Are you saying that your apps has appear on pirate sites before it was available on the AppStore for sales (not just because of the release date delay). Like before Apple actually have finish to review it? If it did, then it means if you use external beta tester or sent Ad Hoc build to some review sites, that one of them have leak it out. This has been known for ages on PC that some games not even sent to the press (gold master) have been already leak out. If not then, its mean they are probably have script to grab all the latest release and then pass thru other automated tools . From what have been said about piracy, if you didn't implement any custom check then those tools can do it barely in a minute .
The guy that cracked our new app and posted it is a user here on Touch Arcade and found it here (since it doesn't show up in new apps but is available if you search). Maybe Touch Arcade could ban them, especially since we have paid for advertising in the past.
No, it is there if you search, but hasn't updated to the 'new apps' area yet. It was hacked by a Touch Arcade forum member.
This is very terrible, but I can see why some pirates will come over here, as they will know exactly all the details and know exactly when it hit the AppStore . But it was mentioned before by the guys making Ground Effect that there game even hit the pirate stuff even a bit before it was on the AppStore and they found out that one of the beta tester they pick from here was actually a pirate . Only thing we can do is to report them to the admin so they can take care of them. But they can easily create new account spoof their IP and then start again. This is an endless battle, same as good vs evil, they are no end to it.
Maybe we could make a game where you catch pirates, shoot them in the crotch, and leave them to bleed to death. I guess they'd just pirate that too.
You have obviously never been outside of the US. So how do I reactivate the product on a new device? What if I have 100+ apps? The two are entirely different. It is like saying Navy needs to destroy all boats. Even in the context of a discussion on maritime piracy it would be a silly thing to say. You are confusing me here. You were talking about Apple suing people, or at least passing info to dev's so they could sue. Are you going to sue the iPod? Giving out person info tied to the ID would be an invasion of privacy. Strange math. What is the penalty for Jailbreaking (which isn't actually truly illegal - see below), and who gets that money? What are the damages and how are they calculated? I'll concede that if there is an online infrastructure being used it would cost the dev money, but you'd have to prove how much that was used and how much it cost— that's about all you can get for damages. And interest? Interest on what? You'd also have to sue for the juridic costs, they aren't "refunded." Jailbreaking has yet to be tested legally. I'm sure once it is tested it will be ruled that it's legal. Laws aren't always legal. (see here and here for two quick examples) EDIT: I think the title of this thread should be changed to "people's ideas of how to deal with piracy are getting worse..." I'd like to see dev's getting paid just as much as the most rabid person in here, but I'm not willing to sacrifice my user experience and consumer rights. I'm all for finding a place more in the center of the venn diagram between consumers and devs, though.
Hello, That's true. Are you willing to re-play all the 100 apps at the same time ? Or install them at the same time ? If not, you just have to wait 2 seconds for each app you're going to play to activate the product. Also, 100 active apps seems a bit much. The average regular user (the one who is not mass downloading tons of paid apps) may have an average of 5 - 6 active apps. And as a final resort, if you really don't have a wifi connection near you, there is always that solution of emailing you a game key that you would have to enter once to activate. Sue the iPod owner. The iPod ID is not private. It is available to every dev with Xcode. So Apple giving it away at buy would not be a privacy invasion either. It's like giving your OS version. Let me be clear : UDID is not a harm for anyone, you can't do anything with it. It's just an identifier, like a mail or a Windows serial. Where it becomes dangerous is for illegal operators, because their device can be identified. Nothing else. I don't know the penalties for Jailbreaking, but as it is against Apple EULA, they can do everything with it, like cutting off your access to appstore, asking your carrier to shut down your connection, or everything you can imagine that already has been done by big corporations (Microsoft's actually shutting down 1 million XBOX hackers Live accounts is a good example). But the focused effect is to scare a majority from pissing off by pirating apps (not OS, apps). Nothing more. Money would go to where the law decides. I wouldn't really care about earning money with procedures, Apple could take it all, devs only want to stop piracy. We have to separate Apple case and Dev case here. For the dev, there would be nothing to earn really, except the app price. But for Apple, this can lead further, like in any regular corporation charging someone for product piracy. I don't know what is their politic about that. I'm just suggesting and searching a way to make justice. Actually, if you have a better way to stop people from stealing apps, I'm really open to read. Just look at the news, there's a new case of outrageous app massive piracy every week (and that's for mediatized cases). How can devs not become rude with that ? I do agree, regular user must take absolutely no side effect in this fight. But on the piracy side, things will become either bloody, or devs will flee your appstore in no time.
Right now I have 33 apps paid apps that I use regularly to semi-reguarly. Maybe close to 50 all told. If I stop buying apps I could stay below 100, but I don't think that's what Apple wants go for. So, let me get this straight, if I don't have a WiFi connection, your plan is to have me enter in 33+ activation codes every time I upgrade? Even over WiFi (ignoring the fact that you've never specified how the special unique ID that matches the app transfers to a new unique ID and how that can't be hacked) having to auto re-register over 30 apps just so that I can use them seems silly and time consuming. You say it will take 2 seconds, but that's a number you've pulled from a hat. Chances are it would take longer especially over 3G for iPhones. Right, and how do you sue the owners? Post a list of ID's and ask people to come forward? Anything else would require someone to tap into a database of personal information. Since an EULA has never been tested in court no one can say whether it is even legally binding. I like that you've used MS recent move as an example. It has already been publicized how a whole bunch of folks got illegitimately banned, but even the people who got a legit ban are going to sue. They might not win, but it'll cost MS. And that along with the people accidentally banned has made for some bad PR, with people calling it heavy handed. I suggest zazen meditation. There is no way to stop people from stealing. Humans have been stealing since well before computers came around, and they never stop. At least not in our lifetimes. Its better to let go of the idea of stopping it and figuring out ways to work around it. If you see a car speeding towards you and you want to live, you don't think of how to stop the car. You think of how to get out of the way. Well, they are using that to publicize their games. Not saying that piracy isn't bad, but they are trying to turn their negatives into positives. App store piracy isn't really all that different from every other kind of piracy. Anyway, I think I've said my piece about piracy. I've wasted enough time on this topic here and else where. Bottom line is DRM schemes suck and only hurt the good guys in the end.
Just one precision : Apple got the infos, don't worry. _____ Well, Actually, there are flaws in what I abstractly suggested, because we're on a casual discussion, and because I'm not planning to seal every bit of my words from errors. But we got keypoints : - each device is identifiable - Pirating is illegal - Devs can identify pirated apps Based on that, there is a meaning to find a counter to piracy. It would take more or less time to make it flawless, and I don't say it will work forever, but there is a workable way.
The entire economy would collapse if anyone took that approach to stealing, either for physical theft or digital copying. If there was no danger of punishment some people would just never pay for anything. Piracy abounded in the 80s and early 90s on market stalls with copied CDs, movies, and software but the police cracked down heavy and it disappeared almost entirely, barely existing in the underground, where the only way to get a copy would be to know a friend who knew a friend. People forgot about getting cheap copies and so sales of genuine products went up Until P2P came about. Now the same thing needs to happen online. Places like the pirate bay hide behind loopholes and claim not to be breaking the law because they're just a website allowing people come to exchange goods. Well if there was a large warehouse where the same thing occurred, it would be shut down immediately. The internet is not a barbaric, unlawful world where anything can happen, Child porn has very effectively been criminalized, prosecuted, and blocked on the internet, no matter what country the web host originates, and the same is being done for piracy, it's just happening much, much slower to get those laws implemented, which is unfortunate for content creators. Choosing to just ignore it and let it happen would result in western nations experiencing the disaster that is China's entertainment market, where just 1% of goods sold in stores are genuine. I agree with you Jon, that we shouldn't be focusing so much on piracy as developers when there's not much we can do by ourselves, but at the same time we can't just ignore it altogether, in the hopes it'll fix itself. Pirates are like toddlers - if you let them get away with it once, they'll just keep doing it.
We have spoke with the moderator and also sent an email to TA. But banning one person will not change anything. I heard that jailbroken iPhones only represent 10% of all devices so maybe it isn't such a big deal. One thing I noticed is that my apps don't get pirated when they have in-app purchases. But then in-app purchasing frustrates genuine buyers so I got rid.
Maybe somebody could develop an app that wipes clean jailbroken iPhones. Then just submit it as a 'hacked' app to all the piracy networks
Just saw this: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/apple/6636895/New-iPhone-worm-targeting-banking-site.html I wonder if jailbreakers realise the risks.
Jailbroken representing 8% of the global park is what old articles say. But recently, we've seen tons of other articles about developers (NGmoco included) saying that their apps have been ripped off by 70 to 90%. If this is true, and considering the average download reports (200000 to 1000000 for a success), that means there are really, really a few regular gamers (= non jailbroken) in the world, as playing an hacked app needs a JB iDevice. I seriously suspect Jailbreakers to be much more numerous than 8%. (and it would make sense)
Just to clarify. Ground Effect was not leaked before release. I did post a question here asking if ad-hoc builds were hackable but I have never read anything that suggests they can or have been hacked, I was just slightly paranoid before I found out what a wonderful testing resource TA forum members are. What I did say, as others have, is that the 'cracked' version of Ground Effect has the same name in it's filename as a certain TA user. I also pointed out that this user had made one of the first posts in the "Ground Effect is out" thread. The stupid thing is, this **** probably buys more games than just about anyone else just so he can earn kudos as king of crackers. Even though all he is really doing is loading an ipa file into a tool and uploading the output onto a file sharing site.
I've heard a lot of reports from many different iPhone developers that they seem to get one immediate sale as soon as their app goes live, then a few hours later, sales begin to rise steadily, but that one initial sale has already reached pirate sites. Like it's a race to get an illegal copy out there. It seems like it's automated by the pirate. It made me wonder about releasing a game at an expensive price point on the first day to see if these pirates will fall for it for a kick in the teeth, before putting it back down to its planned price. Of course it would be nice, but the potential sales losses from doing such a thing don't seem worth the trade off.
About jailbreaking being illegal and how Apple can hurt it : http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3743 So it's here. It's a fact. Denying service can include carrier shutdown, iTunes account termination and of course warranty shutdown. Which means that reporting a user that has pirated your app by reporting his Jailbreaking activity can actually work. Once again, only talking about app pirates here, not every jailbreaker.
