RAI Foundation theft

It has come to my attention that Rai Foundation, an organisation that describes itself as "The Largest Network of Top Professional Colleges in India" on its website, has been systematically stealing code and other materials from this web site in particular, but also from a variety of other sources, and has been misrepresenting those materials as its own. The proof of this theft by Rai Foundation is presented on another page.

Introduction

Rai Foundation claims to have ten campuses around India. It claims on its website to have alliances with the following organisations:

All these organisations are reputable and renowned academic institutions, who I'm sure will be shocked and horrified to learn of the fraudulent and criminal activities perpetuated by their "partner".

I have personally issued Rai Foundation with "cease & desist" notices via my U.S. attorneys to stop them from continuing with their fraudulent and criminal activities, but they have failed to respond at every turn. I have only withheld from further action to date because of the difficulties of mounting a law suit in India. Also, the proof that Rai Foundation's "Fundamental (sic) of Computer Programming" course consists of stolen material demonstrates that at least one of their departments owes its existence to criminal activity. Other than this proof, I have no direct evidence that the rest of the organisation is a front for other criminal activity, so I will leave such judgments to the reader, to the U.S. Federal authorities and to the Indian Central Bureau of Investigation, but the risk of a case whose outcome is uncertain nevertheless resulting in a substantial financial cost to me due to being unable to recover costs from an organisation whose nature and origins are quite possibly criminal is currently too high.

For this reason, I have put this page together to warn current and potential students of Rai Foundation Colleges and organisations who have entered or may be considering entering into alliances with Rai Foundation about the criminal activities that Rai Foundation has been perpetrating, and the corresponding financial and reputational risk that such parties may incur as a result of their relationship with Rai Foundation.

A Note to Indian Users of this Web Site

Please note that as a result of Rai Foundation's theft of material from my web site, I am inundated with requests for programming assistance from Indian students. I remain an unwilling victim of this theft, and as such, I will not respond to any requests for assistance from any of my visitors in India. If you are from India but are not affiliated with Rai Foundation then I can only suggest you write to Rai Foundation to express your dissatisfaction with the inconvenience that their fraudulent and criminal activities have caused you. Rai Foundation's web site lists a number of email addresses you can use to express your dissatisfaction.

Other Uses of my Code

Many individuals have used code from my web site for various purposes. If you search for paulgriffiths.net on google you will see many examples. I estimate that in between 50% and 75% of these cases the individual in question has requested my permission in advance, and with the proviso that the copyright notice is retained intact and a link back to my web site is maintained I have always gladly granted this permission, and will continue to do so. In all of the other uses of which I am aware for which permission has not been obtained, with the exception of the use by Rai Foundation the use has been reasonable, the copyright notice has been maintained, and despite the lack of explicit permission I am happy to let it continue.

There is a significant difference between using individual code snippets for use in one's own project and fraudulently misappropriating 72% of my C programming section for the purposes of criminal financial gain. I have and will continue to glady grant permission for the use of my code in personal and other non-profit projects subject to the conditions above, but I will not tolerate wholesale commercial theft of my copyrighted material at my expense. The purpose of this web site is to give back to the programming community and to advance the general state of knowledge, not to provide criminals with quick and easy ways to fraudulently enrich themselves.

The Future of this Page

This page has been created as a public service, to warn internet users of the fraudulent and criminal activities of Rai Foundation. This page will remain online until the proprietors of Rai Foundation respond to the instructions of my attorneys to settle this matter, at their own expense, including reimbursement of attorney's fees I have already paid. Representatives of Rai Foundation are advised that until this matter is settled any emails I receive from Rai Foundation or its representatives are subject to publication — and will be published — in full on this web site.