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STOPPING PIRACY

PostPosted: Aug 10, 2006 @ 4:49pm
by randy
I hope someone can help, i have been producing PPC software and i am finding that i am losing sales big time due to piracy, does anyone know of any software i can purchase that can stop or slow this down, or has anyone got any good ideas on how i can stop some of this piracy :cry: :cry: :cry:

PostPosted: Aug 10, 2006 @ 8:50pm
by Bapdude
Hi Randy,

I can understand your frustration. However, the reality is that most people who would pirate your software are NOT the same people who would buy your software.

So, it sounds like you're trying to recoup lost sales from people who wouldn't buy your software even if they couldn't find a pirated/cracked version. Instead, you should just concentrate on keeping the honest people honest. Don't forget, it's only the honest people that are going to buy your software in the first place.

An honest person isn't going to search the internet for a cracked version of your software--he's going to buy it legitimately.

Just my 2 cents...

:D

PostPosted: Aug 10, 2006 @ 10:18pm
by Presto
I agree with BapDude.

All you really need to do is have a simple protection, such as a registration number, that will keep the honest people honest.

You may think you're losing a ton of money to piracy, but that's not really the case, unless the software costs so much that people who would buy it if it cost less turned to the dark side.

PostPosted: Aug 11, 2006 @ 6:01am
by mamaich
[flame on]
Another reason for not using protections.
For example I never spend my money on software I use for myself, but I always buy software for the company I work in. All software we use here was installed from pirated versions, was tested, and only then licenses are bought. And we pay _lots_ of money for these licenses, much more then a thousand of home-users would pay.
My personal opinion is that software should be 100% free, only tech support should cost money.
I also like donation-ware. Donations can be money, beer, rare MP3s, documentation, other programs, etc.

And using cracked versions is a good thing for system administrators. For example it is much easier to deploy cracked ACDSee via group policy on a 1000 PCs, than manually activating it on each one. Or installing a keygenned s/n to TrendMicro that would last for 2032 year is much easier than reactivating it every year. But we still renew licenses for having support.

[flame off]

And now regarding PocketPCs.

There are 2 pocketPC protectors that are discussed in this forum. And some time ago I was developing my own version, but the project is abandoned due to lack of interest/funding.
One bad things about these protections is that they use undocummented OS structures that are often changed. So your protected version would not run on Crossbow (WM6) or may break even earlier, on some new AKU for WM5. And of cause price of your program would include price of a protector. And the more complex the protector is, the more complains from users you'll have.

[flame on]
Anyway, remember: "if it runs, it may be defeated" (c) +Orc
If your program would be popular, 100% it would be cracked in a very short period of time. But you'll still get money. People who like it would pay you. And if it is useless - no protection would help you to earn a cent.
Look at the UbiSoft - Heroes 5 was pirated several days before official sales. But they don't bother - the russian version of Heroes 5 was not even protected. Russians buy it because we like Heroes and Nival :)

[flame off]

PostPosted: Aug 11, 2006 @ 10:10am
by randy
Hey guys thanks for the responses, it seems that there aint no point in protection,i cannot believe that, surely your software should never be unprotected
but you guys know what you are doing so i'll have to take your advice and go for simple password ptrotection, once again a big thanks guys

PostPosted: Aug 11, 2006 @ 1:18pm
by Kak

PostPosted: Aug 11, 2006 @ 8:07pm
by Presto

PostPosted: Aug 14, 2006 @ 6:01pm
by Magallanes

PostPosted: Aug 15, 2006 @ 2:26pm
by Crayfish

PostPosted: Aug 16, 2006 @ 6:53am
by Michu

PostPosted: Aug 16, 2006 @ 7:29am
by Conan
The 'flooding with fakes' is a good suggestion. What I did was similar. I released the game & changed the protection after a couple of weeks by which time the hackers had made a crack & moved on. Keeping the price sensible also helps I guess.