Nice Approach To Pirating

[spacebuddy]

The pirates bay have most of the programs on the App Store for free. If a pirates wants
your game, they will crack it no matter what you do.

[DoubleDutch]

I'm moving towards my programs keeping the users data online, the program then is free - access to the data is what costs. The restriction is that they need an internet connection to the program and they have to pay a low cost subscription to use the program.

[MachineCode]

I'm moving towards my programs keeping the users data online, the program then is free - access to the data is what costs. The restriction is that they need an internet connection to the program and they have to pay a low cost subscription to use the program.

Don't be fooled: it's easy to download and install a web server on your local PC, and then redirect your app to send and receive its data that local server -- without it ever knowing. It thinks it's sending it to the internet, but it's not. So your users can use your app for free if they want, and you'd never know. Having said that, however, it's only something that educated pirates can do, so yes, you wouldn't get too many people doing it.

[DoubleDutch]

The programs will act like a 'client' to programs on the websites - I guess that will make it harder to create a webserver - they will have to emulate the programmed functionality as well.

[void]

There's something that gets overlooked in these discussions:

When you steal something like a DVD from a store, you have taken a physical thing that took energy, materials, and time to create and distribute. I don't mean the resources that went into making the movie, I don't mean the resources it took to market it, I'm referring to just the object itself, that specific instance of the product.

When you "pirate" (I hate that our culture picked this word for the concept, given the original meaning and the stark difference between the two) software, you aren't rewarding the creator for the initial creation, but you also aren't costing them the manufacturing and distribution costs to get that copy out into the wild.

It is a more complex socioeconomic problem than physical theft because when you duplicate software you have failed to give somebody something but nobody has anything less than they had before. While there is a failure to increase one person's wealth during the increase of implied wealth on the part of the duplicator, it is NOT a transfer of wealth from the rightful owner to the thief.

This doesn't change the fact that it's unauthorized duplication, that one has a right to recompense for one's efforts, but the fact that duplication is essentially "free" is a fundamental facet that you cannot simply gloss over when looking at the social effects in play. This difference in the nature of inequity naturally has an effect on how people view the problem, because even if they don't understand the situation entirely, on some level many people are aware that if you take a thing someone has away from them, you've stolen it, but it seems that if you just make one just like it using the magic box, that's somehow different.

And the truth is, it really is different. That doesn't make it right, it's still a crime, but there's a drastic difference in the nature of the crime, which MUST guide how you approach prevention.

Pretending it's the same as theft of physical property will only make matters worse.

[IdeasVacuum]

there's a drastic difference in the nature of the crime

Yes there is - it's more sinister because it's a planned, calculated theft which is often part of a succession of similar thefts in a short space of time -and the thieves know full well that this action could have a devastating effect on the developer. You obviously do not sell applications that you have created because if you did you'd understand that there are a lot of costs involved, even if the app is not supplied on physical media.

Indy developers are hit with the same ferocity as the giant development companies but they do not have the money or resource to recover - a year's work lost and the potential income has gone with it - how then is that Indy developer going to pay his mortgage and feed his children with no income for at least another year?

Pretending it's the same as theft of physical property will only make matters worse

There is no pretense. Indeed it is not the same as the theft of physical property. It is in fact far more damaging because the volume of theft is much greater than what can be 'achieved' by shop lifting. It should therefore be regarded by society as a worst crime and have greater punishment.

[c4s]

Well, this pretty much sums it up:

Judge: 17,000 illegal downloads don't equal 17,000 lost sales
[...] "Those who download movies and music for free would not necessarily purchase those movies and music at the full purchase price," Jones wrote. "[A]lthough it is true that someone who copies a digital version of a sound recording has little incentive to purchase the recording through legitimate means, it does not necessarily follow that the downloader would have made a legitimate purchase if the recording had not been available for free."

[MachineCode]

Judges can be wrong, which is why the appeals process exists.

[IdeasVacuum]

it does not necessarily follow that the downloader would have made a legitimate purchase if the recording had not been available for free

That's true, but it works the other way too - it does not necessarily follow that the downloader would not have paid for the goods if stolen material were not freely available to him/her. Re my previous reference to the London Riots which proved that point.

Also, I think the Judge should not have been quite so outspoken when commenting because that case was a narrow portion of the bigger picture, looking only at entertainment media. If you are talking about software applications that perform a serious task, that is a different kettle of fish because the User either needs the app or does not - it won't be downloaded for free or paid if it does not fulfill a requirement the User has and therefore a stolen copy is indeed a lost sale.

[IdeasVacuum]

Judges can be wrong, which is why the appeals process exists.

You can say that again. A judge in the UK decided that a reduced sentence was applicable in a case where an adult had sex with a young child because, apparently, the child consented. Was that good judgement? Perhaps not - in fact, it turned out to be vested interest, the Judge himself was a Pedophile. I'm not trying to suggest that Judge James P. Jones is anything other than a completely honest person, but it is fair to say that generally speaking, his profession is not very knowledgeable about ours. There have been some enormous gaffs recently concerning hardware patents for example.

[ricardo]

The pirates bay have most of the programs on the App Store for free. If a pirates wants
your game, they will crack it no matter what you do.

Anyway you should try to stop them somehow, people still always the easy way, if people find your crackeadoy software available, they take it, however if they have trouble finding the latest version cracked, possibly finish buying it.
An important part of people use legal software and simultaneously cracked software, for me the main razojnh depends on how easy they have to find the most recent version cracked.

Upload your own, some versions "cracked your software" (which does not work for being hacked) to piracy sites. Get people to get tired of looking and down and that none of them work.

I uploaded a version (inoperative) of my software, which when opened out a window that says "How could you trust a criminal hacker, maybe your computer is infected". Several must have passed some huge scare.

[ricardo]

You can say that again. A judge in the UK decided that a reduced sentence was applicable in a case where an adult had sex with a young child because, apparently, the child consented.

That judge is a criminal that must be prosecuted, its crazy.

[IdeasVacuum]

I uploaded a version (inoperative) of my software, which when opened out a window that says "How could you trust a criminal hacker, maybe your computer is infected". Several must have passed some huge scare.

That's a brilliant idea lol.

[IdeasVacuum]

Pirate Bay co-founder Warg arrested in Cambodia

[IdeasVacuum]

Japan introduces piracy penalties for illegal downloads