Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

news.ycombinator.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 297 posts

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

#41

Post by RenThraysk »

bitexploder wrote: post #18
ChrisMarshallNY wrote: post #12

I’d suggest taking a page from Adobe and Microsoft. They fight pirating, and that prevents it from becoming absolutely endemic, but they don’t really lose massive amounts of sleep over the cracks, because every cracked copy is training people to use their software. Sort of “The Old Dope Peddler” model. It’s not really correct to assume every cracked copy is a lost sale. Instead, think of it as indoctrination of possi…

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.

Probably a waste of time. If they've gone to the trouble of cracking, removing a nag screen is probably trivial.

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

#42

Post by vorpalhex »

hh3k0 wrote: post #31
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.

> Don’t demonize your user base […] 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. Sorry, but from where I stand that absolutely looks like demonizing the user base.

I think the parent means more "analyze why they are pirating" (is your price for a given too country in a weird spot, is it an unapproved software purchase, etc)

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

#43

Post by 1970-01-01 »

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…

Yes, this is a good problem for a developer.

2b. Free with Ads. Yes, this is not for everyone, but many devs will make this path an option. Your buyers must realize that all ads can be removed for a fair price.

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

#44

Post by jeffwask »

Nothing. Almost all of the research points to piracy having zero impact on sales for example, https://corsearch.com/content-library/blog/does-piracy-impac...

It's been shown time and again in gaming no matter what you do people will crack it and your measures to stop them will have more negative impact on your paying customers than it does on pirates, see Denuvo.

Honestly, the best thing is probably working on your conversion funnel to understand why you aren't converting people from pirates to purchasers.

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

#45

Post by raverbashing »

SecurityMinded wrote: post #20
tlb wrote: post #8

You might consider offering more free or cheap versions, like a student edition (cheap with no proof required) and a free trial. Wolfram, for instance, does both. Not many real companies will cheat, and it's better to have users who can't pay using an official version than a cracked one. Perhaps they start using it in an un-funded skunkworks project, then buy a full license when the project gets funded.

This shows that you have never dealt with companies in 3rd world countries. When money is tight, which is always in those countries, there is not a cheap-enough price that you can make them pay. They want the benefit of the product but they do nit want to pay anything for it. So, a free trial version in those places, will turn into a perpetual "free" trial. Same for "no proof needed" student/academic versions. Unfort…

Pricing segmentation based on market and understanding their circumstances goes a long way

Help people who want to pay, most don't. And they won't, regardless of how many hoops you put as 'copy protection'. Yes doing it purely online will work, but that has its issues as well

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

#46

Post by netrap »

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…

Completely agree. Great comment. Make it harder to find by simple means by requesting link takedowns, etc. Don't bother trying to make it harder to crack since real crackers will not be deterred.

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

#47

Post by Zurrrrr »

Now nothing.

Piracy is the natural order of things, and likely isn't hurting sales at all as counter-intuitive as that seems.

You could perhaps offer cheaper versions in lower income countries, but if you try to 'beat' piracy too much, you're just going to lower the overall user experience of your software.

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

#48

Post by IanCal »

If you had a non-commercial license that was free, how many users do you think would go from paying customers to falsely using that version? Do you think it could help on-board people as it lowers barriers to getting started? WinRAR feels like a good example to keep in mind.

This isn't a strong ethical argument from me, but a practical one - if it wouldn't lose money and may help get more in then either ignoring the piracy or making it irrelevant would be a very simple solution.

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

#50

Post by schnebbau »

Add a trigger that doesn't fire until a few months after install (to prevent the cracker coming across it and patching it out) and then run rm -rf if it detects it is cracked. Optionally display a countdown from 10 and play an alarm sound before this happens for extra lols.
Post reply on HN