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cscboulder11

cscboulder11

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I'm currently working on a project to be released as payware and I wanted to see if you guys had any tips for built-in piracy protections lest it end up on PirateBay.

I'll also need beta testers for it, but how do you choose them to avoid them sharing the software?
 
It will end up on Piratebay, unfortunately.

Unless you employ a very complex system, it will be sooner rather than later.

I don't want to dishearten you, but it is better to be realistic from the outset.
 
Could try that TabletPC that AirSimmer uses, AFAIK that is un-crackable
 
Hackers love to break into things that are locked, sadly.

Figure, even the CIA, FBI, and others get hacked.


I hope your package does really well. The better it is, the more sales you will have. Good advertising is 'word of mouth'. (This thing is great! You have to get it! ).

Make sure you have as little bugs as possible before launch. If you can, make it bug free, but remember, the customers will find bugs in 1 hour where you may have looked for flaws for 30 days or more and thought you got them all. Get over that fact and just be quick to repair bugs and redo the installers on launch week.

Also, with payware come complainers and rivet counters, more then in freeware. Be prepaired as you might get bickering. Just smile and carry on. Dont let them bring you down. People that pay for something expect it to be utter perfection, so if you keep them happy, they will be your friends and your financial future.

:D


Bill
 
1 thing people dont seem to get is that the harder the "protection" the more hackers take up the challange to break it, just look at the big game makeing studios/puplishers who have said "this is unbreakable" "our new top of the range anti-piracy mesaure" in 90% of cases its hacked to bits in a week .. or the next day in ubisofts case!

Personal view is ... why bother with the hassel if there just gonna break into it anyway??
 
Stiz said:
1 thing people dont seem to get is that the harder the "protection" the more hackers take up the challange to break it, just look at the big game makeing studios/puplishers who have said "this is unbreakable" "our new top of the range anti-piracy mesaure" in 90% of cases its hacked to bits in a week .. or the next day in ubisofts case!

Personal view is ... why bother with the hassel if there just gonna break into it anyway??
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When we spend a considerable amount of time on a project and do our best to make it top-notch, compensation is certainly fair. What's wrong with anti-piracy measures to ensure that it stays off of pirating sites for as long as possible? What's wrong with us earning some money for work?

By your logic, we should all just do bad freeware projects, or nothing at all.
 
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cscboulder11 said:
When we spend a considerable amount of time on a project and do our best to make it top-notch, compensation is certainly fair. What's wrong with anti-piracy measures to ensure that it stays off of pirating sites for as long as possible? What's wrong with us earning some money for work?

By your logic, we should all just do bad freeware projects, or nothing at all.
Click to expand...

I don't think that is what the dude above meant. I think he was trying to say not to bother too much with copy protection, it'll end up hurting the customer more. Happened to myself in this years edition of Football Manager 2012. You HAVE to use Steam to play the game, while hackers can play as usual just clicking on the EXE.
 
cscboulder11 said:
When we spend a considerable amount of time on a project and do our best to make it top-notch, compensation is certainly fair. What's wrong with anti-piracy measures to ensure that it stays off of pirating sites for as long as possible? What's wrong with us earning some money for work?

By your logic, we should all just do bad freeware projects, or nothing at all.
Click to expand...

not what i ment, what i ment was is sure, sure use a seriel etc, but dont do stuff that requires the paying customer to jump through hoops/be locked into a system, because it'll end up hurting you more in the long run. Just look at ubisoft and their "constant on" DRM, you HAVE to be connected to their servers the whole time, if your internet dies you cant play the game, pirates cracked it and got full freedom from it in less than 24hrs whilst paying customers had to put up with outages, disconects, matenince etc. It also turns people off in the first place because they dont want to have to deal with it and possibley jump through hoops just to use something they've paid for.

You can still make money without obtrusive DRM, as the saying goes, if its worth the price and people want it, they'll pay for it. Just look at how well skyrims done.

It just erks me a bit that if something sells bad the first thing people shout is "piracy did it!!" when it fact the problems tend to be in-house, piracy just provides and easy excuse :duck:
 
cscboulder11 said:
By your logic, we should all just do bad freeware projects, or nothing at all.
Click to expand...

I think you possibly mis-interpreted what Bill is saying.

The reality is that these measures cost you more time, and (in the end) don't achieve much.

This is the pessimistic voice of experience speaking.
 
It's a delicate balancing act. On the one hand to have just enough non-intrusive, one time only DRM scheme to not annoy the customer unduly, while providing just enough challenge to keep the crackers from success for a few months at least.
 
The internet is the Wild West; and it’s the days before Wyatt Earp.
Well, I figure, a righteous person don’t blame yu for' build'n fences.
I figure, those that cain’t understand is trouble.
...befor' Wyatt folks didn’t want law.
That’s where wee arr' at.
It’s the rule of law…or freee porn.
An' most good folks' is-a-gonna choose the latter ;)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1fuDDqU6n4o&feature=youtu.be

Hehe, mostly I'm joking :)
 
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Just want to say that payware is a limited time payware.
Sooner or later it will be "freeware" somewhere else.

Consider that even Photoshop or Windows7 can be found in these pirated sites, nothing to compare to our small payware.
 
Build a dud version and post it to the pirate sites at the same time you release the good one. Better still, make several duds and release them to different pirate sites in intervals of a day or so. Worth a try...
 
Piracy is an ethics problem. Period.

Anyone who claims otherwise is full of it and would probably lie to their momma's face without reservation.
 
hairyspin said:
Build a dud version and post it to the pirate sites at the same time you release the good one. Better still, make several duds and release them to different pirate sites in intervals of a day or so. Worth a try...
Click to expand...


I think that is a very good idea....
 
As far as beta testing goes, add something obvious to the model to mark it out as a beta version. I have a sphere floating off the port wingtip which is coloured differently for each LOD. When I'm ready to release the final version the sphere will be deleted, but until then it's a part of the model hierarchy - except nothing hangs off the sphere in the hierarchy, so deleting it screws nothing else up.
 
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