Nice Approach To Pirating

[jamirokwai]

Hi there,

I found a guy discussing how to cope with people pirating your software. Nice read!
http://clickontyler.com/blog/2011/05/ex ... th-piracy/

[IdeasVacuum]

A nice read indeed. Though all pirating is nasty, for some reason they really seem to have jumped on to his apps, ultra fast. Makes me wonder if one of the pirates actually knows him ........

[c4s]

I would be proud if the famous Core team would crack my software...

[djes]

Is there some real study on pirating ? There's two motivations behind cracking an app : challenge, of course (even if I can't see what is really pleasant in this activity) and... gaining credits and full access to tons of warez. Even if the app is not well known.

[TI-994A]

A nice read indeed. Though all pirating is nasty, for some reason they really seem to have jumped on to his apps, ultra fast. Makes me wonder if one of the pirates actually knows him ........

My sentiments exactly. I find it especially strange that a developer complaining about piracy, would host and give away a keygen to all his products.

[xorc1zt]

A nice read indeed. Though all pirating is nasty, for some reason they really seem to have jumped on to his apps, ultra fast. Makes me wonder if one of the pirates actually knows him ........

was quick because a random guy filled a request on IRC/usenet and a team produced the crack. most famus apps are cracked 0-day

[luis]

What I can extrapolate from that:

1) never register to a shareware program before the trial is expired, you could get a discount in the email on the last day.

2) after the trial is expired, find a cracked version, and wait for the author to contact you offering a discount .

3) when all fails, contact directly the author and tell him "Hey dude, I can use pirated version of your software forever, but I guess I could register anyway at 50% discount. The offer last only today. Be quick!"

4) After registering at discount, log in the the registered users' forum and rub it on the other users who paid full price.

An interesting reading. Way to go!

[Zach]

What I can extrapolate from that:

1) never register to a shareware program before the trial is expired, you could get a discount in the email on the last day.

2) after the trial is expired, find a cracked version, and wait for the author to contact you offering a discount .

3) when all fails, contact directly the author and tell him "Hey dude, I can use pirated version of your software forever, but I guess I could register anyway at 50% discount. The offer last only today. Be quick!"

4) After registering at discount, log in the the registered users' forum and rub it on the other users who paid full price.

An interesting reading. Way to go!

Actually, that sounds like a great way to end up either in Jail, or burried in court fees and other financial debt for the rest of your life.

The last thing I would EVER, EVER do is e-mail, or contact in some way, an author of an application I was using; then proceed to tell him I am using a pirated copy of his software. Unless I was doing it from a public access point, with anonymously registered e-mail or something - but then if you are doing this to gain a discount on the full version that would defeat the purpose of using such protection (can't give a discount to someone you don't know). That is just an invitation for legal action, if not outright blackmail (which you could be prosecuted for too).

However, I will admit that if I used a pirated copy of a program, and really loved it so much that I knew I couldn't live without it, and that I wanted to support the developer, then I would certainly at the least contact them privately and admit to them I had used a pirated version, but also explain why I liked it so much and purchased a legal copy. That would be far less offensive and less likely to get you in trouble imho.

Although in either case, the safe bet is to just purchase a legal copy and shut your mouth; unless you suffer from a guilt complex and just had to get it off your chest.

[luis]

Still those points are what I can extrapolate from the master plan of that shareware's author, what the reading of that article put in my mind. The message I left that page with, if you like.
The irony is the people pirating his software are in the end a lot well served than the plain straight customers (and that's a trend).

Anyway the suggestions were again a form of irony on that subject.
A way to express an opinion through a little provocation.
And apparently a good way to make business with him and perfectly fitting his model.

I don't like it. And him. That's all.

[jamirokwai]

The general problem of selling software is piracy, this much is true. I don't share Tyler's point about giving a pirate some discount. If I would be the honest buyer, I'd feel ripped off. But how do you do it? I don't want to participate in the treasury hunt with some crackers - in the end, they will win, and you invested a lot of time into your copy protection.

Currently, I implemented some kind of updated-mechanism in my Mac-Software. When you buy on my site (http://the-screaming-eye.com), you will get an encrypted link to download the binary (3x in 24hours). The binary is in no way encrypted or protected - similar to PureBasic itself. If you like to update your version, you have to enter your PayPal-ID (or the ID generated when buying using simple invoicing via a bank). My site will check the ID towards a database. If your ID is in, you will get the update via download and automatic install, if not... not. Thats it.

This way, I give honest people (read: buyers) a chance to be updated when they like. New customers will get the freshest update automatically. Pirates may distribute the ID, but I only have to look in my download-log to see who pirated his ID, if there are many downloads from the same ID ...

What do you think?

[Zach]

I think that is the best and most reasonable solution.

Clearly if someone is downloading 100 - 1000 + copies in the span of a month, then the ID was pirated (99.99999% chance this is the case IMHO). So you don't even have to monitor it directly, you can just have a script or whatever monitoring your records, and every time it updates and does a new check, look for whatever parameters you define as phishy (see what I did there?). Then you can give it personal attention that it needs and move on.

I think that is the best way to do things. I love buying DRM free software, such as Purebasic, and The Witcher 2, and games from GOG.com (good old games)

You login with your account, or whatever and download your unprotected executable installer / archive / whatever. Registration keys are OK with me too, as long as they don't have stupid re-activation restrictions, or at least a reasonable amount (10 or less times per month).

I bought Witcher 2 on the spot, in the store because of this. I was very surprised at the details when I read the package. I had to input my CD key and verify once - during my initial install / setup, and that was it. I could also install it on any PC I owned, and I think even up to several installs could be actively used at one time. They totally deserved my money.

Now I even have free backup copies from GOG (including the extras GOG distributes with their packages) because of a promotion they setup with CD Projekt Red. I have full DRM free installers for both my copy of The Witcher (came free with a Graphics Card years ago), and Witcher 2.

[c4s]

The binary is in no way encrypted or protected - similar to PureBasic itself. If you like to update your version, you have to enter your PayPal-ID (or the ID generated when buying using simple invoicing via a bank). My site will check the ID towards a database. If your ID is in, you will get the update via download and automatic install, if not... not. Thats it.

This way, I give honest people (read: buyers) a chance to be updated when they like. New customers will get the freshest update automatically. Pirates may distribute the ID, but I only have to look in my download-log to see who pirated his ID, if there are many downloads from the same ID ...

What do you think?

Pirates don't have to distribute the ID. They can simply share your unprotected software. This way you don't even see who is/are the "black sheep" because it looks like everyone is just legitimately downloading it for their personal use.

[luis]

About you method ? I think it's one of the many variant of the only class of methods working to some degree. Some kind of non local check and/or a recurring thing when updating. Obviously in your case it's working only for trying to limit the free download of updates.
As for PB you can try to find sooner or later a new version distributed.
When you cease to keep the product and the validation separated in some way (read: you use a serial checked locally by your exe) it's game over.
All can be bundled together and distributed as a whole. And it can be difficult to discover when/how the diffusion started.
There is no solution against piracy, I can only tell you what I believe about application software (not games, those are a world apart):

1) Software should be not protected (unless the protection is invisible and infallible).

2) If you want to protect it, the customer should never see the protection in the everyday life, it should work automagically for him and make itself manifest only when he's about to commit something we can for simplicity define as morally illegal (give the software to someone else, trying to convert an evaluation in full, etc.)

3) If it's not technically achievable the real-life approximation should tend to point 2 even at the price of losing some sales.

Most important of all:

4) Great useful software regularly updated and sold at the right price always sell.

How much sell depends on the target, but the pirated base is negligible.

The reality is so many people write software, and so many people want (hope) to be payed for it.
Most often than not those software fall in the "grey quality area".
It's good to use it, sometimes. For a while. For free. I don't want to pay for it. It's not so useful. I don't feel in debt with this particular software for simplifying my everyday life, my work, my free time. I don't really need the latest and best version of it.
Sooner or later I'll use something else. Et cetera.

When the software really "clicks" with a user (and a not obnoxious protection has a big part in it) I believe a fair price it's not a problem in exchange to have this software so important for him still developed, enhanced, and updated without the need to seek it out through illegal channels risking malware or wasting time.

I'm convinced the majority of pirated software it's pirated because it's a temporary thing. Or a curiosity. It's not really used and it would never be bought in the first place at any price. There are exceptions. Like great software at exorbitant prices or specific class of software (like OSes). But that's not shareware and motivations are different.

So in the end the rate of piracy depend on:

price (fair: less piracy - not fair: a little more piracy)
protection transparency (good: less piracy - obnoxious: above average piracy)
quality/usefulness (great: less piracy - grey area: not easy to predict)
regular updates/still developed (yes: less piracy - no: from rampant piracy to no piracy at all)

The result depend on the mix.

I'm not saying this is the absolute truth. It's just what my past experiences told me.

Do you have some reason to believe some software you wrote has been pirated ? Did you saw it on torrents, newsgroups, warez forums, etc. ?


BTW: I used on and off a pirated copy of PB for almost an year, simply because I wanted to try it at my pace and wanted to try the REAL thing (I looked for a pirated copy as I saw I couldn't use the pre-imported windows API). The pirated copy played a part in make me buy it, together with a very fair price, regular updating (for free ? unreal), no protection, and awesome usefulness level.

[Zach]

Don't know why I didn't notice that flaw before I replied... haha

But yeah.. I don't think a one time check each time the installer is run, would be unreasonable though.
And at that point they would need to input their account ID, and serial or something like that. And it should not bother them unless the system flags it as "this thing has been installed and connected xxx times in the past 30 days" or something

[MachineCode]

I would be proud if the famous Core team would crack my software

Nope, you'll feel differently once it happens. It sucks. All you can do is think about all those lost sales.