My emails are buzzing with embroidery sites disclaiming that they have hidden files in their designs. So who has and who hasn't.

Now that I know what you are talking about I can say that I think it is dishonest of them to put a tracking device in their designs, if they want to do it fine but they should be honest and up front and say, "Hey, we are doing this so we can be sure you are not selling our designs." instead of sneaking around to do it. I have more I could say but I don't want to offend any cuties!

MY OWN Comment: if a site HIDES any tracking device, and I find it out, I will NOT purchase or d/l ANY design from that site. To me, if they can't trust us, they shouldn't be giving us any designs for free. Even if they tell us, I still won't. I realize the designer has a right to protect their design, but this is getting to be just like a government ... to much invasion of my privacy. I hope this is taken in the right way, but I am tired of this type of thing. PLEASE FORGIVE me if I have overstepped my bounds, but this is the way I feel.

1 comment

by sewist1 27 Oct 2010

I agree.

I do truly feel for these Digitizers
trying to protect their designs :-)..
I have shared my own designs here in DBC.
Once I put them there I cannot protect them..
I am open to others honesty, I ask that rather then sharing tell people where you got them from and they can get them for free to..
but I dont sell at the moment..so that is altogether another story..
I really dont like the tone of being threatened,
It does appear that all my favourite digitisers want no part of this..
(not heard anything from Miss Veronika though),
I Know I have nothing to fear, as I would not let designs I have paid for be profited on by somebody else :-)
Big hugs from London
Maria xxx

The Sad thing is this all started because a designer put info attached to their design. I do this with every design I make. It helps me remember size, fills, ect that I used. NO MY designs DO NOT CALL HOME

If you really want to follow more of this insanity.

1 comment

by leenova54 26 Oct 2010

I clicked on the #4 thing and it showed an IP address number but it showed a house and town that is about 25 miles North of where I live.

A Yahoo group gave information on how to find hidden files in your folders. I tried it on the Glenn Harris Lace circle but didn't come up with a solid conclusion.

1. This site says it uses "repeater system, which encodes a individual security combination on the files sent. Thus tying the zip file to the person that downloades our files."

2. Embroidery Designers Group I believes is behind the Omega tracking system. From what I can tell it somehow can tell what computer the design was originally downloaded from. If I downloaded it then sent it to someone and the that person gave it to the original digitizer to find out where it came from the digitizer could check what IP address it originally was downloaded from. I honestly don't know if I have said it correctly but I have information from a computer knowledgable person that it is certainly possible.

3. ip address info

4. OH MY! I just put ip address in my search engine and it told me my ip address and where I am. LOL?

5. more ip info

1 comment

by ansalu 26 Oct 2010

If it wasn't so weird to me I would laugh about the thought that my designs wanna phone home like ET in former days. But in this case it is no joke: I wanna be asked for permission and not only have two sentences anywhere in the terms and conditions (be honest: Who reads all the pages of t&c?).
This with the IP-adress is spooky :o(
Greetings, Bettina

I cant quite keep up with what's going on. At first the story was that ppl were embedding a tracking code that dials home when a design is opened (the "Omega ID Tracker" is the program they mentioned). The story keeps changing. Most digitisers are now saying that they MARK their designs with extra stitches and NOT by using the tracker. An example of the marking is that I have some of Granny Goose's designs (edited to mention that I got these legally thru the DFH lol), and if you watch the stitching "GGD" is stitched just before the underlay stitching. That's how she's marking her designs, and I believe other digitisers are also adding their initials in much the same manner. It is not visible in the finished design, and it CANNOT dial home, its just extra stitches. I have no problem with the extra stitches.

The story changed again yesterday to say that only those who are suspected of being embroidery design "sharers" are the ones getting the designs with the tracking code in them... but I'm a little worried .. how do I know that *I* havent bought one of those designs? I dont like the idea of anything dialing home, which is why I use a firewall - so my programs must ASK me for permission to access the net, and I only allow a very few programs to access. So far I dont believe I have any of those tracked designs, as I cant recall a time any design has asked to access the net, either when opening a zip folder, or when transferring it to my machine.

However I do believe we, the buyers, have the right to know if a site we intend to buy from does use the tracking program, and that it should be clearly noted (not just hidden in the about us pages, etc) so that we can decide if we still want to buy from that site or not.

At the risk of being flamed, I'm trying to stay neutral in all this because, sadly, I cant tell who's telling the truth anymore. Please dont send me any hateful messages, I'm merely trying to explain what I understand about the tracker & marking of designs, that's all. :) xXx

1 comment

by ansalu 26 Oct 2010

Why should anybody send hate-mails to you? I pay for my designs but also don't like to have some tracking-programs on my mac (that's one reason why I have an apple and not a windows-computer :o). Thank you for the information because I hate to have spy-ware around my personal webspace :o(

Where and when did this topic start...this is news to me.

tell us more please. tonilee

I have no clue as to what you are talking about, lol. What do you think they are hiding? Virus bugs? And, yeah, if they are hiding something they certainly wouldn't tell us, that defeats the whole purpose.