Coping with software pirates - sue them?

18 replies
I'm selling a piece of software and I am wondering what some methods of coping with software pirates are?

I know for a fact that they are always one step ahead. You cannot develop an application that is not possible to crack.

So I am thinking, why not sue the living crap out of some of them and make some money that way? Is that even possible and feasible?

Perhaps target some online service and sue them for a few millions...

Or...?
#coping #pirates #software #sue
  • Profile picture of the author sahi
    I always say that it's useless to spend time with software pirates or any sort of product thieves.
    Instead of spending time, energy and money on fighting software pirates, one should try and concentrate on improving his own product and make it nearly impossible or at least Super difficult for them to crack it, although they would crack it one way or the other, but at least make it difficult for them to do so.
    The biggest example is that of Microsoft's products which are freely available all over the net and in third world countries, and one can buy a Vista CD for just $.50 in any third world country.
    If Microsoft wasn't able to stop these software pirates then you can imagine how much would it be difficult for you to do the same.
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  • Profile picture of the author Truffle
    I can't imagine how long it would take to sue all of them lol In my opinion that's effort wasted.

    as sahi pointed out, it's better to improve the security of your software to such an extent that they'll have a hell of a time to crack it.
    and when you think you're out of ideas on how to make it safer, hire a few hackers/crackers to see how they would crack your software, might give you ideas on what you can improve further.

    And when all ideas have run out for that particular sofware, go get busy making other pieces of software.

    greetz,
    jobic
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  • Profile picture of the author Jason Johns
    Trying t sue them is a nightmare. You have to find them first, get evidence and to be honest, it will cost you a fortune.

    Implement some sort of call home feature on your software so that it is licensed from your server and that will reduce software piracy, providing it doesn't impact usability.

    All the best

    Jason
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  • Profile picture of the author Sam Smith
    Going after pirates would be a waste of time and effort for you. As has already been mentioned in this post, bigger enterpises than you have tried.
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  • Profile picture of the author astaga
    ANY digital product can be copied/replicated. It is impossible to stop this.
    You can have some methods or techniques to make it extremely inconvenient or difficult for folks to do this (like checkbacks to a server, etc...), but the bottom line is, if it's digital form, someone someday is going to do it.

    However it is not so easy to copy a service or your personality.
    So it makes sense to focus on the service(s) AFTER the sale, whereby genuine purchasers get access to. Updates, upgrades, regular communications, membership based services, etc....
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  • Profile picture of the author samstephens
    It's interesting you bring this up, Anna, I'm actually working on developing a program at the moment - it's kind of like a software "wrapper" similar the systems you see for PDF's, but it's more designed for software.

    Basically what happens is that when someone runs a pirate copy of your software, a hand with dead flesh hanging off the bone reaches out of their screen, and chokes them until the pirate gives up their source.

    It leaves the pirate gasping for breath and soaked in sweat and urine, and crawls out of the screen and hunts down the person distributing the priate copies of your software.

    Think "The Ring", but with that croaking noise from "The Grudge" thrown in.

    After finding the distributor, it feeds on their broken body and grows stronger until it is able to walk the earth hunting down pirates as they sit in their sweaty little chairs and steal people's hard work with their Cheezles-encrusted fingers.


    I'm looking for beta testers, if anyone's interested?
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    • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
      Originally Posted by samstephens View Post

      It's interesting you bring this up, Anna, I'm actually working on developing a program at the moment - it's kind of like a software "wrapper" similar the systems you see for PDF's, but it's more designed for software.

      Basically what happens is that when someone runs a pirate copy of your software, a hand with dead flesh hanging off the bone reaches out of their screen, and chokes them until the pirate gives up their source.

      It leaves the pirate gasping for breath and soaked in sweat and urine, and crawls out of the screen and hunts down the person distributing the priate copies of your software.

      Think "The Ring", but with that croaking noise from "The Grudge" thrown in.

      After finding the distributor, it feeds on their broken body and grows stronger until it is able to walk the earth hunting down pirates as they sit in their sweaty little chairs and steal people's hard work with their Cheezles-encrusted fingers.


      I'm looking for beta testers, if anyone's interested?
      Sign me up! :p
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  • Profile picture of the author JamesFraze
    Host your software. Install it as a web application that requires a login, limited to a few IP addresses.

    or

    Make it so that by stealing the software they are getting your upsell device and you actually want huge distribution.

    You can't make someone be honest - and suing them will only cost you money. Most people that pirate don't have the money anyway.

    Focus more on how to market it and make it better. Quite a bit of pirating actually helps to put your code base out there, which will lead to more people trained in your software, and thus more recommendations for corporate usage.

    Thinking from an abundance perspective will help you more in the long run.
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  • Profile picture of the author gacott
    1. Forget about suing Pirates, it will do nothing but loose you money. Ask any Lawyer worth his or her salt, they will tell you the only people who make money in law suits are the lawyers.

    2. As James said, make it web based. I have been building web based applications for over ten years now, I still feel it is the absolutely best way to distribute software.

    3. Web based does not mean it can't be installed on the system, it just means that at the very least, the data comes from the web. Using stuff like xmlrpc is awesome for this. So your users authenticate against a web based system and then have full access.

    4. The big lesson here. For over 10 years I have been making open source software, software that basically begs for somebody else to "steal" it. If you build a service around that software and really support your users with that service, it won't matter who comes along with software like yours, people will always go with the better services if it's fair.

    5. The other big lesson here is that people looking for free, or pirated software were never going to be your customers anyway. They are always looking for free and will move past yours to another that they can get for free. So the lesson here is that why you don't want to make it easy on the pirates, they are NOT costing you customers.

    Garret
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  • Profile picture of the author radio
    going after pirates, like others have said, is a waste. those who pirate your stuff aren't those who would buy it in the first place. customer service and members only boards are a great way to build in value and deter those who may have been thinking about going the shady route and stealing your stuff (because it was easy and available) and turn them into paying customers. regularly update software with new features and the pirated stuff becomes out of date.
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  • Profile picture of the author Chris_Willow
    Outside IM niche I've purchased a very specific piece
    of software that required me to download it for free
    and then manually paypal the developer 10 bucks so he
    can manually enter my data in his database and
    manually send me the activation details. Basically a
    special code for each customer.

    If it could be made automatic, I'm pretty sure it would
    help a lot, but as previously mentioned nothing can
    be completely protected.

    Perhaps you can make it like if the copy is not registered,
    the user gets a bunch of ads all over the place This
    way when someone steals and distributes your software,
    you actually benefit from it lol

    Chris
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  • Profile picture of the author Floyd Fisher
    Originally Posted by Anna King View Post

    I'm selling a piece of software and I am wondering what some methods of coping with software pirates are?

    I know for a fact that they are always one step ahead. You cannot develop an application that is not possible to crack.

    So I am thinking, why not sue the living crap out of some of them and make some money that way? Is that even possible and feasible?

    Perhaps target some online service and sue them for a few millions...

    Or...?
    You could sue, but it's an exercise in futility.

    Even if you got a judgement, it can be wiped away with a bankruptcy filing.

    If you're really concerned, consider joining the SPA, and leave it at that.
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  • Profile picture of the author BrianE
    A lot of the bigger registration services offer software/services you can use to protect your software with wrapper type applications. REGNOW for example, there is also Armidillo form Silicon Realms.
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  • Profile picture of the author samstephens
    Thanks Floyd, great to have you onboard!



    cheers
    Sam
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  • Profile picture of the author Matthew Iannotti
    Originally Posted by Anna King View Post

    I'm selling a piece of software and I am wondering what some methods of coping with software pirates are?

    I know for a fact that they are always one step ahead. You cannot develop an application that is not possible to crack.

    So I am thinking, why not sue the living crap out of some of them and make some money that way? Is that even possible and feasible?

    Perhaps target some online service and sue them for a few millions...

    Or...?
    100% correct, anything can be cracked Not worth the trouble IMO..There will always be application hackers..

    Imagine what Adobe should do, all of their expensive products have been cracked...
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  • Profile picture of the author mikemcmillan
    Anna, come on now--you've never seen a Dracula movie on late night TV? You drive a wooden steak through their heart, cut their head off, then bury it in a canvas bag in the desert. Then, if you feel better, sue them in a federal district court.

    Like others said, it isn't worth the time and worry. Besides, these parasites aren't the kind of people who would ever think of spending money on a product (they don't have any), so you really aren't loosing sales anyway.

    P.S. I've got a WSO for wooden steaks and canvas bags
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