Flip PDF Plus Pro

As someone whose analysis of this flip-book market back in late January 2014 led me to write that “something doesn’t smell right” with all the similarity between websites and interfaces of software designed to do exactly the same thing, I find the revelation at the 1stFlip Flipbook Creator Pro record here on MacUpdate by an apparent Flipbuilder staffer that their competitor over at 1stFlip actually stole their engine code to be quite remarkable, yet, given how things are progressing in entrepreneurial China, which is not a signatory to copyright laws, not so surprising. I have examined the document which JakeT8832 directed us to read. It is a compelling indictment of plagiarism in the field of software theft. If you go to the 1stFlip, it’s no wonder you can no longer download their current versions: they are all marked as “Unavailable.” I suspect that the legal hammers have already fallen on their heads, and rightly so. The hatchets are next. The side-by-side comparison of the nearly identical interfaces, bolstered by a look into the code built into the engines of both software products, will be convincing evidence to any objective, rational judge that 1st Flip ripped off Flipbuilder without the intelligence, talent, or subtleness to cover up their crime. While it is quite disturbing to uncover actual evidence of the theft, part of me is somewhat amused and entertained, for I had perceived all this happening back in January, when I was checking out the market prior to buying something I could affordably use. But, as I said then, I had no evidence to back up my suspicions. Everything looked alike to my eyes, but I had no tools with which to peel back the skins and examine the insides, where the software engines reside, to come to anything remotely approaching evidentiary stature. That skin-peeling has finally been done, and now there is plenty of damming evidence, so it won’t be long before 1st Flip rolls over and dies, if it hasn’t abandoned its offices already. My ethical dilemma now is that, having purchased a copy of 1st Flip during a 60% off promotion run here by MacUpdate, what position am I for having licensed software that was illegally developed in the first place? The probability is high that the greedy 1tFlip owners will be put out of business or jailed, if they can be located. That means that I get no updates or technical support either. I could not afford to spend $300 for an application that I feel is grossly overpriced for what it does from the git-go, and the only reason I opted to buy 1st Flip’s offering was due to the facts that the software does decently do what it promises (mostly), and because it was marked down to a more realistically affordable price, thanks to the MacUpdate promo. I did not intentionally wish to cause any economic harm to FlipBuilder, if indeed. the software engine inside my licensed copy from 1stFlip actually belongs to FlipBuilder. But what is my legal relationship, or obligation, to FlipBuilder now? Cheating and lying gets to be so messy, when greed takes over. See, I knew back then something was fishy. Now I know what smells.

Actually I wish someone would do an in-depth review and comparison of what appears to be a glut of software designed to turn PDF files into page-flipping documents, whether the trick is done with Flash or with HTML5. What I find very curious is that—with a few exceptions—all of the vendors in this market offer a standard product for $100 and a "pro" product for $300, which I find rather steep for a product that is essentially a flashy (excuse the pun) one-trick pony. In addition to the identical pricing, I observe a remarkable similarity in the design of the websites offering virtually the same product with the same set of features. While I have no evidence to back up my suspicions, it seems entirely possible that there may only be one software who has developed the basic engine to perform this trick, but there are multiple clones of that company strewn about (mostly China, it appears) to sell the same product under a different company name. Something doesn't smell right. But, as I said, I cannot prove this, and only if someone had access to all of the products and did an exhaustive, comparative analysis of the features, capabilities, and user Interfaces would we ever glean a glimmer of truth in this matter. I'm not saying anything illegal is going on, but if my suspicions are correct, this is certainly a new way to market a product: spin off several divisions to sell exactly the same thing under a different name! What a monopolistic concept that is! As for the "exceptions" to the $100/$300 pricing model, there are a few companies which seem to want to outdo Adobe in their attempt to set extraordinarily high prices for their flipping page-flipping software. I guess they're milking the big corporations who are milking us, so everyone has a target they're ought to exploit with this flipping new software gimmick.

'Flash-based eBooks'? Seriously? Aren't we well past having to bother with Adobe Flash, which is one of the most insecure and CPU hogging technologies on the Internet? Try an HTML5 development app.