Earlier quoted context omitted.
What's preventing someone from setting up an automatic compile-and-upload tool ?
Upload where?
on its own website ?
Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
111–120 of 126 posts
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
... until they just create a new account and continue on.
Don't underestimate the lengths some of them will go to.
(Former teenage software cracker; I had way more free time than I did money.)
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#113Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the answer. I have a lot to think about !
Some people just have no money. I pirated tonnes of software as a kid because I couldn't afford any of it. One thing I've seen that generated a lot of good will in me was a company that said "if you can't afford a license, email us". Depending on the margins you have and the software you make, that could work for you as a way to communicate with your users.
> ... as a kid because I couldn't afford any of it.
Same here. I started learning how to crack software as a teenager (early 90s) because I was running a BBS and wanted to offer door games but I didn't have the money to pay for them.
I did, however, have plenty of free time, which I used to teach myself some assembly, how to use SoftICE (for DOS), and how to write "patchers" in Turbo Pascal and, later, C.
Now, I use Linux on my (primary) workstation and laptops so it's all free software (with a few exceptions; i.e. VMware Workstation). I also have a MacBook Pro (that I rarely use) with lots of commercial software on it and it has all been bought and paid for myself. (Today, I have more spare money and less free time!)
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
> If you name copyright violation as piracy [...] I think that ship has sailed.
I'm not going to use a term the MPAA/RIAA co-opted and pushed into our language, despite the success of their marketing efforts over the last few decades. If you want to equate murder, rape and plundering from and often enslaving strangers with the concept of unauthorized copying, then that's your prerogative. I won't judge, but I'll still call it either unauthorized copying or just sharing.
> If you want to equate murder, rape and plundering from and often enslaving strangers with the concept of unauthorized copying, then that's your prerogative.
I certainly don't equate those things. But words have different meanings in different contexts.
One of my favourite games from way back when was Sid Meier's Pirates!, so I might be coloured by that. And yes, it was pirated.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#115Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
Well, why not :-) ?
I've already done software like that. Still don't know what's yours, but in our case, it was for kiosks and access points. All the UI was online (so if the client ask for UI change, it's automatically updated on every kiosks or access points), and the hardware related code was on the C# software installed (using a scanner, a barcode reader, printing stuff, etc...)
Of course it's pretty specific, but as we have to create a key for every licence, you can't have two running at the same time, so no crack.
We had bad experience, as a guy to which we sold a licence of the first version of our soft (some nearly 20 years ago), where we just checked if the serial was ok, installed it on multiple places and we found out totally randomly, 2 or 3 years later !
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
A note on your second comment, that is a possible consideration, but remember that some people will simply never buy software, so there will always be someone that cracks it. Many people either have fundamentally different opinions on whether or not software should cost money or they're too poor to be able to afford it when they can get it free.
> ... or they're too poor to be able to afford it when they can get it free. For that situation, consider adding an FAQ or a page on your website encouraging people to email you and ask for a free or discounted copy if they really can't afford it. Don't make it too easy - you'll get a few whose entire request is "give me free copy" and threaten you when you don't. Don't help people who threaten you or don't show you…
I can't find it now, but I once read a blog post from a developer of some paid product who would give a free copy to anyone who asked, as long as they used the word "please" somewhere in their email. It was amazing how many timewasters this simple heuristic weeded out.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#117Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
... until they just create a new account and continue on. Don't underestimate the lengths some of them will go to. (Former teenage software cracker; I had way more free time than I did money.)
You'd have to keep purchasing new plugins on the new accounts after the old ones are banned, as opposed to buying once and re-releasing the (free) versions on every update. Since plugins are $100-1000, be my guest! Not to mention the liability you are going through by assigning your credit card info to a proven copyright infringer.
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#118If your software is useful, and if you're a small company / one man show, I will pay for it, even if I barely have any money, or if I have lots of money. But the key for me is not having a really useless and stupid and intrusive anti-piracy mechanism, as that usually makes me go away from that software. Example of that are games like Kerbal Space Program that are useful, fun, and have no anti-piracy mechanism. I paid…
Would a warning about piracy in the FAQ be too much for you as a paying customer ?
It's not that that would be too much, but if I wasn't planning on pirating, I wouldn't read it, and if I was planning on pirating, I wouldn't read it. The pirates know the risks.
Personally I really like the idea above of a slightly feature restricted, free for non commercial use version. This had the benefit of people getting used to it at home, then potentially bringing it to the workplace (where they can pay for it)
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
... until they just create a new account and continue on. Don't underestimate the lengths some of them will go to. (Former teenage software cracker; I had way more free time than I did money.)
You'd have to keep purchasing new plugins on the new accounts after the old ones are banned, as opposed to buying once and re-releasing the (free) versions on every update. Since plugins are $100-1000, be my guest! Not to mention the liability you are going through by assigning your credit card info to a proven copyright infringer.
You mean the stolen credit cards they'd quite possibly use?
Re: Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy?
#120Earlier quoted context omitted.
Even when I had like three different claims to a free PhpStorm license as a top Drupal contributor to 7 and 8 and also as someone who writes some PHP documentation I was still paying for it because great software deserves to be paid.
I hear ya. Someone once told me (I don't sell software/music/whatever so have no idea if this is true) - for every 5 people, 2 will always pay, 1 will always pirate, and the 2 will buy if given good reason (be that price point, sales pitch, ease, guilt, etc.).
That is rather generous of human nature. My experience is out of every 100 people 99 will pirate and 1 will always pay.