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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?

#81

Post by sumedh »

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…

> I haven't seen this be the case. I don't think you can convert pirates.

Well I used to pirate 100% when I was a student but now I have money to spend, I purchase things legally. I cant even remember the last time I opened a torrent client.

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

#82

Post by bitwize »

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…

"Piracy" has meant "doing something without license or authorization" since at least the days of "pirate radio" going back to the early 20th century.

And why not a carrot AND stick? Think Steam DRM. Unobtrusive to legitimate users but slows down casual pirates. And is linked to an easy way to pay for the software.

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

#83

Post by dumpstrdivr »

Pricing and packaging consideration perhaps. Todays E-stuffs were just so E (no physical thingy). How bout making people agreed that buying your software are not only benefit you but maybe also benefit a cause, support a movement etc. Also gives them anything interesting rather than just the product. Maybe gives em plush dolls or gadget too as bonus rather than just e-mail containing serial numbers.

Example: Piracy gives me access to all features. Paying it gives me a cute bunny doll mascot from the vendor :D

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

#84

Post by paule89 »

Game Dev Tycoon had a nice anti piracy measure. They themselves uploaded a cracked version of the game. In the end you went bankrupt as game developer, because people pirated your games. So the game was broken for those that did not buy it. Also it kindly asked you to just buy the game.

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

#85

Post by frankzander »

I think that most of the "pirates" would never buy your software. It's in my opinion a misconception to think that the users would buy the product if they couldn't work with the non licensed copy. The reason for that can be multifaceted. Some a lazy to search for free alternatives, others have no money or the software isn't worthy enough for them. I wouldn't try to convince them or putting many efforts into preventing copying. I would of course do some hints into the software to show them where to buy the full package. See it as the not beloved but some way effective marketing ;)

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

#86

Post by jasonkester »

The simplest solution I'm aware of is Software as a Service.

I run a few SaaS products and make a fairly good living. People can use my software as much as they like, provided they pay, and provided it's running on one of my machines.

So long as they never get their hands on a copy of the thing, there's nothing for them to copy.

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

#87

Post by cm2187 »

ttoinou wrote: post #39
iamben wrote: post #34

A while back a friend of mine told me he installed a 'clean my Mac' application, thought it was decent and went looking for a crack. So the story went - the top link was one to their own website with full instructions on how to crack the app - something like - www.appname.com/how-to-crack-appname/, or whatever. On the page was complete and detailed instructions on how to crack it yourself using a hex editor or decomp…

Yes I might do that in the future, I have to be the first google result of "MyProduct Crack" ;) But if the official author of the plugin gives it for free it sends a weird message to paying customers, no ?

In most large corporations, using pirated software is a breach of internal policy and possibly a fireable offense. It is unlikely they would violate the license even if it easy to do.

Getting a large corporation to buy software from you is another matter. I tried to push my IT dept to buy licenses for libraries I liked, even with a modest cost, unsuccessfully.

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

#88

Post by vacri »

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…

> 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.

And java shouldn't be called java, because it's not an island; and cache shouldn't be called cache, because it's not a hidden collection of supplies; and a mouse shouldn't be called a mouse because it's not a small rodent; and bluetooth shouldn't be called bluetooth, because it's not a discoloured tooth...

The battle over the 'real meaning of the word 'piracy'' was lost a very long time ago.

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

#89

Post by bonesss »

owlmirror wrote: post #79
vortico wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The ABI is incompatible between different versions.

I would hate to write plugins for your software

I have used similar versioning strategies in products... Barring something special in the app, these kinds of plugins are not for the user or customer.

These kinds of plugins are for the development shop that makes the product, reuse across their product portfolio, and managing custom adaptations of the software for their specific customers.

Breaking APIs in this context is just like "breaking" any other internal API, as bother the caller and callee are upgraded and deployed together.

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

#90

Post by noncoml »

I understand that you only have in mind the best of the people who use the infested cracks, but my suggestion is to let it be.

If you give the crack yourself, as suggested by another reader, the buyers of your software might feel cheated.

Now if you insist on trying to help the users who cannot afford your software, then do what MS did in the 90’s. Allow 123-4567890 to be entered as a product key and leak that to the crack websites :)

PS: my teen self says thank you MS

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