But not everyone has straight up accessible wifi for their IPod. So the registering the game theory would only be more of a pain in the keester and only essentially work for straight up multiplayer games.
Downloading a game requires a Wifi connection, so it would not be more of a pain as when a user simply buy a game. As registration has to be done once, this could be done just after download has been completed. No harm at all.
I don't know anything about cracking or what those guys are capable of but the common consensus is that they can edit your code and take out the code that performs that server check. If your game requires retrieving data from a server in order to run then it's a different story
Yup, they can just edit out the check to always return true or whatever. It does force someone to have to manually go in and crack the code though as opposed to just run an automated script. Of course Apple requires that you inform the user and give them the option to disable any communication to an external server so I don't think this will be approved... Maybe if you only 'phone home' on cracked versions so Apple never 'sees' that behavior...
New article on gamasutra : http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4194/iphone_piracy_the_inside_story.php Also, the ultimate solution to punch pirates right in the balls is a little bit costy, but terribly efficient at the end, and might even recover this cost by potential sales loss reconversion into real sales. Here it is : - A hacked app needs to run on a jailbroken iPhone. - Every dev can track if an app is pirated or not. - Every dev can access to each iPhone unique ID. So : the ultimate solution is to gather every pirate ID, and ask for a sueing procedure hosted by Apple for illegal jailbreaking PLUS copyright enfrigment. This way you can just take cover under Apple, and frighten the hell out of those f**king hackers.
piracy will always exist especially on downloadable-only platform like the iphone. There is no software-only solution. Apple should learn from the PS3, so far it is been around for 4 years n still unhackable. Some might say its because of the blueray, that is def true. But i think its a good combination of good hardware and software design.
iPhone ID is hardware, not software. So there is, somewhere, a way to definitely stop appstore piracy.
And what do I do, since I don't have regular internet access? I download games on my computer through a wired connection. Downloading games does NOT require a WiFi connection. Sounds like a good way to increase piracy to me make things more difficult for legitimate customers and negligibly more difficult for pirates. Also, what if I upgrade to a new iPhone or iPod? I have to buy everything again? People need to come to terms with one simple truth: it isn't possible to eliminate piracy. It is however, possible to alienate your user base and drive paying customers towards piracy. Most of the "solutions" people have presented in this thread would do just that. Right now I buy my games, but if there was a draconian registration system in place I'd be more inclined to look into how to pirate games. Or, more likely, I'd just stop buying games altogether like I have on the PC. I hope for my sake, and the sake of developers who deserve to be paid, that no one ever tries these kinds of "simple" solutions.
It is kind of adorable that you think this would work. Besides being a huge privacy black eye for Apple it also assumes that everyone has registered their iPod. It might work for the iPhone, (assuming the device ID is tied to the user's personal info) but the companies would still have to worry about civil suits for invasion of privacy. The ACLU and EFF would definitely look unkindly towards that sort of thing. Best of all, after spending all that money on lawyers and whatnot the end result is that the successfully sued people would have to pay damages (think cost of the game since that is all you could prove). And that's assuming you don't accidentally sue someone by mistake and create a gaping black hole of bad PR. Also, jailbreaking isn't illegal, so there is nothing to do legally about that. And hackers are not pirates. You need to sort out your terminology.
Those are valid points But they don't seem unresolvable to my eyes. You just find a wifi spot to activate once your game. Nowadays, if you have a wired connection, you got plenty of chances to have a wifi connection. And come on ... having to just connect your device for 2 seconds, launch the game you wanted to play, watch it activate your product by itself, ... is it so much a penalty to regular users ? Unless you buy 839028903 iPods a week, I can't find where letting your device activate your product again would be a penalty, once again. Never say never. Actually I'm talking about game hackers (was implicit). Installing a cracked game is hacking complicity. And well, pirate, hacker, in fact I guess that in this context terminology is not important. I know there are good hackers, but we are in reduced scope here. Also, it is kind of strange how you sound determined about so much wrong affirmations Here it is : There is no invasion, as iDevice ID is made accessible directly by Apple SDK. There has been tons of ID using by devs since appstore lauch, for different purposes (often for login check on scoreboards). Checking if an ingame ID matches the ID sent by Apple during buying is not an intrusion at all. UDID is available on every iDevice, iTouch included, and is hardware based, so doesn't need to register. You must be talking about UUID. total cost for the user = cost of the game + penalties for jailbreaking iPhone + damage & interests + refund of the juridic costs. Doesn't sound like a 2 dollars bill for me. And finally : How can you believe such a gross statement ? It is like saying that hacked Windows is not illegal ... Seriously dude, jailbreaking is completely illegal for Apple, and they did remind it back in Feb 09 ... Anyway, cheers.
i havent check the user agreement, so not sure if they mention anything about jailbreaking, but your comparison w Window is wrong. ppl can get cracked version windows for free that why its illegal, while jail breaking iphone is just modify iphone OS which comes with the phone. YOu cant use the normal version nor jailbreaked version without buying the actual device. anyway pirate has been around since forever, and it sure will still be here for a long long time. Unless somehow they can make internet-connectivity a mandatory requirement for software, I dont think we can stop piracy for good.
February 12th, 2009 "Apple Says iPhone Jailbreaking is Illegal" http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/apple-says-jailbreaking-illegal
i had a jb ipod but then i loaded the new firmware and saw my device is ten times faster with "legal" firmware so now it is like apple made it
Hi, Apple says jail breaking is illegal so it is so? Last time I checked, courts decide what is legal and not legal. Let me know when they start prosecuting those who jail break, post the firmware, or post instructions on how to jail break. I may change my thinking on the issue if this ever occurs. Hacking the OS is illegal? Guess there goes any kind of innovation, doesn't it? Some really silly arguments here and pretty funny if they were not sad and misguided. Jail break and you are automaticly a pirate, ridiculous to think this would even be argued by rational people. I guess that is what makes the world a great place, anyone can have an opinion. David
That doesn't work for two reasons: It can be cracked and it pisses off the legitimate users that upgrade their device. Do you really think I am going to use an iPhone 3G forever?
