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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?"

#21

Post by Vitaly »

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…

There are lots of cases when it was documented for piracy to bring positive change.

This guys problem? Patience ;) Come on. The game was mass pirated like yesturday? Does he really expect the positive loop back to kick in that fast?

People that pirated it will take time to play it, like it, mention it to someone that might buy it, blog it, show off to friends etc, etc, etc. it takes time. but eventually those 500 pirated copies will translate into some sales.

the question is therefore whether number-of-pirates-that-would-buy-it-if-it-were-not-cracked bigger or less then number-of-sales-that-will-result-from-pirate-marketing ;)

the jury is still out.

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

#22

Post by erik »

Vitaly wrote: post #21
teamonkey wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

There are lots of cases when it was documented for piracy to bring positive change. This guys problem? Patience ;) Come on. The game was mass pirated like yesturday? Does he really expect the positive loop back to kick in that fast? People that pirated it will take time to play it, like it, mention it to someone that might buy it, blog it, show off to friends etc, etc, etc. it takes time. but eventually those 500 pir…

I find this to be an interesting data point: http://www.indiegames.com/2008/02/opinion_casual_games_and_p...

A casual game developer dramatically increased their sales by improving the effectiveness of their DRM.

I strongly dislike DRM in games, and will avoid games that push it to far. But it's hard to argue against the sales numbers quoted in the linked article.

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

#23

Post by yoda_sl »

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.

It's always the same game of cat & mouse with pirates.

Most pirates on iOS are simply using one of the free tool and don't go far beyond that. I have implemented a technique for detecting pirated app and used it now in many apps: since then the piracy rate went down to zero which convinced that most pirates on iOS are simply using a tool and don't know what to do if the app they try to crack fail.

I am sure that a true pirate will find way to bypass my security check but so far after more that a year of implementing my solution in all my released app I didn't find anymore pirated copy.

If anyone is interested to learn what can be done, send me an email.

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

#24

Post by pagekalisedown »

dekz wrote: post #12
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.

True, but the vast majority of pirates wouldn't bother.

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

#25

Post by lawn »

pagekalisedown wrote: post #24
dekz wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Which would just be circumvented with another jmp.

True, but the vast majority of pirates wouldn't bother.

It would only take one to make it, the rest would then download that.

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

#26

Post by vladd »

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…

>> Look at Windows, remember when 95/XP had 96% domination of the world's computers? That only started to come down when they got draconian with their DRM/activation/genuine windows/etc. I saw about half my friends move to Mac/Linux in that move The graph at http://marketshare.hitslink.com/os-market-share.aspx?qprid=9... seems to disagree; the Mac/Linux market share remained constant around 5%/1% respectively. What caused the drop of Windows in the last 2 years from 93% down to 88% seems to be the iOS and Other(Android?) platforms.

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

#27

Post by patio11 »

Let me condense the conversation for you: Blah blah blah, free marketing, blah blah blah, wouldn't have bought it anyway, blah blah blah, DRM never works.

Then you move your code to the server and this never bothers you again. This defeats piracy so well it works in China.

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

#28

Post by ralfd »

ansy wrote: post #16
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…

But they can't update. For that you have to login into the account who bought the app.

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

#29

Post by trevelyan »

patio11 wrote: post #27

Let me condense the conversation for you: Blah blah blah, free marketing, blah blah blah, wouldn't have bought it anyway, blah blah blah, DRM never works. Then you move your code to the server and this never bothers you again. This defeats piracy so well it works in China .

Piracy might not bother him again... until his pirated downloads drop by 98% and paid downloads drop by 50%. And when he complains about this on Hacker News, patio11 tells him to spend more time blogging and working on SEO. ;)

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

#30

Post by patio11 »

trevelyan wrote: post #29
patio11 wrote: post #27

Let me condense the conversation for you: Blah blah blah, free marketing, blah blah blah, wouldn't have bought it anyway, blah blah blah, DRM never works. Then you move your code to the server and this never bothers you again. This defeats piracy so well it works in China .

Piracy might not bother him again... until his pirated downloads drop by 98% and paid downloads drop by 50%. And when he complains about this on Hacker News, patio11 tells him to spend more time blogging and working on SEO. ;)

My advice would have the desirable property of actually working.
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