offer the same services as other installer apps : browse / download / install, without providing any links to cracked materials, I thought we had something legal and legitimate to offer.
Some really nice people proposed me their help, and from a small blog we evolved to these forums, which just kept growing and maturing, thanks to a wonderful team. That was not appreciated by everybody…but anyway, that is another topic. During all this time I have been actively searching for a lawyer to know how legal we were. Not the lawyer you can find just anywhere, but one that understands Internet legislations and specializes in copyright laws. Trust me, these people are rare, very in demand, and very expensive.
As such I have been looking for three months, and I finally found one recently. Unfortunately our discussion left me sad and even feeling stupid to have invested so much effort into this, and involved people with me… You see, after talking for more than an hour with him, I’m sorry but the conclusion is that
what we do would be very hard to defend against in court.
I am at the moment already at risk, and would risk even more with the exposure that an Install0us v3 release will definitely bring me. Call me a coward, but as I said, hiding under covers is not a life for me. Moreover, these days in my country piracy is a hot subject among politicians… I do not want to be flamed in a trial for something that I do as a hobby, and I do not want to involve any people with me in this. I am sincerely sorry to the people who followed me thinking we were legit, my honest mistake.
What’s going to happen?
These forums will close, and repositories too. Just a few more weeks, and everything will be shut down and deleted.Install0us v2.5 has already been unleashed to you, and it will continue to run. We cannot do anything about it, so be happy!The bad news is, however, Install0us 3 will not and cannot ever be released. It all must end here. This is extremely disappointing for all of us, considering the time and energy we have spent on it.Soon after, the server behind Install0us 3 will also be shut down. We are very sorry, beta testers.
On a brighter note, we have introduced some concepts in v3 with native interfaces that have revolutionised what people will be expecting, and I am sure you will see these conceptualisations sooner or later in similar apps, although of course not done by us. In short, we feel we have made a positive contribution to the community we now leave.To make things clear, we have never shared our source code, and we can never do so, simply for legality’s sake. I know from experience that no one is irreplaceable.
But if there were to be one concept I would really like to see one day out of all this, it is the plugin system. An open application not dedicated to any one website.
About Donations
We raised donations and understandably we now have no use for them. Many of you have noticed that recently we have been refunding most of them. In fact we are refunding all refundable donations.
Only very few will not be refunded, mostly because of Paypal rules which restricts refunds to the last 60 days of transaction, or eChecks that just cannot be refunded. (Please be patient if you haven’t been refunded yet, Paypal is incredibly slow, blame their staff not ours!)
Once again, thank you very much for your willing support, but our expenses has been covered and since our activities are ending, we just want to be fair with you and refund as much as we can. We are not salesmen, we did all of this for fun, nothing more.
Thanks (a lot)
I have always wanted to do a credits/thanks screen in Installous since the first version. But apologetically, I am a lazy developer who always preferred to code features over making a thanks screen.
I cannot stop all of this without repairing that fault. First of all, many thanks go to all of you for making this journey what it has been, without the users and your continued support and encouragement none of this could have ever been reality.

Yes, you read well, this is the end. The end of Install0us.Most of you would not appreciate what follows, just as we definitely do not, yet some of you will be strangely happy…
Why is this happening?Legalities. When I started up solo, it was for legal reasons, and that still stands: I was fed up of hiding behind other people and wanted the freedom to develop apps without being in the shadows of the law.For Install0us to offer the same services as other installer apps : browse / download / install, without providing any links to cracked materials, I thought we had something legal and legitimate to offer.Some really nice people proposed me their help, and from a small blog we evolved to these forums, which just kept growing and maturing, thanks to a wonderful team. That was not appreciated by everybody…but anyway, that is another topic. During all this time I have been actively searching for a lawyer to know how legal we were. Not the lawyer you can find just anywhere, but one that understands Internet legislations and specializes in copyright laws. Trust me, these people are rare, very in demand, and very expensive.As such I have been looking for three months, and I finally found one recently. Unfortunately our discussion left me sad and even feeling stupid to have invested so much effort into this, and involved people with me… You see, after talking for more than an hour with him, I’m sorry but the conclusion is that
what we do would be very hard to defend against in court.I am at the moment already at risk, and would risk even more with the exposure that an Install0us v3 release will definitely bring me. Call me a coward, but as I said, hiding under covers is not a life for me. Moreover, these days in my country piracy is a hot subject among politicians… I do not want to be flamed in a trial for something that I do as a hobby, and I do not want to involve any people with me in this. I am sincerely sorry to the people who followed me thinking we were legit, my honest mistake.
What’s going to happen?These forums will close, and repositories too. Just a few more weeks, and everything will be shut down and deleted.Install0us v2.5 has already been unleashed to you, and it will continue to run. We cannot do anything about it, so be happy!The bad news is, however, Install0us 3 will not and cannot ever be released. It all must end here. This is extremely disappointing for all of us, considering the time and energy we have spent on it.Soon after, the server behind Install0us 3 will also be shut down. We are very sorry, beta testers.
On a brighter note, we have introduced some concepts in v3 with native interfaces that have revolutionised what people will be expecting, and I am sure you will see these conceptualisations sooner or later in similar apps, although of course not done by us. In short, we feel we have made a positive contribution to the community we now leave.To make things clear, we have never shared our source code, and we can never do so, simply for legality’s sake. I know from experience that no one is irreplaceable.But if there were to be one concept I would really like to see one day out of all this, it is the plugin system. An open application not dedicated to any one website.
About DonationsWe raised donations and understandably we now have no use for them. Many of you have noticed that recently we have been refunding most of them. In fact we are refunding all refundable donations.Only very few will not be refunded, mostly because of Paypal rules which restricts refunds to the last 60 days of transaction, or eChecks that just cannot be refunded. (Please be patient if you haven’t been refunded yet, Paypal is incredibly slow, blame their staff not ours!)Once again, thank you very much for your willing support, but our expenses has been covered and since our activities are ending, we just want to be fair with you and refund as much as we can. We are not salesmen, we did all of this for fun, nothing more.
Thanks (a lot)I have always wanted to do a credits/thanks screen in Installous since the first version. But apologetically, I am a lazy developer who always preferred to code features over making a thanks screen.I cannot stop all of this without repairing that fault. First of all, many thanks go to all of you for making this journey what it has been, without the users and your continued support and encouragement none of this could have ever been reality.