We started our upgrade around 5:30AM EST. We had a few unplanned setbacks but none took the sites offline.

We finally took the sites offline around 7AM EST and had them back up by 7:15AM EST. No Data was lost. No changes were made to your site’s configuration. This was purely a maintenance and performance release, you shouldn’t notice any changes.

If you have any questions or concerns please don’t hesitate to contact us.

Tomorrow morning around 5AM we’ll be taking all the sites offline for about 15 minutes so we can upgrade RPMWare and reconfigure our servers. Your sites will remain the same after the upgrades, but we have made some minor performance improvements you may notice.

We’ve planned this outage extensively and do not expect the sites to be unavailable any longer than required to install the updates and restart the servers.

If there are any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us.

We’ve been getting some flack lately as some of our clients are breaking manufacturer policies. We’re not interested in dealing with such matters; however, we’ve ended up in the unfavorable position of having to.

First and foremost RPMWare is a software company; we don’t manufacture, distribute, endorse or market any automotive products. We provide a service that our clients can use as they see fit. We don’t monitor your business practices, selling prices, customer lists, orders or any other data you trust us with and will never give, rent or sell ANY such data to ANY 3rd party. Ever. Period. We also don’t approve or deny who uses our service.

With that out of the way we’re also your connection to over 140 manufacturers. Because of this we often get requests other software companies would not. Manufacturers sometimes contact us directly when one of our clients is breaking their policies. We cannot and will not enforce manufacturer policies or require you adhere to them. All manufacturers are advised to contact the client directly to address any issues.

This stance has served us well and typically handles 99% of the complaints we get. This post isn’t about those requests; it is about the other 1%.We must be clear here … RPMWare Inc. does not monitor what policies you break. That is your business decision, not ours. However, if you are in that 1% you need to be aware of what manufacturers can do and what we (or any web host) is required to do by federal law.

First a little background information.

RPMWare is loaded with hundreds-of-thousands of part numbers, descriptions, images, logos, etc. All this information is the intellectual property of the manufacturer that created it and subject to federal copyright laws. Manufacturers generally allow anyone to use these copyrights to promote and sell their products; however, if you get on a manufacturer’s blacklist they can and will refuse you the right to use their copyrights.

What Manufacturers Can (Legally) Do

1. Attempt to determine where you are buying parts from and ask (threaten) that direct dealer to stop selling to you.
2. Under federal copyright laws demand you remove all their copyrighted material (part numbers, descriptions, images, logos, etc.) from your website(s) and ad(s).
3. Force us (or any other web host) to remove said copyrighted materials from your website. If/when this happens there is absolutely nothing we can do (short of breaking federal copyright laws) to stop the process.
4. Although very unlikely, sue you for damages caused by your copyright infringement if you do not corporate with takedown demands.

What We WILL NOT Do

1. Report your orders, selling prices, etc. to ANY 3rd party. Ever. Period.
2. Force you to comply with any manufacturer policy.

What We MUST Do

1. Comply with local, state and federal laws, in this case specifically federal copyright laws. For more information please visit: http://copyright.gov

Questions?

Why Are You Telling Us This?So you know. We’d never modify your account without your consent; however, you must be well informed of what can and can’t happen.

Is My Shop Breaking Policies?We don’t know and don’t want to know. We don’t monitor your orders or your discount structures and we never will. We’ll only get involved when required to do so by law.

I Know XXXX Is Breaking Policies.If you feel it is negatively impacting your business and want to do something about it contact the manufacturer(s) directly. It is ALWAYS up to the manufacturer to start the process.

Why Can’t You “Turn Off” XXXXIt’s not our place. We sell software and offer web hosting. We’re not an enforcement arm. If we sold our service as an installable application we could not revoke licenses because our customers did not comply with 3rd party policies. The situation is no different because we choose a different business model.

These past few days have had a flurry of information regarding Tesla’s transmission woes - however it was recently reported by Inside Line that Tesla has discovered a solution for their transmission problems and productions WILL begin March 17th. The Tesla Roadsters will be fitted with temporary two-speed transmissions and later upgraded to what Tesla is calling ‘DriveTrain 1.5.’ Production of the Tesla Roadster will take a while to get into full swing; initially the company will only be able to product one vehicle per week, but will creep into 40 cars per week by the end of the year.

In case you were wondering on the specs of this Electric Roadster:

• 0-60 in Under 4 Seconds
• 13,000 RPM
• 135MPG
• 220 Miles per Charge

Check out Tesla Motors for more info.

I know we used to have a hell of a time managing what was coming when (if we even had any idea what was coming when). Now a new service aims to help manage all your inbound shipments. I haven’t used it but I certainly see the promise for most of you guys.

Happy New Years from all of us at RPMWare. We hope this new year brings you health, happiness and good fortune.