06-19-2007, 08:00 PM
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Magi
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 2,386
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Open Letter to Warez Sites from Alex Kac Regarding Software Piracy
"Myself and a band of software devs here have found a *very* large pirate warez site which I will not link to. They have cracks for almost everything imaginable. They have our software on there with download ratios in the TENS of THOUSANDS. In many cases I find more downloads of our software on the warez site than I see on our own download servers. I've calculated that even if we only lost 10% of those downloads that could have been sales its a pretty major hit... The fact is that piracy hurts those who pirate. They want our software obviously. Some just use it for a "test", but we offer a two week trial and with a bit of work you can probably get 2-3 months free usage of our products a year. And we don't sell for a large amount of money. Just wait and you can usually get our software for a steal - without actually stealing. I don't think paying $9.95 is such a huge issue if you need an app like VoiceMinder. Its barely a lunch and drink. But the reason piracy hurts those who pirate is because they are like vampires slowly killing the company that they are sucking the applications off of."
If any of you have been with us long enough, you know that we roll our eyes constantly at all the DRM / anti-piracy actions taken by entities such as the RIAA and MPAA that infringe upon the rights of real customers. The flipside though is that piracy cuts into the "bottom-line" of all companies. In the case of the Windows Mobile community and awesome third-party developers such as WebIS, it can be especially painful, particulary if they have to shut down, which helps no one (personally, I can't even imagine life without such great solutions such as Pocket Informant or FlexWallet).
Now, we know the vast majority of us here appreciate great software and are willing to pay for whatever we use. However, for the minority of people out there that have taken advantage of software pirating opportunities, we here at Pocket PC Thoughts and the entire family of Thoughts Media would humbly request that you provide the monetary support necessary to help sustain these wonderful companies and individuals.
Please feel free to visit the provided link to understand the ramifications piracy has on companies such as WebIS.
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06-19-2007, 08:16 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 256
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The vast majority may appreciate good software but I think only a small minority now pay for it. Pirated versions are free, easy and everywhere ...
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06-19-2007, 08:55 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: May 2006
Posts: 237
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Yep -- it's bad and getting worse. I recently found one site, based in eastern europe, that provides warez, yet has the gall to ask for donations to keep the site going.
Soon nobody will be able to earn a living programming for Mobile platforms, and the only software will be open-source projects, or small apps written by hobbyist programmers, or spyware/trojans writtten by the underworld.
And shareware? nah! I once wrote a nifty app for OSX as shareware, and got only one payment, despite hundreds of thousands of downloads.
So, what is the solution?
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06-19-2007, 09:05 PM
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Executive Editor
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 29,160
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If there's one thing that this digital age has shown me, it's that morally, most people are quite immature. They will avoid things if they think they'll get caught - meaning they won't steal from a retail store - but if there's no fear of repercussion, they're all too happy to take something. That's the level of morality that a child operates on - they won't disobey their parent by taking a cookie if the parent is in the room and they know they'll get caught, but if they can get that cookie later when no one is around, they'll take it.
We live a sad, sad world.
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06-19-2007, 09:45 PM
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Pontificator
Join Date: Feb 2002
Posts: 1,043
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In testing hundreds of softwares for developers over the years and reporting problems, I've had occassion to engage many of them in conversations around licensing procedures. Many programs have rather simple, 'transparent' registration procedures, making it a painless matter to get the program fully registered. Some use more arcane methods, such as not allowing pasting in of long strings of numbers (forces the user to write them down on a piece of paper for later writing into the registration dialogue, introducing human error potential and greater need for support responses when the user becomes frustrated), or worse, sending in forms full of personal information and device information to then wait a day or a few for an unlock code. It's plain from an end-user perspective which of these is preferable; simpler is better.
I understand the developers' side of this stuff, and completely empathise. I'd not want people walking into my workshop, taking the products of my labours, and just walking off without so much as a 'thank you.' It's just rude, and hey, we all have bills to pay! But in my experience, it is very rare that a registration procedure prevents piracy of any software. It's actually hard to avoid stumbling across warez sites, and in my sort of situation it's especially difficult; the forum I moderate regularly gets postings linking to such sites, and in the process of checking originating IP addresses for blocking and tracking links, I've become aware of many such places. I've seen collections where tens of thousands of titles and versions of practically every PPC software ever written are available as crackz. What does this tell me? A) that there will always be some clever little punk out there who's only too happy to crack software, and B) that locked registration of software is predominently useless, a waste of developers' efforts.
So my conclusion for now is that developers ought not to waste too much time on this. The kiddiez will do their nasty little work, and the more effort/time a developer spends trying to prevent that the greater will be his/her frustration when a crack is posted in umpteen locations. I test for Conduits and Resco, for a couple of examples, and lately have seen no more than a 3 day lag between releases of new versions officially and the release of the cracked versions on one site (also apparently in Eastern Europe, and as mentioned by someone else, asking for donations rather boldly), usually more like one day after release. How can a developer fight this? Well, they can't.
One fellow, an excellent programmer whose CECam I use daily to run my FlyCam 1.3Mp CF camera, has gone to the extra trouble of using the lengthy user/device info form, having the user submit a file generated by this form, then personally creating a registration code around that file and emailing it back to the user. He uses this for his much more popular remote control application as well, apparently (I don't need that, and haven't tested it). In a few email exchanges regarding this issue, he's outlined his position quite clearly. Quoting this developer:
Quote:
Regarding the copy protection: In the past I have tried to publish software with a simple registration key.
This key was posted on some cracker websites one week after the software release. Also one of my products was cracked and distributed by unauthorized parties tree years ago and the revenues was decreased by 60%
I have had two choice decisions:
1. Stop all further sofware developments for the public.
2. Make the software uncrackable and use a user dedicated key.
I have decided like other sofware publishers to go the second way. I hate to do this, because the creation of the registration keys is a huge effort for me too.
But this method has an advantage: All upcoming releases (esp. RemoteControl II with weekly or monthly updates) are free for registered users.
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Again, I understand. However, on two occassions his registration protocol has cost me between a day and several days' use of my CF camera, when I've obtained a new model of PPC. The software has no trial period, and as such simply does not allow use of the camera with it - and the native software, by the now-extinct IAStyle, is a complete farce, not really usable for making halfway decent photographs. This inspires considerable anger when it happens. I feel similarly frustrated when apMemo or some other similarly difficult to register title isn't functioning for me based on saved registration codes. If there must be protection for the developer, surely there must be a way to allow for that while avoiding inconveniencing the consumer so much!? With so many clever software developers out there, hasn't someone come up with a practically bullet-proof method? This style of per-device registration smacks to me of Windows Genuine Advantage and Trusted Computing, which are both oxymorons... and of course have both been cracked multiple times by the kidz.
So, speaking from an idealist's perspective, I'd like to see actual trust involved in this whole affair. If developers trusted their customers to pay, if we could somehow build an atmosphere of shared understanding of needs and wants, would it not be possible to make everyone happy without all this DRM/licensing stuff in the way? My sense is that given the current societal model where money is king and morality runs somewhere well back in the pack, the answer is 'no.' I hope for improvement in that territory before I get too old and just give up on people. I know the effort it takes to write good software. It's not so different from what it takes to make a good musical instrument, which is to say a LOT of skilled effort and time. I often ask my customers what my work is worth to them. About a quarter of the time, the answer is higher than the figure I have in mind, and they offer this difference as an un-billed tip. The rest of they time they're happy to pay what I ask, as they know it's not an unfairly high price. They know that other shops charge more, for work not as good as what I offer. Fostering greater understanding of what's involved, educating my clients, has helped build my reputation as a good workman charging a fair price. I hope that this sort of attitude can be brought to bear in other fields... but yeah, digital information is different from woodwork... and without face-to-face contact there is less obviously another actual person being victimised. Somehow we've got to muddle through this time of flux in computing information and find solutions which allow for a healthy environment for all.
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06-19-2007, 10:17 PM
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Thinker
Join Date: Mar 2002
Posts: 481
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Re: Open Letter to Warez Sites from Alex Kac Regarding Software Piracy
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"... download ratios in the TENS of THOUSANDS. In many cases I find more downloads of our software on the warez site than I see on our own download servers. I've calculated that even if we only lost 10% of those downloads that could have been sales its a pretty major hit...
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( Underlining mine)
I'm not suggesting that pirated software (/music/movies) doesn't result in some net loss of sales (can't prove either way), but as long as the music/movie industries and software developers use "downloads" in their arguments, they will continue to present a weak case.
I can't prove these numbers either, but I will confidently suggest that much less than one percent of material downloaded is ever used (think about it: life isn't long enough to make use of all that people can/do easily download from these kinds of sites; much is downloaded for bragging rights). So no lost sales among those downloads that are never used.
And much of what is ever "used" at all (remember, very, very little of what is "downloaded") does not continue to be used - rather, a self-produced "demo"; just downloaded as a curiosity. So it is not a lost sale either.
Add to that (subtract from that?) the exposure that these "demos" give the product, and the mindshare and free publicity when the product gets in front of people and keep them from buying the competition instead.
This all makes these download-based arguments not very convincing.
My favorite case in point for this last point: for the oldtimers, Lotus 123 would never had achieved it's category dominance if people couldn't have copied it for free; all those people (most at least) would have purchased one of the many cheaper alternative category products instead, breaking up the market over a dozen competitors and exposing people to a variety of alternate products. Same with music: if people weren't comsuming free music from the industry-signed "stars", they'd be downloading free music from independent musicians and being exposed to a whole 'nother universe of musicians.
So, from that perspective, these people had better be careful about what they hope for.
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06-19-2007, 10:28 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Dec 2006
Posts: 256
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Edited ... oops I can't say that!
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06-19-2007, 10:35 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Feb 2005
Posts: 12
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Yes, this is a sad reality of software development 
Originally my applications had custom registration routines but this means an additional overhead for me as well as delays in customers getting their registration numbers. Hence I switched to the RPN method in order for Handango, PocketGear etc to generate the keys directly for the customers.
Its much better for the end user but it is much easier to crack.
Most users are comfortable with be serial number being generated for a specific user/owner name but Ive even had a few who dont like this as they reckon it is problematic. How many people actually ever change their owner name? I am happy to resupply keys for genuine users but having non-specific serial numbers is just asking for even more trouble.
Ive seen several warez sites with my application posted on it that have 100's of replies of peole saying its a nice program and thanks for the crack.
That kind of thing defintely doesnt motivate me to add new features.
Unfortunately I dont see any end for this. Like Gerard said, if you shut down shop the crackers will just move onto something else.
Not that Im going for the sympathetic vote here, but being a single income family with two kids, the software I sell literally pays for the food on the table.
Regards
Trevor Hart
Tchart Development
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06-19-2007, 10:39 PM
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Intellectual
Join Date: Aug 2006
Posts: 199
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I think people pirate software because they're tired of not getting the right customer support when the software doesn't work.
I had an issue once with syncing my Quicken software with a finance program on my WM5 and the answer I got is "We currently do not support your version of Quicken". Oook.. why didn't you mention this on your website?
Anyways, just my 2 cents.
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06-19-2007, 10:55 PM
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Pupil
Join Date: Apr 2006
Posts: 14
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Quote:
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Originally Posted by Jason Dunn
If there's one thing that this digital age has shown me, it's that morally, most people are quite immature. They will avoid things if they think they'll get caught - meaning they won't steal from a retail store - but if there's no fear of repercussion, they're all too happy to take something. That's the level of morality that a child operates on - they won't disobey their parent by taking a cookie if the parent is in the room and they know they'll get caught, but if they can get that cookie later when no one is around, they'll take it.
We live a sad, sad world.
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I think this gets right to the heart of the issue of piracy.
No matter what extra anti-piracy measures are put into applications, some bright person will find a way around them and pirated versions will become available.
The only way piracy will decline is if people recognise piracy is wrong and make conscious decisions to do the right thing.
I'm hopeful Alex's letter will make a difference if it's widely read amongst the PPC community. It clearly spells out the situation and highlights the implications of the choices people make.
But in many cases individual choice will boil down to "what can I get away with?", even when the implications of piracy are understood. IMO this is moral immaturity.
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