Piracy Hurts

[WilliamK]

And there are still people who thinks piracy is ok... (got some on my own family)

[Michael L]

Thanks for that. Some people dont realize how devastating piracy is.

[Topcheese]

Such arrogance is beyond me. Are they telling me their product is so good that they know for a fact how many are using it, and how many would actually pay for it if not pirated? At the very least it's presumptuous of them to say that.

I've never even heard of the product, so just on that piracy tip alone I've now taken some interest in it. I'm' not going to go on about necessary evils, or anything like that because we know it's illegal.

I also believe the end goal whether paid or free software is to get people to use the software. Piracy is yet another way that gets people using the software. This is an old argument that's been around since the beginning. Of course it's wrong!

With that being said we can look at an industry leader such as Native Instruments to see what they do to combat it. They still manage to make money because they try to provide more than just the product. They try to also provide value and support in many different ways to a registered user. NI might write up a blog post about you and your music, or they might release an expansion pack created by you. You can see that they've also acquired Sounds.com in order to try and have more registered users actually buying and selling through them.

I just think that some people have delusions of grandeur, and I'm not saying that their project is not grand, but sometimes even grand ideas don't always pan out the way we'd like ...can I get a Border Wall here, cough, cough!

I'm just saying the bottom line is that life is what you make of it, and not what the pirates make of it. You will always have pirates looking to take your booty, and that's true if you're a sailor or a software developer. I feel the best we can do is hope that people are using our software, then provide them with the best value that makes them want to spend.

I also think making public statements like that pretty much make crackers want to crack! But you know the argument still holds true about "If a tree falls in the forest with no ears to hear does it make a sound?"

Or shall I say a profit? hahaha

Edit: Ok so I believe I just had a flat-earther moment at the end there, so work with me people. I'm not really trying to argue against for it, but just look at it in another light.

edit2: I forgot for a min about that ol pesky quantum theory, so we pretty much know the answer to that question.
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2017/10 ... -make-it-0

[marzelli]

You always have an estimation based on previous product sales and you can also see on graphs how the current product develops. If it suddenly drops and you discover a cracked version then yes, you know how much you've lost. The end goal is to keep a business alive and that also means paying bills.

Unfortunately pirates often think "it's only me who does it and it doesn't matter to the company anyways as long as all others buy it". Even more sad are the ones defending their pure stupidity...

I respect the work of others and appreciate the time spent in plugin development. I show this by buying the product and I therefore also agree on using harder copy protection.

[bmanic]

@Topcheese: I think what Daniel James is doing is reacting to a very simple scenario. He has a product, it is selling well -> pirated version comes out -> the sales disappear -> he gets frustrated and posts what was quoted in the original post.

For a one man/small developer it really is that simple. Doesn't help much when you take huge established brands like Native Instruments as example. They too started out small way back then.. and I'm sure Stephan Schmitt has similar stories to tell from those days.

Some survive, some thrive even when under stress and many go under, never to be seen or heard from again.

I suspect the worse case scenario is a developer with only one or two niche products that keep them afloat only to fall victim of sudden drop in revenue due to piracy, which doesn't always target small niche products.

All of this is speculation on my part of course. My point is: It's worth trying to see this thing from the eyes of Daniel James instead of trying to rationalize harmful actions of others, using bad examples to trivialize the ordeal.

[WilliamK]

Just a reminder that NI lost nearly 2 million dollars to a protection system that was cracked in 4 days. This money just evaporated, and it's a lot of money from when NI was a medium sized company...

[HSum]

Unfortunately pirates are simply willing to steal and can only be stopped by taking something away from them, where it hurts the most. I wish more companies would file big lawsuits and sue the heck out of them and their families. Unfairly the legit users are the ones that have to pay for and I don't think it's the devs fault.

[Topcheese]

@Topcheese: I think what Daniel James is doing is reacting to a very simple scenario. He has a product, it is selling well -> pirated version comes out -> the sales disappear -> he gets frustrated and posts what was quoted in the original post.

For a one man/small developer it really is that simple. Doesn't help much when you take huge established brands like Native Instruments as example. They too started out small way back then.. and I'm sure Stephan Schmitt has similar stories to tell from those days.

Some survive, some thrive even when under stress and many go under, never to be seen or heard from again.

I suspect the worse case scenario is a developer with only one or two niche products that keep them afloat only to fall victim of sudden drop in revenue due to piracy, which doesn't always target small niche products.

All of this is speculation on my part of course. My point is: It's worth trying to see this thing from the eyes of Daniel James instead of trying to rationalize harmful actions of others, using bad examples to trivialize the ordeal.

By all means what part did you miss where I said that I support piracy and where it is that I "rationalize" the truth? I can't help that the truth sometimes hurts, but that's the way it is. You can try and vilify the pirates and innocent bystander like me all you want, but that's not going to change it.

Like I said if that's the choice you've made to make your bed(dollars), then you just going to have to take all the bedbugs that might come along with where you make it. I'm sure we can both agree that people shouldn't be using pirated software, but that still doesn't stop the fact that people pirate and use it.

I no more condone it than you do, it's just that you want to whine and point fingers, and I try to look for solutions and ways to capitalize on the problem.

There's nothing else really to say on the matter.

[WilliamK]

You said: "Such arrogance is beyond me", that does not sound good. Sounds arrogant too. Anyway, we are all in the same boat here...

[Zombie Queen]

I feel the guy. Had the same in early January. I have been wondering why my YT videos shoot up by 1000% all of the sudden. Coincidentally sales dropped to null. So well, this is how it works. Maybe its best to sit it through. With soundware, there's really no way to defend it.

[sleepcircle]

@Topcheese: I think what Daniel James is doing is reacting to a very simple scenario. He has a product, it is selling well -> pirated version comes out -> the sales disappear -> he gets frustrated and posts what was quoted in the original post.

For a one man/small developer it really is that simple. Doesn't help much when you take huge established brands like Native Instruments as example. They too started out small way back then.. and I'm sure Stephan Schmitt has similar stories to tell from those days.

Some survive, some thrive even when under stress and many go under, never to be seen or heard from again.

I suspect the worse case scenario is a developer with only one or two niche products that keep them afloat only to fall victim of sudden drop in revenue due to piracy, which doesn't always target small niche products.

All of this is speculation on my part of course. My point is: It's worth trying to see this thing from the eyes of Daniel James instead of trying to rationalize harmful actions of others, using bad examples to trivialize the ordeal.

By all means what part did you miss where I said that I support piracy and where it is that I "rationalize" the truth? I can't help that the truth sometimes hurts, but that's the way it is. You can try and vilify the pirates and innocent bystander like me all you want, but that's not going to change it.

Like I said if that's the choice you've made to make your bed(dollars), then you just going to have to take all the bedbugs that might come along with where you make it. I'm sure we can both agree that people shouldn't be using pirated software, but that still doesn't stop the fact that people pirate and use it.

I no more condone it than you do, it's just that you want to whine and point fingers, and I try to look for solutions and ways to capitalize on the problem.

There's nothing else really to say on the matter.

awareness of how it can hurt others might discourage some people who don't think about piracy much and just do it 'automatically' because 'everyone else does it'

it won't deter the conscienceless, of course


anyway, people are probably angry at you because—bolstered by the enlightened objectivity which comes so easily to those completely unaffected by the situation—you first said that the guy was very arrogant to assume that his software was any good, then said he was acting dumb for being frustrated that people were pirating his software, when he should just take advantage of it as a publicity thing. then you said that he chose to accept piracy, implicitly, when he started software development, so he just has to put up with it.

basically you told a bunch of strangers that anyone who expressed any feelings on the issue at all—besides, perhaps, a cool intellectual disapproval—was stupid

sure, you're an innocent bystander, but if you don't understand why you got a backlash, then I don't know what else to say

[quikquak]

Kids love to share stuff , they might grow up one day and look at their copy of Photoshop and think, "hmmmmm, I wonder if that's key-logging me" and "My whole system crashed, bloody Windows!!!..." It isn't Windows of course, it's the virus filled shit they copy on to it!

[Karbon L. Forms]

Are there really people who whip out their wallet when they can't find a crack?

[JunSev]

I respect the work of others and appreciate the time spent in plugin development. I show this by buying the product and I therefore also agree on using harder copy protection.

Why harder copy protection? sorry, but this way to solve things is only putting everything worse, at the point where the user doesn't have product anymore or needs to be completely dependent of companies in order to use the plug-ins they paid for.

What is needed is not a harder copy protection, is a efficient and unintrusive copy protection and find the pirates; companies never should exercise overcontrol on users.

[mladi]

Are there really people who whip out their wallet when they can't find a crack?

Thought the same and especially in this price range ($249). Wow..