
Ask HN: How do you deal with piracy? - ttoinou
Hi, I&#x27;m selling a software and cracks are given in forums on the internet. The thing is, theses users don&#x27;t come to my product page for getting updates for example, so I think it&#x27;s a loss for me because I can&#x27;t reach them and talk to them. I feel like I won&#x27;t ever be able to convert them to paying customers.<p>I&#x27;m wondering what I can do about it. Could I add a &quot;I cracked your software, is it wrong ?&quot; in the FAQ and try to not show it if I detect the software is not cracked ?<p>What if I distribute the pirated version myself ? Wouldn&#x27;t that look weird to paying customers ?<p>Should I add an infinitely renewable 15 days trial instead of a limited features trial ?<p>Do you know of projects that went open source &#x2F; free software and how they handled it ?<p>Thanks !<p>PS : I didn&#x27;t say Piracy was bad in itself. I spent my childhood pirating stuff and now my livelihood is selling software.. I have faith that some of my pirate users can become my clients one day or another and I would like to take care of this issue myself rather than letting people going to underground forums and download virus.
======
iamben
A while back a friend of mine told me he installed a 'clean my Mac'
application, thought it was decent and went looking for a crack. So the story
went - the top link was one to their own website with full instructions on how
to crack the app - something like - www.appname.com/how-to-crack-appname/, or
whatever.

On the page was complete and detailed instructions on how to crack it yourself
using a hex editor or decompiler (or whatever!). Except, he said as you read
down, the way the author explained it really highlighted how much effort he
put into making it, and at the bottom copy saying something like "we hope this
was useful and avoids you using a crack which might damage your machine, we
also hope you realise the effort that goes into making software and will
consider paying just $xx dollars which goes towards feeding my family and
making more software".

Friend was so impressed he just got out his card and bought it.

TL;DR - They embraced the piracy / understood those that won't pay never will,
those that may can be persuaded, so made something educational and thoughtful
out of it.

Hope you figure it out!

~~~
ttoinou
Yes I might do that in the future, I have to be the first google result of
"MyProduct Crack" ;)

But if the official author of the plugin gives it for free it sends a weird
message to paying customers, no ?

~~~
iamben
From an SEO standpoint I don't think it would be too hard to rank for that :-)

I guess the whole point was not to give it for free, but to make someone
realise that they could get it for free with X hours work and learning. But
most people are too lazy - those determined to steal will do it anyway, and
those that can be converted to pay you've given yourself a platform to get
them to understand why they should.

~~~
ttoinou
Well one "advantage" of having an official crack web page is to give the
software cracked without virus.

~~~
iamben
Well if it's the top link, it's also one more (or even the first) chance to
say "please buy this" before they look for a crack elsewhere.

------
vortico
My company deals with piracy in the following technical way, and it works well
enough for potential buyers to stay buyers.

I release software binaries often, say every two weeks, and the software self-
updates with permission from the user. The main application software is free,
while the plugins (the real meat of the software) are purchased individually.
When the application updates, the plugins also update. I use the semantic
versioning, so releases look like 67.0, 67.1, 68.0, etc. Since the barrier to
upgrade the application is virtual nothing (free, click of a button), almost
everyone updates. If you're a paid customer, your plugins will also be
updated, but if you aren't, now none of your plugins work. If you want to
release your set of plugins to the world, pirates will have to match the
versions of those plugins to the versions of their application, and if there
are other plugins in the internet, they will also have to match. This requires
lots of coordination from pirates, which has not happened yet. If an
individual begins regularly releasing updated versions of the software, I can
simply ban their user account which was used to purchase the plugins.

I imagine this can't work for your purposes since you have a single,
standalone, polished application, but hopefully this could help others.

~~~
runeks
> If you want to release your set of plugins to the world, pirates will have
> to match the versions of those plugins to the versions of their application,
> and if there are other plugins in the internet, they will also have to
> match.

Are you relying on constantly making breaking changes to the plugin API for
this to work? Otherwise, it may just be the case that pirates haven’t figured
out that they need to disable the version checking-part of your app. It sounds
a bit like security through obscurity, unless I’m missing something.

~~~
vortico
Yes, it's a large application that is constantly being improved, so there are
always at least some changes between versions that break ABI compatibility.
Even a simple change of the application that only requires a recompilation of
the plugins would break ABI. Pirates would have to modify inconceivable
amounts of binary code to match a 67.0 plugin to a 68.0 application or vise
versa.

~~~
majewsky
> Pirates would have to modify _impractical_ amounts of binary code

FTFY

~~~
beobab
Just looked up FTFY. I am pleased it doesn't mean what I thought it did.

------
warrenm
First - if they wouldn't have paid anyway, you haven't "lost" anything (you've
actually _gained_ something)

Second, your pricing must be turning off those who _would_ [possibly] pay, but
opt for the cracked edition due to cost

Third, focus on support: you can download, install, and run OpenNMS, for
example, totally 100% for free. But if you want support beyond the mailing
list, you pay for it.

~~~
TheAdamAndChe
A note on your second comment, that is a possible consideration, but remember
that some people will simply never buy software, so there will always be
someone that cracks it. Many people either have fundamentally different
opinions on whether or not software should cost money or they're too poor to
be able to afford it when they can get it free.

~~~
SyneRyder
_> ... or they're too poor to be able to afford it when they can get it free._

For that situation, consider adding an FAQ or a page on your website
encouraging people to email you and ask for a free or discounted copy if they
really can't afford it.

Don't make it too easy - you'll get a few whose entire request is "give me
free copy" and threaten you when you don't. Don't help people who threaten you
or don't show you respect.

But if you get someone who gives a short story about their current situation
and either asks for a discount ("I want to at least pay what I can afford") or
suggests they'll pay you back (or Pay It Forward) when they're back on their
feet - those are the people you want to help. Bonus points if they include how
your software will help make their life better.

Do keep in mind that some of those people will have high support demands, so
factor that into your software pricing. You'll need your paying customers to
subsidize the support cost.

If you try this, you'll find that some people aren't genuine. They'll say
price is the reason they pirate, but if you offer them a free copy, they'll
complain you didn't offer the free copy in the exact way that they desire (and
"want to know what you're gonna do about it"). Ignore those people, they will
never be satisfied. Literally ignore - if you engage them you'll make yourself
angry & sad and it will ruin your productivity.

Above all, focus on your actual customers. Focus on the 1% of people who love
what you make and are happy to support you.

~~~
dTal
I can't find it now, but I once read a blog post from a developer of some paid
product who would give a free copy to anyone who asked, as long as they used
the word "please" somewhere in their email. It was amazing how many
timewasters this simple heuristic weeded out.

------
jzelinskie
How you address this depends greatly on your software and who it's marketed
towards. Piracy can be a hint that you haven't come up with the best business
strategy for that market.

Often what's best is to meet the market where it is--would you rather have
more people using and aware of your software or only small amount of people
people that know about your software and pay for it? The answer in many
scenarios is to have more people using it regardless of whether they pay you
because they can convert others into future sales and grow your market.

Software and its markets vary greatly, so it's hard to give a strategy that
works for all software, but I've seen one model be fairly successful over
time: basically using a subset of users to subsidize the rest of users. Find
out who's deriving the most value from your product and get them to pay you,
rather than trying to scrape an equal amount from everyone. This can be done
many different ways, but are most commonly done with feature gating or
providing external services. The idea is that if your software is more
available, more people have the opportunity of deriving value from it and
ultimately end up paying you.

~~~
ttoinou
Thanks for the answer. I have a lot to think about !

~~~
Eridrus
Some people just have no money. I pirated tonnes of software as a kid because
I couldn't afford any of it.

One thing I've seen that generated a lot of good will in me was a company that
said "if you can't afford a license, email us". Depending on the margins you
have and the software you make, that could work for you as a way to
communicate with your users.

~~~
jlgaddis
> _... as a kid because I couldn 't afford any of it._

Same here. I started learning how to crack software as a teenager (early 90s)
because I was running a BBS and wanted to offer door games but I didn't have
the money to pay for them.

I did, however, have plenty of free time, which I used to teach myself some
assembly, how to use SoftICE (for DOS), and how to write "patchers" in Turbo
Pascal and, later, C.

Now, I use Linux on my (primary) workstation and laptops so it's all free
software (with a few exceptions; i.e. VMware Workstation). I also have a
MacBook Pro (that I rarely use) with lots of commercial software on it and it
has all been bought and paid for myself. (Today, I have more spare money and
less free time!)

------
dsr_
The Coast Guard is your ally, along with the Navy. Talk to your insurance
company; they have lots of experience (or else you picked the wrong one.)

Oh, are you equating copyright violation with major theft, murder and
associated felonies so heinous that there is actually a separate body of
international law to address it? Please don't do that.

Unless you are already a market leader, copyright violation is largely
equivalent to an unpaid, unauthorized marketing issue. Your problem is to
convert those non-paying users into paying users.

Policy:

1\. Make it so inconvenient to use your software without paying for it that
they decide to pay you. This is the "stick" option: you hit them with a stick
until they either go away or pay.

2\. Make it so easy and useful to pay for your software that they decide to
pay you. This is the "carrot" option: you dangle something good in front of
them until they willingly walk towards it.

Every method falls into one of those two policy groups. Think about which
policy you want to use before you start making changes.

If you decide to make your software open source, you are likely to stop making
money at it by selling it. However, you can still make money by consulting --
you are the world's foremost expert on this software, after all.

~~~
PhasmaFelis
> _Oh, are you equating copyright violation with major theft, murder and
> associated felonies so heinous that there is actually a separate body of
> international law to address it? Please don 't do that._

The term "software pirate" was invented _by_ software pirates.

~~~
Torwald
That does not matter, still conveys the negative things the grandparent
doesn't want to have conveyed.

------
paule89
Game Dev Tycoon had a nice anti piracy measure. They themselves uploaded a
cracked version of the game. In the end you went bankrupt as game developer,
because people pirated your games. So the game was broken for those that did
not buy it. Also it kindly asked you to just buy the game.

------
tu6
Don't worry about users who crack or pirate software. This is not the target
demographic you will have much luck with turning into paying customers. Fixate
on your actually software. If kids in third world countries are your primary
users its time to build something new. That's a signal you don't want to
ignore.

~~~
ttoinou
My paying customers are professional in the industry I work on. Most of my
pirates might very well be "amateurs" in the sense that they don't make money
with theirs activity and I'm fine with it.

I just think it's too bad for me theses people go somewhere else to download
my product and talk about it. There must be something I could do

~~~
detaro
Some professional software has student or hobby licenses. Finding the right
set of limitations and price is an interesting balance though.

------
hacker_9
Best article I read on this subject is "Piracy and the four currencies" [0].
It's an objective way of looking at why people are pirating your software in
the first place, and by understanding why you can make adjustments to persuade
future users to download via the proper channels instead.

[0]
[http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120222/91144/Pir...](http://www.gamasutra.com/blogs/LarsDoucet/20120222/91144/Piracy_and_the_four_currencies.php)

------
jakobegger
Before you do anything, have a look at the numbers.

I sell a Mac app, which performs periodic update checks, so I can estimate how
many users I have. The update checks also contain info about whether the
product is licensed, and whether the code signature is valid. I assume that
copies of the app that say they are licensed but don't have a valid code
signature are cracked.

Here are my numbers from July:

13301 trial users

4934 paid users

367 pirates

If I look at these numbers, I don't see why I should bother doing anything
about pirates. Any effort spent on convincing pirates to pay is better spent
on convincing trial users!

(PS: the update check can be disabled, and I don't know how many people
disable it, so the above numbers are rough estimates at best. Also, invalid
code signatures might be caused by things other than piracy eg. software bugs)

------
1388
Old methods (90s): \- turn to the law (DCMA) \- prevent people from modifying
code

New methods: \- change to a SaaS model \- change the backend to an API, users
order API key \- ping home from your software code or every keystroke like in
Windows. \- free product, offer training + ads

~~~
yodon
This is why there were no new software startups of any significance launched
between 1995 (when web browsers made piracy trivial) and 2006 (when
Salesforce.com launched the first modern SaaS business).

~~~
yodon
To the downvoter(s): I'm genuinely curious, can you name any significant
software companies that launched during that era? I've not done an exhaustive
search, but I've looked for them and have had a much harder time finding
software companies with launch dates of 1996-2005 than <1995 or >2006 (the
successful launch count in that window obviously wasn't zero but I'm pretty
sure it's down significantly from the before and after eras).

~~~
xiaoma
> _To the downvoter(s): I 'm genuinely curious, can you name any significant
> software companies that launched during that era? I've not done an
> exhaustive search, but I've looked for them and have had a much harder time
> finding software companies with launch dates of 1996-2005_

Have you heard of Google or Facebook's origins? They were both in that window
and pretty significant. Valve, LinkedIn and Netflix have also done okay...

~~~
yodon
Thanks these are great names to fold into the mix Google, Netflix, and
LinkedIn are great tech companies but their presence on the list actually
supports the idea that traditional software companies had a hard time
launching during that window as two of them are server-based subscription
products and the third is a server-based advertising product. Valve's a bit
more complicated, largely because GabeN is a genius, but I think it's fair to
say that their pivot from game company business model to server-based
distribution company further backs up the argument that 1995 marks the end of
the old school boxed-software/downloadable-software business model.

------
noncoml
I understand that you only have in mind the best of the people who use the
infested cracks, but my suggestion is to let it be.

If you give the crack yourself, as suggested by another reader, the buyers of
your software might feel cheated.

Now if you insist on trying to help the users who cannot afford your software,
then do what MS did in the 90’s. Allow 123-4567890 to be entered as a product
key and leak that to the crack websites :)

PS: my teen self says thank you MS

------
balls187
> My paying customers are professional in the industry I work on. Most of my
> pirates might very well be "amateurs" in the sense that they don't make
> money with theirs activity and I'm fine with it.

> theses users don't come to my product page for getting updates for example,
> so I think it's a loss for me because I can't reach them and talk to them. I
> feel like I won't ever be able to convert them to paying customers.

It sounds like you'd like to have these customers as actual customers and if
it's your thesis that those who pirate the software aren't professional
consider licensing.

1\. Have a low-cost, or "pay what you want" license model, for non-comercial
use.

2\. Have a free-for-students license. Only for education use.

3\. Offer upgrade pricing spiffs to convert from the free/low tier to the pro-
tier.

4\. Consider a subscription approach. I would never pay the full price for
Photoshop/Lightroom, but the Adobe Creative Cloud for Photographers is $9.99 a
month, which is the right price for my needs.

~~~
ttoinou
I like the free for non commercial use solution, like SmartGit.

------
milankragujevic
If your software is useful, and if you're a small company / one man show, I
will pay for it, even if I barely have any money, or if I have lots of money.
But the key for me is not having a really useless and stupid and intrusive
anti-piracy mechanism, as that usually makes me go away from that software.
Example of that are games like Kerbal Space Program that are useful, fun, and
have no anti-piracy mechanism. I paid for it. And the other example is pretty
much any huge game like GTA V, that I bought my brother as a gift but it often
stops working and has to be reinstalled because it detects some tampering or
something like that, it's from Steam BTW.

I'd also recommend that you DON'T offload processing to a server, as that will
prevent people with spotty Internet (like me) or those in special
circumstances / behind firewalls from using it properly, and also has data
security issues.

~~~
ttoinou
Would a warning about piracy in the FAQ be too much for you as a paying
customer ?

~~~
tazard
It's not that that would be too much, but if I wasn't planning on pirating, I
wouldn't read it, and if I was planning on pirating, I wouldn't read it. The
pirates know the risks.

Personally I really like the idea above of a slightly feature restricted, free
for non commercial use version. This had the benefit of people getting used to
it at home, then potentially bringing it to the workplace (where they can pay
for it)

------
akerro
>The thing is, theses users don't come to my product page for getting updates
for example, so I think it's a loss for me because I can't reach them and talk
to them.

You assume that they would buy in in the first place. I would not spend a
penny on 95% stuff I pirated. Most of the stuff was a one time thing, like
game was too boring (I would request a refund), game had too high requrements,
so I couldn't even start an episode, music was not interesting after literally
one song from whole discography etc.

> in the FAQ and try to not show it if I detect the software is not cracked ?

Things have FAQ? I've never seen them.

>What if I distribute the pirated version myself

I remember this coll guy
[https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2mjxde/develo...](https://www.reddit.com/r/pcmasterrace/comments/2mjxde/developers_of_the_war_of_mine_give_out_their_game/)

>I have faith that some of my pirate users can become my clients one day

I've pirated more than 1k of PC games, my steam account has 97 tites right
now, and there is also GOG.

Try to make your stuff easy to reach, steam, gog,
[https://itch.io/app](https://itch.io/app), try to build hype around your
game, it's easy now no reddit in /r/gaming show some cool/funny scene from the
game, make announcement on /r/linux_gaming that game is available from first
day, etc.

~~~
ttoinou

      You assume that they would buy in in the first place
    

No I didn't say that and I don't believe it. What I believe is that I would
prefer thoses pirates to come to the official website to know about the
product features and update, being able to comment it and ask for advices and
get the feeling that someone is working behind it etc.. Everything is lost
when people go to private forums and ask the new update to the software
cracking team

I'm not selling a game but a very useful productivity tool. But yeah I'll try
to build 'hype' anyway thanks :)

------
ttoinou
Thanks for all your answers !

I'm definitely going to do soon the "How to Crack MyProduct Without Virus !"
page and I'll think about changing the trial and the features it gives.

A good long term solution would be to develop a SaaS business around the
product and if I find a way to mix that business model with open source that
would be even better (my product could be faster being GPL).

------
ju-st
A piece of software I sell is so complicated to set up/configure and missing
any documentation so you have no chance to successfully use it without my
guidance and support.

The configuration is a one-time thing, the daily use is simple, so this is no
problem for usability. And the software is a niche application with very few
potential and real customers.

------
jasonkester
The simplest solution I'm aware of is Software as a Service.

I run a few SaaS products and make a fairly good living. People can use my
software as much as they like, provided they pay, and provided it's running on
one of my machines.

So long as they never get their hands on a copy of the thing, there's nothing
for them to copy.

------
Ace17
The term "piracy" would describe a lot better "the act of developing/releasing
malware/ransomware" \- at least, it would involve the notion of "attacking".

Maybe the time has come to slowly shift the meaning...

------
frankzander
I think that most of the "pirates" would never buy your software. It's in my
opinion a misconception to think that the users would buy the product if they
couldn't work with the non licensed copy. The reason for that can be
multifaceted. Some a lazy to search for free alternatives, others have no
money or the software isn't worthy enough for them. I wouldn't try to convince
them or putting many efforts into preventing copying. I would of course do
some hints into the software to show them where to buy the full package. See
it as the not beloved but some way effective marketing ;)

------
dumpstrdivr
Pricing and packaging consideration perhaps. Todays E-stuffs were just so E
(no physical thingy). How bout making people agreed that buying your software
are not only benefit you but maybe also benefit a cause, support a movement
etc. Also gives them anything interesting rather than just the product. Maybe
gives em plush dolls or gadget too as bonus rather than just e-mail containing
serial numbers.

Example: Piracy gives me access to all features. Paying it gives me a cute
bunny doll mascot from the vendor :D

------
anfractuosity
Could you 'watermark' the program for each user (although that wouldn't be
trivial), and mention noticeably that the software is watermarked.

Not sure if that would really dissuade anyone leaking/cracking it though, but
it may possibly help determine potentially where the leak/crack came from.

There are probably many reasons why watermarking isn't worthwhile though, as
you'd then need to have an 'online' system for generating new versions, rather
than simply hosting a single file.

~~~
ttoinou
Good idea for an unlimited trial but it's for videos, so watermarking would be
a performance sink.

~~~
mynegation
I don't think GP meant watermarking the video, only software binary itself.

------
xiaoma
I avoid dangerous Somalian shipping lanes.

If you mean the co-opted meaning of the word that the RIAA/MPAA managed to
acclimate Americans to a few generations ago, I'd use either a SAAS model or a
subscription/membership model where customers get more and more value over
time instead of just a one-off product.

------
ivm
I just don't care about the cracked versions. Some people don't have spare
money to buy our apps, some don't want to spend their money on apps at all.
It's up to them. Maybe one day they'll be able to support the development.

------
Kpourdeilami
Can you track the country in which the users are pirating your software from?
If say 90% of the people pirating your software are in countries that don't
have access to credit cards, then it'll be impossible to convert them to paid
users

~~~
ttoinou
Yes and also in cheaper country my product might be too expensive. I'm going
to look where people are from in the underground forums and think about it,
thanks.

~~~
jsheard
In the games industry it's common to have different prices for different
regions, with lower prices for countries with less wealth and/or rampant
piracy.

For example Steam is selling Hellblade for 30 USD in the US, but only 17 USD
in Brazil or 12 USD in Russia. Perhaps you could emulate that model?

~~~
ttoinou
I'm selling on a marketplace that don't allow that.

Btw I have a friend buying really cheap games from cheaper european countries
:D

------
JamesBaxter
Many people I know have always pirated software and TV and said once there was
a reasonable way to get it legally they would pay for it. I haven't seen this
be the case. I don't think you can convert pirates.

It is possible however to convert legal users to pirates by having systems
that annoy people who have legally purchased. I don't know how you strike the
balance.

I hate the entitlement of people who pirate stuff, if it's not legally
available in your area that's a shame but it doesn't give you a right to it.

~~~
aerovistae
Speaking as a prolific pirate, I currently pay for Spotify because it's just
so convenient. I currently pay for HBO Now because I don't want to wait an
extra hour to watch Game of Thrones.

I pay for games on Steam, but I still pirate most major creative software like
Adobe, Windows Office, or DAWs and their plugins...I just have absolutely zero
incentive to do otherwise.

And before anyone guilt trips me on morality, please stop to carefully think
through why you believe sharing digital files is stealing but borrowing a book
from a library or buying a used video game or movie is not. None of those
things give ANY proceeds to the authors or creators, either, and the authors
have no choice in that matter either. Yet society deems that arbitrarily
acceptable.

~~~
ttoinou

       but I still pirate most major creative software 

But do you make money out of this activity ?

    
    
       Yet society deems that arbitrarily acceptable
    

Well it feels like society is OK with pirated content, no ? I only know 1
person in my environment that attacks me about it.

~~~
aerovistae
I do not make any money off of it, no. And now that I think about it I
actually did buy a used license for Word, which doesn't give any money to
Microsoft, but which is again arbitrarily considered moral.

As for society being ok, yes and no. Nobody attacks me about it but I know
plennnnnty of people who will refuse to budge on the idea that it's immoral
and wrong.

------
FraKtus
We use a service called link busters. They send DMCA to all sites having links
to (fake ?) cracked versions of our software...

------
nicky0
My app has an info infinitely renewable trial but many still use the cracked
version.

~~~
ttoinou
That's weird

------
Cozumel
Piracy is a huge issue, one way around it, although too late for you now, is
to only sell an online hosted version of your software, they can't crack what
they don't have access too.

Have you got a forum to engage your customers with directly? Most times (and
this is a huge generalisation) but these consumers aren't 'evil', they just
either have no money or don't know any better.

If you can engage with them and get them to like you it'll make them more
disinclined to pirate you, you could also give away a 'lite' version, there's
no need to pirate your software if they get it for free, then concentrate on
adding more features to the regular priced one for them to upgrade too
eventually.

There's no real technical solution to piracy, it's always going to be a human
issue so needs to be looked at from that perspective.

~~~
ttoinou
Thanks for the answer ! I like the lite idea,

    
    
       although too late for you now, is to only sell an online hosted version of your software,
       they can't crack what they don't have access too
    

I've thought about it and it's an excellent solution because I could link the
software to a website with a subscription based business model. And my
software could be better with internet / community feature inside it ! But
it's for mid term not for now (I have to recode everything and develop a new
product..)

    
    
       Have you got a forum to engage your
       customers with directly? 

I'm going to sign up in the private forums and engage with them. I hope I
won't be banned from the forum !

~~~
Xoros
Isn't there a key feature of your software that you could change to make it
online only ?

Not checking the serial or user, this can be (and mostly is) suppressed by a
crack.

But an important proprietary function that can't be to easily emulate by a
crack and your software can't fully work without. Nowadays there is no more
internet access limitations for stuff like that (that's why SaaS is booming
for years).

And this could be the first step to your full online version.

~~~
ttoinou
I could make the UI online and ship the app with a Chromium browser :D

~~~
Xoros
Well, why not :-) ?

I've already done software like that. Still don't know what's yours, but in
our case, it was for kiosks and access points. All the UI was online (so if
the client ask for UI change, it's automatically updated on every kiosks or
access points), and the hardware related code was on the C# software installed
(using a scanner, a barcode reader, printing stuff, etc...)

Of course it's pretty specific, but as we have to create a key for every
licence, you can't have two running at the same time, so no crack.

We had bad experience, as a guy to which we sold a licence of the first
version of our soft (some nearly 20 years ago), where we just checked if the
serial was ok, installed it on multiple places and we found out totally
randomly, 2 or 3 years later !

------
nxc18
But piracy is good right? Death to DRM!

If someone doesn't want to pay they should be able to get the content for
free, then they can decide if you deserve to be paid.

\---

That content above seems to be very popular sentiment on HN and other techy
places. I don't understand that since all you hurt are people like the author
of this post.

The tech community needs to get its act together and decide to support
intellectual property rights because as tech people that's all we have.

And don't think this only applies to proprietary software. MIT, GPL, Apache,
etc are all __licenses __and are all capable of just as much abuse as your
traditional EULA.

~~~
AsyncAwait
> But piracy is good right? Death to DRM! > That content above seems to be
> very popular sentiment on HN and other techy places. I don't understand that
> since all you hurt are people like the author of this post.

You can't begin to understand it, if you don't understand the 'sentiment' you
describe in the first place.

Nobody is saying that it is OK to steal someone's work and not pay them for
it. The argument against DRM is usually that:

1\. I shouldn't, as a paying customer, be required to purchase multiple times
just to consume on a different platform, this increases piracy.

2\. You shouldn't charge prices that your customers can't afford to pay,
increases piracy.

3\. DRM punishes paying customers while pirates get a better (unrestricted)
version anyway, so where's the incentive to not pirate?

...and many more.

Notice how none of these endorse piracy as a good thing, merely point out that
these factors lead to it.

