Anti-pirating scheme
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First I am only batting around ideas. I have not even started coding yet. The problem with trusting users is that there is a crack for just about every APP. If you cannot find a crack you aren't looking hard enough. Cracked programs is a million dollar buisness in a mojority or eastern European countires. When I went to Bosnia there was a CD shop on every corner. Each cd was $5. So for $5 I would always have the latest software. The only non cracked software is one that no one wants. I am not saying I will come up with a better solution but not even trying means you don't care if someone steals from you. The upates will be released by the hackers in less than a week. This leads me to beleive that a web based checking utility is the least hackable solution out there. If you require your app to call home say once a quarter you can track how many copies are out there and which reg key has leaked. You could have the install program register the key to that computer and lock out any other installs. Then unregister during uninstall. Remember just thoughts. The idea is to trust your customers but to make it so that it is as difficult to pirate as possible. Darroll
The problem is, people that use cracks seldom buy something if they can't crack it. You are talking about going through an awful lot of work for very little potential revenue. The part you forget about going to bosnia is that the average person probably makes is about $194 a month, with an unemployment rate of well over 70%. Most people simply couldn't afford your software even if they WANTED to buy it. This isn't a rationale for pirating at all, I'm just pointing out that it's unlikely that all the effort and cost you put into such a scheme will likely not gain you much extra money, and combined with the number of customers you lose may actually LOSE you money. You say you're targeting businesses anyways. What you probably want is a mechanism that encourages registration rather than requires it, such as access to updates (this works pretty well for a lot of products). Also, consider the issue that if I'm installing your program on 100 machines, I don't want to have to download from your server 100 times just to activate the program (even Microsoft provides a way around that). Many companies do not allow their end-users access to the internet *AT ALL*. -- Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?
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The problem is, people that use cracks seldom buy something if they can't crack it. You are talking about going through an awful lot of work for very little potential revenue. The part you forget about going to bosnia is that the average person probably makes is about $194 a month, with an unemployment rate of well over 70%. Most people simply couldn't afford your software even if they WANTED to buy it. This isn't a rationale for pirating at all, I'm just pointing out that it's unlikely that all the effort and cost you put into such a scheme will likely not gain you much extra money, and combined with the number of customers you lose may actually LOSE you money. You say you're targeting businesses anyways. What you probably want is a mechanism that encourages registration rather than requires it, such as access to updates (this works pretty well for a lot of products). Also, consider the issue that if I'm installing your program on 100 machines, I don't want to have to download from your server 100 times just to activate the program (even Microsoft provides a way around that). Many companies do not allow their end-users access to the internet *AT ALL*. -- Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?
As I stated earlier, the main problem I am trying to combat is the company that pays for one copy then installs it on several machines. There have been several cases of companies buying one license of say AutoCAD and installing it on over a 100 machines. How to stop those is my main quest. Not stopping a user who would never pay for my app to begin with from using it. What are your thoughts on how to stop office piracy? Darroll
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As I stated earlier, the main problem I am trying to combat is the company that pays for one copy then installs it on several machines. There have been several cases of companies buying one license of say AutoCAD and installing it on over a 100 machines. How to stop those is my main quest. Not stopping a user who would never pay for my app to begin with from using it. What are your thoughts on how to stop office piracy? Darroll
Well, you're not going to stop office piracy by forcing them to open up all their desktops to the internet. You're not going to stop it by forcing their admins to download patches individually to all machines. All that will do is force them into buying someone elses product (assuming one exists) or doing without. Unless you happen to be in the rare case where a company cannot do without your software on each and every machine, it will hurt you more than help. You have to consider customer good will in the equation. In most cases, simply making it more work than it is worth is sufficient to curb office piracy. Further, businesses are at a much higher risk for legal repurcussions than individuals if a BSA raid occurs. It's a stupid business that knowingly pirates software, especially in large quantities since some disgruntled employee will likely eventually turn them in. Your best bet is simply to provide both an internet and phone based authentication system, based on date/time so that the key cannot be used again later. Sure, pirates will be able to crack this, possibly even create a keygen, but most people really have no idea how to track that kind of stuff down. Only the determined people, who probably wouldn't buy it anyways will tirelessly track down a crack. -- Where are we going? And why am I in this handbasket?