Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

torrentfreak.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 25 posts

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#11

Post by eli »

haentz wrote: post #2

> They do what they do because they believe that Apple’s App Store is unfair to consumers since it has no trial service or refund policy. BS. They do this because they don't want to bother with paying a couple of bucks for an app. Plenty of apps are cracked, which actually offer a free version for testing. It's even factually wrong. Refund is possible…

No. The people who use cracked software probably do it because they won't or can't pay for it. But the people doing the cracking mostly do it for the simple reason that they can.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#12

Post by gfodor »

cookiecaper wrote: post #5
patio11 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it is horsepuckey. Large groups of people have learned that there is no social censure for stealing certain types of goods. Stealing is strictly superior to buying for them. They'll steal it if it is possible. I have both trials and a very generous refund policy, and my downloadable app gets stolen frequently. (And my web app gets stolen never, which should be a preview of coming attractions for people who are…

Piracy is not theft. Theft requires that one is deprived of some tangible benefit. Downloads cannot be strictly correlated to lost sales, because many download to sample, or download things they wouldn't spend money on anyway. This doesn't mean you have to agree with filesharing, or think it's a good thing, or participate in it, but calling it "theft" is scaremongering.

You realize this semantic argument is old, tired, and does nothing to actually make people who pirate software look any better.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#14

Post by haentz »

cookiecaper wrote: post #5
patio11 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it is horsepuckey. Large groups of people have learned that there is no social censure for stealing certain types of goods. Stealing is strictly superior to buying for them. They'll steal it if it is possible. I have both trials and a very generous refund policy, and my downloadable app gets stolen frequently. (And my web app gets stolen never, which should be a preview of coming attractions for people who are…

Piracy is not theft. Theft requires that one is deprived of some tangible benefit. Downloads cannot be strictly correlated to lost sales, because many download to sample, or download things they wouldn't spend money on anyway. This doesn't mean you have to agree with filesharing, or think it's a good thing, or participate in it, but calling it "theft" is scaremongering.

Piracy is also something completely different. It involves boats, killing, abducting and extorting people and gasp stealing stuff. So, go STFU with your apologetic nitpicking…

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#16

Post by joe_the_user »

cookiecaper wrote: post #5
patio11 wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, it is horsepuckey. Large groups of people have learned that there is no social censure for stealing certain types of goods. Stealing is strictly superior to buying for them. They'll steal it if it is possible. I have both trials and a very generous refund policy, and my downloadable app gets stolen frequently. (And my web app gets stolen never, which should be a preview of coming attractions for people who are…

Piracy is not theft. Theft requires that one is deprived of some tangible benefit. Downloads cannot be strictly correlated to lost sales, because many download to sample, or download things they wouldn't spend money on anyway. This doesn't mean you have to agree with filesharing, or think it's a good thing, or participate in it, but calling it "theft" is scaremongering.

Piracy isn't theft in the sense of a depriving any one person of goods they would otherwise use.

Piracy is theft in the sense that it deprives a producer of the income or potential income that they would otherwise make from someone buying a good.

Piracy is like breaking into a warehouse full of unsold toys slated to be destroyed. It's against the law but it's hard to see it impacting a particular person negatively (not that it won't if no one buys toys the following Christmas).

It's conflict between those who believe digital or intellectual property opens up a whole different domain of "property" and those who believe the old rules should apply without change.

I would suggest those arguing for intellectual property not try to equate digital piracy with something like breaking into your neighbor's house and stealing their jewelry. It's a poor analogy. The argument that producers need and deserve to be paid probably carries more weight.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#17

Post by Xuzz »

haentz wrote: post #2

> They do what they do because they believe that Apple’s App Store is unfair to consumers since it has no trial service or refund policy. BS. They do this because they don't want to bother with paying a couple of bucks for an app. Plenty of apps are cracked, which actually offer a free version for testing. It's even factually wrong. Refund is possible…

That's completely true, but having your app pirated by a ton of people (and engaging the pirates!) can really help drive actual sales, mostly due to exposure.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#18

Post by gloob »

joe_the_user wrote: post #16
cookiecaper wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy is not theft. Theft requires that one is deprived of some tangible benefit. Downloads cannot be strictly correlated to lost sales, because many download to sample, or download things they wouldn't spend money on anyway. This doesn't mean you have to agree with filesharing, or think it's a good thing, or participate in it, but calling it "theft" is scaremongering.

Piracy isn't theft in the sense of a depriving any one person of goods they would otherwise use. Piracy is theft in the sense that it deprives a producer of the income or potential income that they would otherwise make from someone buying a good. Piracy is like breaking into a warehouse full of unsold toys slated to be destroyed. It's against the law but it's hard to see it impacting a particular person negatively (n…

Piracy is theft in the sense that it deprives a producer of the income or potential income that they would otherwise make from someone buying a good.

So do successful competitors, boycotts, Internet FUD, and a whole slew of other things, in fairness.

It occurs to me that property (of any sort) is a metaphysical concept.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#19

Post by godDLL »

gfodor wrote: post #12
cookiecaper wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Piracy is not theft. Theft requires that one is deprived of some tangible benefit. Downloads cannot be strictly correlated to lost sales, because many download to sample, or download things they wouldn't spend money on anyway. This doesn't mean you have to agree with filesharing, or think it's a good thing, or participate in it, but calling it "theft" is scaremongering.

You realize this semantic argument is old, tired, and does nothing to actually make people who pirate software look any better.

A 'semantic argument' is a core dump where I come from. Which is synonymous with 'pay-cuts'.

Re: Pirate Apple App Store Innovates With ‘Reverse BitTorrent’

#20

Post by willstraf »

Xuzz wrote: post #17
haentz wrote: post #2

> They do what they do because they believe that Apple’s App Store is unfair to consumers since it has no trial service or refund policy. BS. They do this because they don't want to bother with paying a couple of bucks for an app. Plenty of apps are cracked, which actually offer a free version for testing. It's even factually wrong. Refund is possible…

That's completely true, but having your app pirated by a ton of people (and engaging the pirates!) can really help drive actual sales, mostly due to exposure.

I hear this argument a lot, and wonder, is there any actual evidence out there to back it up/
Post reply on HN