Over the past few days, allegations of piracy against a well-known third-party scenery developer for Microsoft Flight Simulator have surfaced within the community.
The developer, Alexey Unishkov, known by most for his brand Beautiful Model of the World, also publishing scenery via the partnership BMWorld and AmSim (which recently released Washington Dulles Airport) is accused of having distributed other studios’ scenery on pirate websites in 2020.
The allegations started with a post on the official website of Flightbeam Studios, that on September 22, 2020, tracked and banned a user named Alexey Unishkov for distributing its Portland International Airport on piracy websites. The user also used Unishkov’s email which was publicly visible on his website.
The same user was banned from Contrail after having been tracked pirating LatinVFR’s Miami International Airport, and then he was also associated with piracy of FSDreamteam’s Chicago O’Hare International Airport by the respective developers.
Many developers have ways to associate the files they discover on pirate websites with the accounts of those who purchased them, as was done in these cases.
SimulationDaily has been provided with direct visibility of the paper trail behind the allegations and Unishkov’s name and email indeed appear involved.
When confronted by FSDreamTeam’s owner in 2020 with a communication of his ban, Unishkov accused his “underage nephew” of having distributed the airports from his computer without permission.
Following the publishing of the allegations, Unishkov posted a statement on the enthusiast website Amsim pledging that he “has no relationship with the pirate community and has never had any relationship with the pirate community.”
He also argued that the accusations against him were illegal and caused by his releasing a competing airport (Dulles), and demanded that his accusers go to court to prove his guilt or delete their posts and his personal data.
In his statement, he did not mention the alleged involvement of his nephew which he had previously admitted in his correspondence with FSDreamteam.
Two of the stores hosting products by Beautiful Model of the World and AmSim have now removed them, albeit possibly temporarily. Orbx provided the following statement on its forums.
Following an internal investigation, Orbx has decided to remove all BMW and BMW+AmSim products from its platforms due to a data protection breach.
We are actively communicating with the developer, and if a satisfactory resolution to this breach is achieved, we will consider reinstating our agreement with the developer and the sale of their products.
Customers who previously purchased BMW products will continue to receive support and will retain access to re-download their purchases.
iniBuilds provided the following statement on Discord.
As a leader in the flight simulation industry, iniBuilds remains dedicated to upholding transparency, integrity, and a high standard of quality in all our partnerships and collaborations. Recently, allegations involving BMWorld and AMSIM surfaced in a report by Flightbeam, raising concerns about past actions regarding intellectual property. iniBuilds learned of these claims only through this report, which presented information previously unknown to us. These allegations, stemming from events four years ago, touch on issues we take very seriously.
Our action taken today
While iniBuilds firmly believes in operating on facts, not accusations, we recognize the need for caution while the matter is unresolved. Therefore, we have chosen to temporarily remove all products associated with BMWorld and AMSIM from our store. This action will remain in effect until the situation is fully clarified and a definitive resolution is reached between the parties involved. We are committed to reassessing and making adjustments based on any conclusive findings from this investigation.
Next Steps
If the parties involved reach a resolution, we will reinstate their products in our store.
If the allegations are substantiated, we will make a permanent removal of these products, with continuous access maintained for previous customers through the iniManager.
Throughout this process, our focus remains on supporting our creators and customers with integrity. iniBuilds is committed to only working with developers who share our values of professionalism and high standards. Thank you for your understanding as we navigate this matter.
At the moment, the developers’ products remain available on the official Microsoft Flight Simulator marketplace and on Simmarket. Neither Microsoft nor simFlight GmbH (which owns Simmarket) have released statements on the issue for the moment.
Update 11/15/2024: Simmarket has now removed all airports by Beautiful Model of the World, also releasing the a statement of its own.
It’s worth mentioning that this is not the first time that Beautiful Model of the World has been involved in controversy.
In 2021, after a stint as a freeware developer, Unishkov launched his brand and website beautifulmodelworld.ru where he offered a membership deal promising all of his airports present and future on top of early access to all updates for a one-time payment, which was initially €24 and then grew gradually to €32.
The deal also promised exclusive content and exclusive access to the most recent updates.
Following the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the sanctions imposed by the international community on transactions with Russian entities, Ushakov suspended the deal and refused to provide updates for his airports to his existing customers for several months, while starting to sell the airports individually on other storefronts. The motivation provided is that the sanctions prevented him from acquiring new customers for the membership deal.
At the end of 2022, the site was permanently closed and replaced by a .com version. Finally, after several months of complaints, the customers of the membership deal were provided with updates that customers on other storefronts had been given all along, but the deal was never opened to new members again.
At that point, Ushakov established the partnership with Amsim and released all the airports he made since then under the Beautiful Model of The World and Amsim brand, bypassing the original promise of delivering all of his future airports to his members.
We’ll update this post if the story develops further or we receive additional information.
