As I said, software pirates aren't really in the same league of Somalian Pirates. They are just like you and me and are pirating simply coz they can. It'd be safe to assume they pay for everything else in life including all sorts entertainment services(cable, movies, dinner in a restaurant and stuff) when they can't get it for free. So I think 5% is a good enough assumption for pirates being a paying customer if they didn't have a choice. And with the claims of 95% of downloads coming from pirates that translates into double sales for devs. Who do you really think these pirates are? Alright that's just a dumb opinion. You are saying a big enough percentage of those pirates are thieves And if you meant they got it as a gift then they certainly are financially backed up enough to arrange for these app purchases. Think atleast a little before saying baseless things. Ok. Repeating myself, when the piracy rate is 95%, 5% of pirates translates into double sales and that's a huge huge increase in profits for devs. What part of this you dont understand Utter crap and nothing else as even with the most conservative figures sales will be easily more than double. Now which dev are you talking about who won't want that 100% extra sales??
As I wrote in my previous post, when people download cracked apps they know what they're downloading, and if stealing those apps weren't an option there's a strong chance they would have paid for them. Honestly, we can't pretend that people don't have access to all kinds of information about the games they're stealing (websites, Youtube, forums, etc.) so it's not like they're blindly downloading some 'mystery' game. They know they want the games, they're just choosing not to pay for them. So to answer your question, there's no way to really know exactly how much money a dev has lost due to pirating, but the fact that Rally Master Pro suffered 95% piracy on it's first day of release, gives you an idea of the loss of potential profit.
This is a great group to start on Touch Arcade. Piracy hurts developers and gamers. No one likes DRM and developers would much rather spend time making new fun things rather than things to make sure that people paid for that fun. We don't need DRM, we just need some morals and self-control. If you don't pay you don't play. I think iTunes has made it as cheap and easy as possible to play games so the $60 price woes are a thing of the past. Seriously, pirating a $0.99 game is classless. Type your iTunes password, pay your $0.99, and play the game for better or worse. No matter what I guarantee that you're helping to create a better industry than you would be by pirating. If you're a pirate, then I challenge you to stand on your own feet while developing games for a living. It would be a better use of your time than setting up a system to give away other people's hard work for free. You might also learn that it's not all donuts and carrot cakes developing games. Most of the time we developers are just scraping by to do what we love, hoping to one day make something that many people really have fun with. If a developer does "make it big" usually it's because they've been working their tail off for years with ZERO recognition. When they get that big pay off, keep in mind that they probably had to bust their butts doing a lot of thankless stuff for a long time before they found that success. I'm often shocked when I review the history of any successful developer. Usually, there's a long history of faceless games that no one cared about which lead to that developer's success. Great games don't materialize from one good idea they are earned like interest in a retirement account over many years.
besides making a point, what good will starting a group against piracy do besides get people in a huff? if you want to support a developer, donate, or buy their app and give it a fair review. with such a load of garbage to sort through on the app store, word of mouth and websites like TA are the best exposure a dev can get. the subject of piracy wont ever go away. while im not advocating it, its just a way of life for some (apparently a lot according to the thread starter). with apps on jailbroken phones like ****, getting apps is easier than most would imagine. the problem is with the single point of acquisition of apps. if anything, all of the people in the group should poll apple to open up the iphone and allow developers to offer apps on their own. that way, better security and verification of ownership can actually be integrated into an app. much like the way every other type of software works. this is just apples way of making money off of other peoples hard work, and everyone winds up suffering from the process so apple can make a buck (a babillion bucks). unless this model changes, dont expect anything new in the ease with which people can steal iphone store software. jd
All of the software on my iPhone is bought and paid for and will continue to be so. Piracy is killing development of platforms such as the PSP and it would be a real shame if the iPhone/iPod Touch goes the same way especially when the vast majority of titles are well under 10 dollars to begin with. I hope Apple does manage to put better DRM onto the games to stop the thieving parasites amongst us getting a free-ride.
What makes pirating games any more legal than downloading songs off the internet? Napster had to become a paid service because of copyright infringements and then there were the people that were sued for their limewire downloads and fined - some upwards of $4,000 US dollars: http://www.wyff4.com/technology/18189152/detail.html How is THIS any different???? It's intellectual property at the very least. You can't copy someone's photos, someone's music, someone's writing, etc. - why then a game?
I was surprised to find my pirated 99cent game just by google the name ... I downloaded it, and now I own the cracked version of my own game! The game is very, very niche. So I suppose the pirates do crack every single game as soon as it is published and I believe they don't even look at it... strange... but there must be 1 legal buyer who is the pirate and uploader (someone has to buy it first, right)?
We are already doing all that. What's your point? I'm having a really hard time understanding how that would in anyway help reducing piracy. If anything it'll make it more of a trouble to get these apps for legit buyers. Now afaik, the apps on Windows Mobile are available in exactly the same way you want for apple. Do you seriously think those apps aren't getting pirated? And how much they are selling with no single AppStore to easily find and buy the apps people want. Another related question? Are you an iPhone dev?
yes, someone needs to purchase it first whether they purchase it with their money or with a hacked itunes gift card is another story
Exactly the point. Sadly it seems some people dont understand this. Well, alot more than some judging by what happened to Rally Master today
Apple cracks down on iTunes gift card fraud http://www.macworld.com/article/141326/2009/06/itunescard.html
not true. you think that because people would actually have to go out an find a developer/program on their own that apps wouldnt sell? how do people buy ANY other type of software? they either go to a big box store or they go online, right to the developer... and the money (ALL THE MONEY goes right to the developer). i think it would be a good or better way to filter out the crap and make devs make worthwhile software. survival of the fittest... windows mobile apps do get cracked and pirated, sure, but thats up to the developers to integrate a security model into their apps. take Anton Tomov (wizcode) for example, or isotope244. although their apps surely have been pirated in the past. they have working security checks built into every app that are very difficult to work around. if by trouble for legit buyers youre saying that entering an email address and a code makes things difficult, i think youre just being plain lazy or shortsighted while im not saying the windows mobile platform is without its issues (more than ever) people in that market and developers in that niche have many choices as to where to procure software legally (and illegally of course). again, you could go right to the developer, to an online store like handango or pocketgear, or now you can use the already crippled microsoft store right on your windows mobile device. its just a matter of who you want the money to go to
I don't see how it's useless to make our voices heard, especially in a thread as popular as this one. Yes, it's a drop in the bucket, but lots of devs come here, and it would be nice if they saw sig after sig of posters against piracy.
Well i'm safe then. Never bought anything off eBay and never will. Never ceases to amaze me how low people will stoop just to make a buck.
no, this has been going on for over a year now. someone figured out how to generate codes for use in the itunes store, and apple hasnt figured out how to address the issue... thus, free movies music and games for whoever those people are that do that kinda thing
