I've seen priced downloads of Google Earth (free version otherwise) on certain websites, too. Look at the official GE Help Forums - they are full of these scams.
Then in certain countries it is a common practice to sell cracked versions of software. We have banned some members for this here already (no names/names mentioned - and of course, this is not threatening...)
Hi folks.
Try doing a right click on any axis. If the "Reset" choice is greyed out, your axes are OK. Otherwise, choose Reset. This shall help in making sure that the model is indeed, correctly oriented. I have seen a few model lying on their side or even with the blue axis pointing down.
Just ideas.