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Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

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Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#61

Post by JamesBaxter »

unclenoriega wrote: post #43
JamesBaxter wrote: post #21

Many people I know have always pirated software and TV and said once there was a reasonable way to get it legally they would pay for it. I haven't seen this be the case. I don't think you can convert pirates. It is possible however to convert legal users to pirates by having systems that annoy people who have legally purchased. I don't know how you strike the balance. I hate the entitlement of people who pirate stuff…

It's comments like this that make me want to stop paying for things. Some pirates can be converted. Some can't. No need to be overly broad.

Seems like your looking for an excuse to stop paying. I said "I don't think"....

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#62

Post by vortico »

arca_vorago wrote: post #29
vortico wrote: post #10

My company deals with piracy in the following technical way, and it works well enough for potential buyers to stay buyers. I release software binaries often, say every two weeks, and the software self-updates with permission from the user. The main application software is free, while the plugins (the real meat of the software) are purchased individually. When the application updates, the plugins also update. I use th…

How do you know which user released the plugins?

I don't, so saying it is "simple" to ban an account was mostly a lie. However, it would be simple to switch to fingerprinted plugin releases if it becomes a problem, then ban the account, which would stop any further unauthorized distribution.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#63

Post by vortico »

runeks wrote: post #59
vortico wrote: post #10

My company deals with piracy in the following technical way, and it works well enough for potential buyers to stay buyers. I release software binaries often, say every two weeks, and the software self-updates with permission from the user. The main application software is free, while the plugins (the real meat of the software) are purchased individually. When the application updates, the plugins also update. I use th…

> If you want to release your set of plugins to the world, pirates will have to match the versions of those plugins to the versions of their application, and if there are other plugins in the internet, they will also have to match. Are you relying on constantly making breaking changes to the plugin API for this to work? Otherwise, it may just be the case that pirates haven’t figured out that they need to disable the…

Yes, it's a large application that is constantly being improved, so there are always at least some changes between versions that break ABI compatibility. Even a simple change of the application that only requires a recompilation of the plugins would break ABI. Pirates would have to modify inconceivable amounts of binary code to match a 67.0 plugin to a 68.0 application or vise versa.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#64

Post by iamben »

ttoinou wrote: post #56
iamben wrote: post #46

Earlier quoted context omitted.

From an SEO standpoint I don't think it would be too hard to rank for that :-) I guess the whole point was not to give it for free, but to make someone realise that they could get it for free with X hours work and learning. But most people are too lazy - those determined to steal will do it anyway, and those that can be converted to pay you've given yourself a platform to get them to understand why they should.

Well one "advantage" of having an official crack web page is to give the software cracked without virus.

Well if it's the top link, it's also one more (or even the first) chance to say "please buy this" before they look for a crack elsewhere.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#65

Post by JamesBaxter »

aerovistae wrote: post #35
JamesBaxter wrote: post #21

Many people I know have always pirated software and TV and said once there was a reasonable way to get it legally they would pay for it. I haven't seen this be the case. I don't think you can convert pirates. It is possible however to convert legal users to pirates by having systems that annoy people who have legally purchased. I don't know how you strike the balance. I hate the entitlement of people who pirate stuff…

Speaking as a prolific pirate, I currently pay for Spotify because it's just so convenient. I currently pay for HBO Now because I don't want to wait an extra hour to watch Game of Thrones. I pay for games on Steam, but I still pirate most major creative software like Adobe, Windows Office, or DAWs and their plugins...I just have absolutely zero incentive to do otherwise. And before anyone guilt trips me on morality,…

That makes 0 sense to me. Presumably an author can pick a publisher that does or doesn't distribute to libraries. Even then a library is still buying at least one book if not multiple.

If a creator stopped making software you pirated because it wasn't sustainable would you feel guilt?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#66

Post by Xoros »

ttoinou wrote: post #12
Cozumel wrote: post #2

Piracy is a huge issue, one way around it, although too late for you now, is to only sell an online hosted version of your software, they can't crack what they don't have access too. Have you got a forum to engage your customers with directly? Most times (and this is a huge generalisation) but these consumers aren't 'evil', they just either have no money or don't know any better. If you can engage with them and get t…

Thanks for the answer ! I like the lite idea, although too late for you now, is to only sell an online hosted version of your software, they can't crack what they don't have access too I've thought about it and it's an excellent solution because I could link the software to a website with a subscription based business model. And my software could be better with internet / community feature inside it ! But it's for mi…

Isn't there a key feature of your software that you could change to make it online only ?

Not checking the serial or user, this can be (and mostly is) suppressed by a crack.

But an important proprietary function that can't be to easily emulate by a crack and your software can't fully work without. Nowadays there is no more internet access limitations for stuff like that (that's why SaaS is booming for years).

And this could be the first step to your full online version.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#67

Post by ttoinou »

dsr_ wrote: post #15

The Coast Guard is your ally, along with the Navy. Talk to your insurance company; they have lots of experience (or else you picked the wrong one.) Oh, are you equating copyright violation with major theft, murder and associated felonies so heinous that there is actually a separate body of international law to address it? Please don't do that. Unless you are already a market leader, copyright violation is largely equ…

I don't understand the irony. I've already said I don't care about piracy in itself and that I am a huge pirate myself.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#68

Post by aerovistae »

ttoinou wrote: post #50
aerovistae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a prolific pirate, I currently pay for Spotify because it's just so convenient. I currently pay for HBO Now because I don't want to wait an extra hour to watch Game of Thrones. I pay for games on Steam, but I still pirate most major creative software like Adobe, Windows Office, or DAWs and their plugins...I just have absolutely zero incentive to do otherwise. And before anyone guilt trips me on morality,…

but I still pirate most major creative software But do you make money out of this activity ? Yet society deems that arbitrarily acceptable Well it feels like society is OK with pirated content, no ? I only know 1 person in my environment that attacks me about it.

I do not make any money off of it, no. And now that I think about it I actually did buy a used license for Word, which doesn't give any money to Microsoft, but which is again arbitrarily considered moral.

As for society being ok, yes and no. Nobody attacks me about it but I know plennnnnty of people who will refuse to budge on the idea that it's immoral and wrong.

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#69

Post by aerovistae »

JamesBaxter wrote: post #65
aerovistae wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Speaking as a prolific pirate, I currently pay for Spotify because it's just so convenient. I currently pay for HBO Now because I don't want to wait an extra hour to watch Game of Thrones. I pay for games on Steam, but I still pirate most major creative software like Adobe, Windows Office, or DAWs and their plugins...I just have absolutely zero incentive to do otherwise. And before anyone guilt trips me on morality,…

That makes 0 sense to me. Presumably an author can pick a publisher that does or doesn't distribute to libraries. Even then a library is still buying at least one book if not multiple. If a creator stopped making software you pirated because it wasn't sustainable would you feel guilt?

> Even then a library is still buying at least one book if not multiple.

And someone originally bought the pirated software, too, which they then went on to share with others....just like a library. So what, again, is the difference?

No, of course I wouldn't feel guilt. Do you feel guilt when you buy things secondhand or borrow books from libraries? You're not benefiting the creator and you're shortchanging the creator of the cost of purchase because you don't want to pay full price for a new copy. What's the difference?

> Presumably an author can pick a publisher that does or doesn't distribute to libraries.

As if a library is legally required to only carry books with the publisher's permission?

Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?

#70

Post by ttoinou »

Xoros wrote: post #66
ttoinou wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for the answer ! I like the lite idea, although too late for you now, is to only sell an online hosted version of your software, they can't crack what they don't have access too I've thought about it and it's an excellent solution because I could link the software to a website with a subscription based business model. And my software could be better with internet / community feature inside it ! But it's for mi…

Isn't there a key feature of your software that you could change to make it online only ? Not checking the serial or user, this can be (and mostly is) suppressed by a crack. But an important proprietary function that can't be to easily emulate by a crack and your software can't fully work without. Nowadays there is no more internet access limitations for stuff like that (that's why SaaS is booming for years). And thi…

I could make the UI online and ship the app with a Chromium browser :D
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