App Store Honour System
mahdiyusuf.com
App Store Honour System
1–10 of 21 posts
Re: App Store Honour System
#2I would really be interested in people's thoughts.
Re: App Store Honour System
#3Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this be blocked by device authorization limitations (5 per account)?
For instance, I have a PC, a Macbook Air, iPad, and iPhone; those take up four of the five authorizations. I could theoretically then spend this last one on the friend, sure -- but I'm fairly confident that devices can only be linked with one account at a time.
Furthermore, I'd argue that this issue would only be relevant with relatively expensive Apps. Frankly, I pirate music because most of the stuff I'm looking for is either otherwise unavailable or exorbitantly expensive -- conversely, the amount of effort it takes to pirate a .99c app isn't work the headache and coordination.
I'd argue that this has been Steam's biggest success, as well -- reducing piracy because it's comparatively too much effort.
Re: App Store Honour System
#4Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this be blocked by device authorization limitations (5 per account)? For instance, I have a PC, a Macbook Air, iPad, and iPhone; those take up four of the five authorizations. I could theoretically then spend this last one on the friend, sure -- but I'm fairly confident that devices can only be linked with one account at a time. Furthermore, I'd argue that this issue would only b…
Nope. That limitation doesn't exist for simply logging into the app store app and installing my purchased apps.
There are much more signifcant apps on the Mac app store than the simple .99 cent ones.
Re: App Store Honour System
#5I don't know if it would even be possible to make piracy completely impossible without having some hardware lock on the device to make sure it only runs signed software, I'm going to assume that there is a pirate version of just about every game on Steam available on a torrent site somewhere.
I'm also not sure I like the idea of having an always-on internet based DRM built into every bit of software I use. Not being able to play a game because my internet connection is down is one thing, having it completely cripple my ability to get any work done is another thing altogether. In fact that may drive legit users towards piracy, since you would only need to be stung by that once.
Re: App Store Honour System
#6It's really not that simple though. If you use your account to download the app on your friend's device, the download is still associated with your account, not your friend's. Any subsequent attempts to update, restore, etc. that app will require entering your account credentials.
I can't imagine there are enough people dealing with that hassle to material effect sales.
Re: App Store Honour System
#7This actually boosted Minecraft's sales, I think.
I know that I've shown the game to a friend, and just left it there in the non-updating state and they ended up buying the game.
It's how I had the game before I bought it.
Re: App Store Honour System
#8There's an app on the iOS cydia store that allows you to have any app from the App Store for free. I have it on my phone and use it very very rarely (when I'm not sure if a £9 app will do what I need it to) - I still buy most of my apps and honour the system.
Re: App Store Honour System
#9 The real issue here is proprietary software. If all software was free software, then software piracy would be eliminated.
>Would it be impressive to be able to assert that every single copy of your software was paid for?
I can assert every copy of software I run on my machine is 100% free software. However, I didn't pay for it.
Re: App Store Honour System
#10The music industry sells music on Apple’s iTunes Store with zero DRM†. I can send it to anyone and they can just play it. Just like with apps, I can also log in on a friend’s PC and re-download my music. Using the music industry as a counter-example in this article is hilariously misguided.
Of all the digital stuff Apple sells, music is by far the easiest to pirate.
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† No watermarks either. The tracks contain the Apple ID of the purchaser as well as purchase date and time as metadata that is easy enough to strip away.