Ringier Romania acused by Adevarul Holding

Romanian version Dear colleagues and collaborators As you probably know, Adevarul Holding has denounced these days some serious actions committed by Ringier Romania regarded to the

Romanian version

Dear colleagues and collaborators

As you probably know, Adevarul Holding has denounced these days some serious actions committed by Ringier Romania regarded to the breaking and the downloading, from our company`s server, of editorial pages, before them being printed in our publications. It is beyond any doubt (at least for us, at this moment), that our ftp server was fraudulently accessed from a server belonging to Ringier Romania. Proves resulted have been sent to Romanian Press Club, Ringier Romania and Ringier Switzerland. Unauthorized access was possible using the username and the password assigned to the printing house which, and I embrace this opportunity to answer the "geniuses" who give us lessons regarding the way we protect our servers, MUST have access to those pages to download them and print them on films. So, no matter what security systems we use, everything comes down to one username and one password for the printing house.

We are talking about hundreds of files stolen from our servers, during many weeks. In fact, ALL pages of Averea (in present, Click!) were downloaded in the competitors server. Many pages of Adevarul were also opened and viewed. Although our proves are concentrated on a two weeks period, because of the volume of information in this case, our servers have been accessed for a longer time. We can bring the necessary proves anytime. We mention here no more no less than 191 fraudulent downloads of files, 187 unauthorized downloads ant 277 illicit sessions opened. Romania Press Club decided to wait ten days for Ringier`s answer.

But, to our stupefaction, some of the responsible people of this company started to make press statements (by chance or not, we`re talking about Executive Director who is the head of Libertatea) in which we are accused that we had started nothing else but an image campaign.

This is, probably, the public answer promised by Ringier Company, an answer that is expected by everybody, Romanian Press Company inclusively (see the link below).

Long story short, we allowed the work of over 440 people to be stolen for weeks, day by day, all our news stories and editorial materials, exclusive articles and marketing initiatives, just to have the opportunity to pose now as victims. How ridiculous these affirmations are, i leave you to decide. Even confronting mammoth companies like Ringier, I will not allow tendentious interpretations and false information transform us from the accuser into the accused. Personally, these efforts to misinform and intimidate convince me even more that we have chose the right way by denouncing publicly these actions, especially that the subject of intellectual property is a very hot one in mass media.

And I`m telling those who don`t know me well enough that this kind of actions, are far away from being intimidating, they only make me curious about what does Romanian justice, civil and penal, think on the case, also Competition Council and its rules and, probably, Swiss justice, due to the fact that both companies have Swiss majority shareholders. But all these after we know Romanian Press Club`s point of view.

I truly believe that facing those entities, Ringier might have a more responsible attitude than the one it has right now in front of media and public opinion, by giving a simple answer to our more simple question: What are you doing in our servers?

For those with minimum knowledge in the field, Ringier Company, through its market share, can be accused, without it doing a thing, by dominant position on the market. How can we possibly call the situation when such company steal for weeks, day by day, information by competitors` servers, by breaking it fraudulently? And then you use your top position to misinform and to cover the actions you committed.

I worked for 13 years in Ringier and i am one of those who participated in an active manner, with facts and less words, in achieving the extraordinary results we had. I am sure that Michael Ringier, who I respect a lot, and some of his partners don`t encourage such actions. And I`m saying this as a General Manager of Adevarul Holding, the most inconvenient competitor of Ringier. I am convinced they would wanna know the truth and only the truth and will not accept high flown replies as some branch directors are driven to give.

For them, for many of Ringier`s employees, with whom I collaborated a long time, a lot of them being good professionals, unwilling to make compromises and to listen to media nonsense. For the media history in which the respect for intellectual property is very important, for the readers and, especially, for the employees and collaborators of Adevarul Holding, we have decided to publish on-line almost all the proves we have in this case.

Dear colleagues from Adevarul Holding, as your opinion is very important, I ask you to analyze these proves, to put questions, if you have them, and you will be promptly answered by the people who know all the details and technical aspects of this problem. And, more important, don`t you have any doubts about you being on the right side of the conflict or about your work and efforts being respected and protected.

Adrian Halpert Statement

"I have been the Editor-In- Chief of Libertatea for 11 years and i was there when this newspaper reached the biggest sales in romanian press, but it has never crossed my mind I could ever do something like this, me or a colleague of mine.

What Ringier Romania did we can simply call it robbery. The statements of some representatives of Ringier Romania by whom we, the people from Adevarul Holding, are actually try to develop an image campaign are directly pathetic and don't` answer our main question: What is a company doing in another company server? The colleagues from Click! deserve at least a moral repair of the situation. The repeated breaking of Adevarul Holding server, from whom there were stolen editorial materials, brought us editorial prejudices.

We registered negative reactions from our readers and even from people working in press, who gave us messages by whom Averea it was suspected of copying editorial materials from Libertatea, to prove now that the reverse situation is the true one. Not to mention the frustration our Averea editors have had when they were glad of having an exclusive story, just to see the other day it is published in Libertatea too. We had also some complains made by the people subject of our articles, to whom we had promised they would appear only in Averea and they where only to find those information's - given only to us - in other newspapers.

- Malicious statements of Ringier Romania


Adevărul Holding brings proof regarding to the theft of editorial materials done by Ringier Romania

- Notice to Ringier about the breaking of Adevarul Holding servers

- Download's , login's and opened session's made by Ringier between 21 feb - 6 mar 2007

- General Jurisdiction broken by Ringier

- Laws Broken by Ringier

- Whois "193.230.228.83"

- Comparison between stories with same content

- Download sessions and viewing on Averea/Click! server.