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Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

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Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#61

Post by xeromal »

lopkeny12ko wrote: post #59

The solution here is pretty simple: make your software free and open source. Transition your business model to paid support tiers, or paid hosted/managed offerings. I have been advocating for the promotion of FOSS software for years, and this model has worked very well for many software businesses. People will always crack and pirate software; not only will be a never-ending cat and mouse for you, but also inhibits t…

The solution is simple but not easy. Relying on the goodwill of humans is often a terrible bet.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#62

Post by speedgoose »

ballenf wrote: post #19

Double down efforts to survey users and potential users. Keep making the product better. Consider the pirate option as a competitor. Don’t demonize your user base, but don’t be afraid to go after any institution you know is using pirated version. Build multiple telemetry code paths in your code — if you can just get IP addresses of offenders you’ll have way more info than now.

Remember to be GDPR compliant though. You must ask consent if you decide to track personal information such as IP addresses.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#64

Post by addaon »

One trick I’ve learned from the mobile game world is to make sure your localization files are separate resources — don’t compile them in. They way, when your game is first cracked, you’ll get a pretty decent Russian translation immediately that you can, with no moral concerns, “steal” back for your next update — and within only a few weeks you’ll have a pretty rich set of languages floating around for your distribution. I do recommend testing with CJK text first to set up your free labor for success.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#65

Post by croon »

sph wrote: post #34
shon wrote: post #28

These aren’t your customers. The user who is willing to stomach the time and risks associated with cracked software is NOT your target market anyway. This is essentially a free trial program for “aspirational users” who will circulate it for you. I’ve had my software (games) pirated, and been a pirate in my youth. Now I wouldn’t consider pirating because I have more money than time now. I suspect your actual addressa…

> The user who is willing to stomach the time and risks associated with cracked software is NOT your target market anyway. I vehemently disagree. Cracked users of commercial software ARE your target market that, for any reason, can't afford to pay you. They would if they could. When I was a broke teenager, I pirated a lot of software, games and music I later paid for when I had enough money to do so. Piracy can be an…

I think you're actually in agreement with GP, just in different words. You weren't the target market... until you had enough money to become part of it.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#66

Post by ryandrake »

dmarlow wrote: post #24
bitexploder wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even be cheeky. Detect when the software is cracked (signature/binary hash changed) and message the user “we see your version is corrupt or cracked, you may want to reinstall. If you are using this software without paying for it ”. You can invest some time in obfuscation and more frequent releases, but I would not spend a lot of effort on it.

Also a note about the dangers of cracked software. There could be malware, viruses, etc. The value becomes much smaller to use something that could ransomware your system. Then, cracked software becomes free advertising!

> Also a note about the dangers of cracked software. There could be malware, viruses, etc. The value becomes much smaller to use something that could ransomware your system.

I've always thought this was kind of an old wives' tale FUD. Long time back when I used to hoist the ol Jolly Roger, the pirated versions of software seemed to always be pristine copies. Reputable release groups had their reputation in mind and would go out of their way to release clean copies, or even go so far as to remove the official company-shipped malware like all those offers you used to get during install to Also Get This Toolbar! Reputable crack groups were the same way--leave no trace and use the smallest, most minimal binary modification possible.

Same with pirated movies: The pirate releases are often better than the official releases, containing more subtitle languages, stripping off marketing and FBI warnings, and so on.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#67

Post by shon »

sph wrote: post #34
shon wrote: post #28

These aren’t your customers. The user who is willing to stomach the time and risks associated with cracked software is NOT your target market anyway. This is essentially a free trial program for “aspirational users” who will circulate it for you. I’ve had my software (games) pirated, and been a pirate in my youth. Now I wouldn’t consider pirating because I have more money than time now. I suspect your actual addressa…

> The user who is willing to stomach the time and risks associated with cracked software is NOT your target market anyway. I vehemently disagree. Cracked users of commercial software ARE your target market that, for any reason, can't afford to pay you. They would if they could. When I was a broke teenager, I pirated a lot of software, games and music I later paid for when I had enough money to do so. Piracy can be an…

>I vehemently disagree. Cracked users of commercial software ARE your target market that, for any reason, can't afford to pay you. They would if they could.

I think we actually agree. You said “They would if they could”, that’s exactly what I’m saying.

Especially in business software, the risks associated with piracy always outweigh the benefit of free software for those that can actually pay.

The person who is trying to learn, or uses the cracked software while climbing up the pay-scale will eventually turn in to a paying user.

As others have said, getting cheeky and letting folks know that you know the software is pirated is also a good approach.

Price-testing as you mentioned can also be valuable. Spending energy on DRM or anti-piracy schemes beyond a little Easter-egg/joke/warning is a waste of energy better spent on improving your product for your actual paying customers.

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#68

Post by MrPowerGamerBR »

Fire-Dragon-DoL wrote: post #54
PreInternet01 wrote: post #29

Congratulations! Having cracked versions out there indicates that your software is both useful and notable, which is a point where many developers would love to arrive at, maybe, one day. As to what to do about it, there are two basic tracks, neither of which is incompatible with the other: 1. The legal route: notifying distribution sites that they're hosting content in violation of copyright law, requesting takedown…

There was a videogame that got famous because it was pirated, it was a management game about setting up a gaming company. Turns out, the pirated copy had a special feature where the player would feel immense economic pressure from piracy, so a bunch of players asked how to win against this, it was pretty hard and really fun for people who knew what was going on. Point is, you could hide an Easter Egg for pirated vers…

> There was a videogame

Game Dev Tycoon

Re: Ask HN: We found a cracked version of our software on the web, now what?

#70

Post by treebeard901 »

m00dy wrote: post #30
treebeard901 wrote: post #15

Way back in the day I was involved in cracking software that I needed to use and would share the keygens etc with other groups. Like many posts here say, I couldnt afford licenses. It's an arms race and the best thing you can do is redesign your activation process. There are certain ways to do this that make it increasingly difficult to get around it. It's like computer security in a way... You cant ultimately solve…

Were you also doing demo-scene for your cracks ?

I havent heard about demoscene for years. Unfortunately I was never a part of it.
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