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"My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

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Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#11

Post by crag »

TheAmazingIdiot wrote: post #3

Sorry, bud. That's the cost of doing business in software. Yeah, I guess you could dedicate tends of thousands of dollars to 'combat piracy' or some such nonsense. But time an time again as indie creators find out, you treat them kindly but otherwise ignore them. Of course, that you're on Reddit and HN, you have breached the first barrier: obscurity. If I had an iDevice, I'd try it out.

I wish EA would figure that out. I won't buy another EA game because of their DRM. Not so much that it has it. but it's garbage.

I was one of the idiots that brought a legal copy of Dragon Age 2. Only to be locked out of my account (and game) for a 1/2 week due to the DRM.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#12

Post by dekz »

muhfuhkuh wrote: post #4

I wonder. Since there are code snippets that can check to see if an app has been cracked/pirated, perhaps there is a way to inject an overlay serving ads on those who pirated. They can't exactly write a negative review on itunes because you can't rate an app unless you've purchased it.

Which would just be circumvented with another jmp.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#13

Post by crag »

tjarratt wrote: post #9
whatswtlogin wrote: post #2

Charge 99 cents and hope it goes viral!

The application already costs 99c and arguably the bookmarklet the author created did go viral (to the point where I'm still having friends send me links to the asteroids 'web site killer' every few days). One question on my mind is whether the stats are legit. If it's not some quirk in Apple's reporting system, maybe someone is maliciously hitting the link to the 'site of the day'. Wonder what the logs for that webs…

You will never win the fight. So chalk it up as cost of doing business.

And everything is pirated. I once had a friend of mine hand me a pirated copy of the PDR (the Physicians Desk Reference on CD). I still have it.. though it's out of date by now.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#15

Post by teamonkey »

rkalla wrote: post #5

In other piracy discussions I've always viewed piracy as organic-marketing. Meaning if you wanted to nurture the piracy (e.g. no DRM, easier install paths, etc.) you would probably get your software in the hands of more people and just redirect what you would have spent on marketing to keeping it in the bank and track the piracy as marketing costs. I'll admit that is a rosy way to look at it, but I'm definitely one o…

> I'm definitely one of those "The people that pirate your software, never would have bought it in the first place" believers.

I think that's only true for X% of the people who pirate. Pro-piracy groups like to assume X=100% (that people who pirate would never be persuaded to purchase a copy), anti-piracy groups assume that X=0% (that every pirate can be persuaded to purchase a copy). The truth is that X is probably somewhere in between.

Unfortunately there's no public data about what X really is, or even anything that could narrow down the range a little bit.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#16

Post by ansy »

crag wrote: post #8

How are they pirating it.. unless they jail-break their phone? I don't do iphone apps, but I was under the impression Apple controlled the distribution?

I'm not sure if it works anymore. But with the App Store you can download on anyone's device after you pay for it once. For example, I buy Angry Birds, and then I log in on your phone and install Angry Birds on it as a free update. Then I log out of your phone, and Angry Birds is still installed.

I didn't even know it was possible and I did iOS development. Then I saw someone do it and had a WTF moment. He just said that's how everyone he knows 'shares' apps. One guy gets it, and downloads it on everyone else's phone.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#18

Post by Goladus »

teamonkey wrote: post #15
rkalla wrote: post #5

In other piracy discussions I've always viewed piracy as organic-marketing. Meaning if you wanted to nurture the piracy (e.g. no DRM, easier install paths, etc.) you would probably get your software in the hands of more people and just redirect what you would have spent on marketing to keeping it in the bank and track the piracy as marketing costs. I'll admit that is a rosy way to look at it, but I'm definitely one o…

> I'm definitely one of those "The people that pirate your software, never would have bought it in the first place" believers. I think that's only true for X% of the people who pirate. Pro-piracy groups like to assume X=100% (that people who pirate would never be persuaded to purchase a copy), anti-piracy groups assume that X=0% (that every pirate can be persuaded to purchase a copy). The truth is that X is probably…

> The truth is that X is probably somewhere in between.

X depends a lot on the particular piece of software, the target market, and the context in which it's available. There won't ever be any generalized data.

One interesting test would be to offer an app for a ridiculously low price, like $0.01 and see how many people don't bother to pay even that.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#19

Post by edanm »

[deleted] wrote: post #17

[deleted]

Are you serious?

His app does no such thing! It's a fun little bookmarklet which gives users a little spaceship they can fly around a website, and shoot things at. It's for fun. It has nothing to do with actually destroying a website.

Re: "My iOS app is being pirated. Over 90% haven't paid for it. What can I do?"

#20

Post by kentbuckle »

[deleted] wrote: post #17

[deleted]

Um, I think you misread what he meant by "destroying" websites - this app seems to be a game where you control an "asteroids"-style spaceship shooting UI elements on websites (a mobile version of this: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/09/kick-ass-bookmarklet-...) Also, would Apple really approve an application used for DDOS-ing websites?
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