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Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

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Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#21

Post by mborromeo »

stanmancan wrote: post #18

You can't stop people from pirating your app. Not to mention, I'm sure most of us have pirated something, at some point, as well. I'd personally let them keep the files up. As it's been said, another user is another user. He'll show it to his friends who might buy it instead of pirating. Another option to help fight people pirating would be to offer a free version. Maybe limit how many things they can add to their li…

That's ok if you application is "standalone", but what happens when your app needs some backend webservice to properly run?

We pay for servers, we can't pirate them. I read articles from developers telling that most of their users are pirates. How could we use this situation to our advantage?

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#22

Post by StavrosK »

mborromeo wrote: post #21
stanmancan wrote: post #18

You can't stop people from pirating your app. Not to mention, I'm sure most of us have pirated something, at some point, as well. I'd personally let them keep the files up. As it's been said, another user is another user. He'll show it to his friends who might buy it instead of pirating. Another option to help fight people pirating would be to offer a free version. Maybe limit how many things they can add to their li…

That's ok if you application is "standalone", but what happens when your app needs some backend webservice to properly run? We pay for servers, we can't pirate them. I read articles from developers telling that most of their users are pirates. How could we use this situation to our advantage?

In-app purchase tied to the device key?

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#23

Post by sippndipp »

vidyesh wrote: post #14

I would suggest get a free app account limitation for 10 videos or so. This way you would get more users too and also some good exposure too as many would download you app being free. :) Free user Conversion is your App magic ;) IMO, app is awesome ;) Also check this, there might be an udpate on iOS5 and you might be lucky. http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/12/jailbreak-detectio...

Nice idea, thanks for sharing the link.

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#24

Post by jbrennan »

Whatever you do, don't try to limit your app just if it's running on a jailbroken device. There are many legitimate reasons for Jailbreaking an iOS device. I've done it countless times to my devices (fellow iOS developer here), and I've never done so to pirate apps.

In order to pirate apps, you must jailbreak. But in order to jailbreak, you needn't necessarily pirate apps.

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#25

Post by yllus »

My sympathies. I'm about to launch a PlayBook app and am fervently hoping that piracy is less of an issue with BlackBerry users.

Also - I came across http://getdenso.com/ a few days ago which appears to do roughly the same thing as your app - have you heard of them? I inquired with them for an API that I might utilize to bring a BlackBerry PlayBook app into existence, and I'd like to extend to you the same offer. If you've got an API I could use, I'd love to bring this functionality to my preferred tablet.

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#27

Post by albedoa »

sippndipp wrote: post #19
wccrawford wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh, and you might be able to tell if the device is jailbroken, but that has no relation on whether the person paid for your app or not. Don't confuse that.

What do you think? Should we try to track that in the backend?

No, tracking could lead to the very confusion that you are being warned against.

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#28

Post by albedoa »

sippndipp wrote: post #4
janl wrote: post #3

You can't stop pirates and converting users of the piratery is not worth the effort. I hope this doesn't drain your revenue, but if you can just push forward and make paying customers happy and find new ones, that's where I'd spend my time.

Probably yes. I'm just curios. I've seen people probing for files outside the sandbox to detect if someone runs on a jailbroken device. Wonder if Apple would reject those because of "hacking".

I imagine that if you disable the use of your app by paying customers, the damages you will incur will dwarf the pain you feel from piracy.

Re: Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

#30

Post by jodoherty »

I wouldn't worry about it. With iOS apps, it's much easier for people just to buy your app and have it installed and running on their device than it is to try and pirate it, so unless you're seriously overcharging for your app, most people will continue to just legitimately buy and use it.

You could also charge a small recurring service fee for accounts and then give the app away for free.

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