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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:02:35 GMT
Edit on 31st July - No, i was not cheating or stealing or doing anything wrong. Kaplan allows for browser downloaded materials on one's browser until the person decides to keep them. And that was the line of my argument too. Thankfully, the Kaplan company is of the same views as me in this regard even though they are generally unethical. Stuffs such as question banks for students that are made available offline are property of students as long as they use it themselves. There is no ethics in making students delete their browser history and thankfully Kaplan recognizes that. Similarly there is no ethics involved in saying that you have to delete questions for which you paid substantial amount of money. Thankfully Kaplan agrees with that too. However, Kaplan does not give print feature in their quiz bank and that is something unethical in my opinion for printing out questions makes it easy for most people and particularly for people who can't properly read on computer monitor.
I had access to online quiz bank from Kaplan which was due to expire on 27th June. There was no way to access the online quiz bank offline except on google chrome browser (even this way I could access it as long as I didn't delete the cache or the package didn't expire). I knew that this bloody company was going to stop providing me access on 27th June so I just wished somehow offline access remained on google chrome after 27th June. For that reason I had its offline data on both google chrome and Chromium browser. For those who don't know, the real browser is chromium. Google chrome is just google's packaging on chromium. So forward today on 6th July when I tried to access my quiz bank offline on google chrome it said "package expired". I thought I wasted around 450$ that I had paid to kaplan. I was about to see if offline access remained available on chromium browser. Just before opening that browser an idea struck me. What if I change the date of my computer and put my internet connection off? So i changed the date of my computer from 6 july to 6th January and then put on the chromium browser while switching off the wireless. And guess what it doesn't says expire. I still have the access to the kaplan package and I can use it. I have to be careful to never change my date and update chromium browser or delete its cache. So my question is this: Would you consider what I did a cheating? I know that CoolJGS☺ and @miccee will most probably consider it cheating as the very thought of adblocker makes them call other people unethical.
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Post by kls on Jul 6, 2017 10:08:08 GMT
If it's something you're supposed to be paying for and are not paying for it it's stealing.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:12:20 GMT
If it's something you're supposed to be paying for and are not paying for it it's stealing. I did already pay the company over 400$. My subscription was supposed to end on 27th June. I changed the date of computer from July 6th to January 6th and because of doing that I can still access it. |
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Post by kls on Jul 6, 2017 10:16:13 GMT
If it's something you're supposed to be paying for and are not paying for it it's stealing. I did already pay the company over 400$. My subscription was supposed to end on 27th June. I changed the date of computer from July 6th to January 6th and because of doing that I can still access it. What do you mean supposed to end? It did end June 27th, right? So how would messing around with something to use it beyond that date not be stealing? |
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islandmur
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Post by islandmur on Jul 6, 2017 10:19:48 GMT
i'm a tad confused if you paid $450 for it why didn't you access it before its expiration date which you knew was coming?
And why pay $450 for something that expires in a few days? or was it a yearly membership thing?
Lastly if you never accessed it and paid $450 I guess I'd think about ways of getting something for my money. But if it was a membership thing and you've had your use of it already then yes that's not good.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:25:21 GMT
I did already pay the company over 400$. My subscription was supposed to end on 27th June. I changed the date of computer from July 6th to January 6th and because of doing that I can still access it. What do you mean supposed to end? It did end June 27th, right? So how would messing around with something to use it beyond that date not be stealing? The subscription to the quiz bank was supposed to end on 27th June. Means I could no longer access it after 27th June but I got around that by telling my computer that it is not 27th June yet. I personally don't consider it cheating. I had access to around 4000 questions. If I had brought a question bank book it would have remained with me for as long as I wished. Still I was entitled to 4000 questions but the greedy company wanted me to do all those questions during my subscription period (oct 2016-june 27th 2017). I was busy with work so I couldn't do more than 600 questions during that period. But I exploited their technological loophole and thus I got back what I believe I had paid over 400$ for. That said I can understand if you consider it cheating. |
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:27:23 GMT
i'm a tad confused if you paid $450 for it why didn't you access it before its expiration date which you knew was coming? And why pay $450 for something that expires in a few days? or was it a yearly membership thing? Lastly if you never accessed it and paid $450 I guess I'd think about ways of getting something for my money. But if it was a membership thing and you've had your use of it already then yes that's not good. I could access it before expiration date but I was busy with work so didn't get much time to finish that quizbank. It was not an yearly membership. I had brought it in October and I was supposed to have it till 27th June. |
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Post by kls on Jul 6, 2017 10:29:27 GMT
What do you mean supposed to end? It did end June 27th, right? So how would messing around with something to use it beyond that date not be stealing? The subscription to the quiz bank was supposed to end on 27th June. Means I could no longer access it after 27th June but I got around that by telling my computer that it is not 27th June yet. I personally don't consider it cheating. I had access to around 4000 questions. If I had brought a question bank book it would have remained with me for as long as I wished. Still I was entitled to 4000 questions but the greedy company wanted me to do all those questions during my subscription period (oct 2016-june 27th 2017). I was busy with work so I couldn't do more than 600 questions during that period. But I exploited their technological loophole and thus I got back what I believe I had paid over 400$ for. That said I can understand if you consider it cheating. You paid for access until June 27th. Didn't you know what you were buying? How busy you are isn't the company's problem. It's beyond cheating, it's stealing.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:37:19 GMT
The subscription to the quiz bank was supposed to end on 27th June. Means I could no longer access it after 27th June but I got around that by telling my computer that it is not 27th June yet. I personally don't consider it cheating. I had access to around 4000 questions. If I had brought a question bank book it would have remained with me for as long as I wished. Still I was entitled to 4000 questions but the greedy company wanted me to do all those questions during my subscription period (oct 2016-june 27th 2017). I was busy with work so I couldn't do more than 600 questions during that period. But I exploited their technological loophole and thus I got back what I believe I had paid over 400$ for. That said I can understand if you consider it cheating. You paid for access until June 27th. Didn't you know what you were buying? How busy you are isn't the company's problem. It's beyond cheating, it's stealing.
My personal ethics says not so. First the company should not bind me into using its question bank in a definite period. What is it my parent or guardian? I will take my time. I am not asking for more from them. Not more than 4000 question than they provided in the question bank. The company has developed a bad reputation of almost generating monopoly in the area in which I bought their question bank. It is a product catered for working people and yet it doesn't allow flexibility of time. Either they should give option of purchasing their product in book form or in pdf form. But being a greedy company that they are they don't do so. Now I am going to go ahead on another forum and inform all other people about the loophole in their system and how to exploit that loophole. |
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Post by kls on Jul 6, 2017 10:44:43 GMT
You paid for access until June 27th. Didn't you know what you were buying? How busy you are isn't the company's problem. It's beyond cheating, it's stealing.
My personal ethics says not so. First the company should not bind me into using its question bank in a definite period. What is it my parent or guardian? I will take my time. I am not asking for more from them. Not more than 4000 question than they provided in the question bank. The company has developed a bad reputation of almost generating monopoly in the area in which I bought their question bank. It is a product catered for working people and yet it doesn't allow flexibility of time. Either they should give option of purchasing their product in book form or in pdf form. But being a greedy company that they are they don't do so. Now I am going to go ahead on another forum and inform all other people about the loophole in their system and how to exploit that loophole. You had the option of not buying it if you didn't like the conditions under which they were selling. |
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Post by Marv on Jul 6, 2017 10:54:53 GMT
As others say technically it's stealing. Dummying out your computer to trick it into giving you another 6 months free is still stealing.
Having said that...I'm not necessarily above stealing. I've done it. Will probably do it again. In this case I don't really take an egregious offense to your stealing so have at it.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 10:58:11 GMT
As others say technically it's stealing. Dummying out your computer to trick it into giving you another 6 months free is still stealing. Having said that...I'm not necessarily above stealing. I've done it. Will probably do it again. In this case I don't really take an egregious offense to your stealing so have at it. You are right that technically it's a stealing. But as I explained based on my world view and near sort of monopoly of this company and their generally unethical behaviour I don't consider my act unethical. |
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Post by kls on Jul 6, 2017 11:06:26 GMT
As others say technically it's stealing. Dummying out your computer to trick it into giving you another 6 months free is still stealing. Having said that...I'm not necessarily above stealing. I've done it. Will probably do it again. In this case I don't really take an egregious offense to your stealing so have at it. You are right that technically it's a stealing. But as I explained based on my world view and near sort of monopoly of this company and their generally unethical behaviour I don't consider my act unethical. I'm trying to figure out what is unethical about what the company sold. They marketed something. I don't see where they hid anything or any conditions. You didn't care for how they offered it, yet you bought it anyway and then think it's okay to change conditions after the purchase. |
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 11:13:19 GMT
You are right that technically it's a stealing. But as I explained based on my world view and near sort of monopoly of this company and their generally unethical behaviour I don't consider my act unethical. I'm trying to figure out what is unethical about what the company sold. They marketed something. I don't see where they hid anything or any conditions. You didn't care for what was offered, yet you bought it and then think it's okay to change conditions after the purchase. What is unethical is how they sell their product and how restrictive they are in general and also aided by the fact that they know they have almost a monopoly in certain products. What do you think was unethical about Microsoft when they got dragged into monopoly case and for engaging in anti-competitive behaviour? I believe these companies exploit people by displaying behaviour that ultimately puts profit at forefront and ethics somewhere way down. |
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Post by CoolJGS☺ on Jul 6, 2017 11:46:08 GMT
I got tagged, so I'll give my opinion.
Technically, it's cheating the system & it's not something I would do because I would have already gotten my money's worth, but the system is allowing you to and you paid for it. This isn't a true lowdown dirty piracy move imo.
You are going through a lot of stuff just to keep it active which is something a typical person would not waste time with which is probably why the company didn't waste time closing that loophole.
Of course, if they find out, I am totally OK with whatever their guidelines are for dealing with you, but as long as you're forced to be offline I imagine they never will find out.
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Post by Aj_June on Jul 6, 2017 12:18:52 GMT
I got tagged, so I'll give my opinion. Technically, it's cheating the system & it's not something I would do because I would have already gotten my money's worth, but the system is allowing you to and you paid for it. This isn't a true lowdown dirty piracy move imo. You are going through a lot of stuff just to keep it active which is something a typical person would not waste time with which is probably why the company didn't waste time closing that loophole. Of course, if they find out, I am totally OK with whatever their guidelines are for dealing with you, but as long as you're forced to be offline I imagine they never will find out. It is not that I have to do a "lot of stuff" to keep it active. I have put off automatic date change so I don't have to worry about date on my computer (it's Linux so I don't have worry about computer malfunctioning because of wrong date). All i have to do while accessing the package is to turn off my wifi. In any case I can't do anything else while solving questions of quiz bank. So once I finish a session I have re-turn the wifi on. So just 2 clicks. |
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Moviefan
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Post by Moviefan on Jul 6, 2017 14:28:04 GMT
Technically, it is dishonest and does seem like stealing. I would have to consider it cheating.
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Post by general313 on Jul 6, 2017 15:08:30 GMT
Technically it is stealing, but in practical terms it is a trivial offense, equivalent to a white lie, or putting an extra piece of fruit in your bag to carry out from a buffet.
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Post by Deleted on Jul 6, 2017 17:39:58 GMT
It's unquestionably 'cheating' or stealing, but I don't consider it to be a massive affront to my personal system of ethics.
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Post by cupcakes on Jul 6, 2017 17:50:01 GMT
tpfkar They left crap on your computer.  You can do what you want with it, personally.
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