Cost of App Store Piracy Pegged at $450 Million

[Digital Skunk]

Actually you're wrong for reasons people already stated. Theft results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit (if you take it off the store shelf no one else can buy it, and it was very likely that someone would have). Piracy only results in a potential loss of profit (would the pirate have bought it?).

Piracy is its own can of worms and should be treated as such.

Great!

I still consider piracy to be stealing.

Every definition I see doesn't mention any thing about "results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit" not that I don't agree to some extent, just not 100%.

Software piracy fits with every definition of theft or stealing that I see.

 

[AAPLaday]

Copying data is not the same as stealing materials.

If its property its property

 

[andiwm2003]

.............................I would rather see carrier customers pressure carriers in countries like Canada and the US to work with Apple to offer legal/official unlocking of iPhone after completion of a contract, sale of iPhones off contract and offer official unlocking to existing customers for a nominal fee.
......................................................................

i don't know how it is these days but a few years back in germany i got my unlock codes for free from telecom after my two years were up. i'm surprised that apple isn't forced to provide unlock keys after two years here in the us. after all you have paid your phone and subsidy and the phone is yours.

 

[lex750]

Piracy will always exist. Get over it and move on.

 

[BaldiMac]

It isn't perfect for reasons people already stated. Theft results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit (if you take it off the store shelf no one else can buy it, and it was very likely that someone would have). Piracy only results in a potential loss of profit (would the pirate have bought it?).

Piracy is its own can of worms and should be treated as such.

You are talking about the legal definition of theft. In the vernacular, stealing can simply be taking something without the right to do so.

 

[kresh]

Intellectual Property

There is a growing community, for lack of a better word, that reject the idea of owning digital intellectual property, or even the arrangement of "free & public domain" words to form a book or article.

While I don't agree with their reasoning, I can understand their point. At best Intellectual Property is an artificial construct and not a physical one. At the very heart of anything digital (images, apps, music, video) is all a series of 1's and 0's and they argue that the arrangement of these digits can't be owned.

Intellectual Property is going to come under greater and greater assault as more people reject the owning of digits. Just look at the FSF and their assault on software patents.

 

[Speedy2]

No, it's the perfect analogy. Software piracy IS stealing.

Someone worked hard to develop a piece of code that serves a market.

It's no way near a perfect analogy.

If you steal something, you take item A from person B. Person B doesn't have that item afterwards, you have it.

Software piracy doesn't take anything away from person B, other than a highly undetermined potential profit.

Two very different things.

 

[disconap]

Dear pirates,
Don't try to justify it. You're stealing. Just stop.

Love,
Me

Simplest and most accurate way to put it. Theft is theft. Period. Being a supporter of "art should be free" or whatever doesn't change applicable copyright laws.

Piracy is, by definition, theft. However YOU wish to define it is fine with you but it doesn't make it any less illegal. Just because there is no physical product doesn't mean there is no cost involved, both straight and sweat equity, and that people aren't losing jobs because companies aren't earning the money in sales that they used to.

So grow up and accept it. I'm not saying you're a terrible person or even that you should stop, but DO stop trying to defend it.

 

[AAPLaday]

The reason it exists because no one is getting into trouble for it. If even 10 percent of people who did this got fined the numbers would drop dramatically

 

[Poll Smoker]

As for try before you buy, why? Do you sample food in any restaurant you eat in before you sit down and order?

The bill for a meal comes AFTER you eat, Einstein. Although I'm guessing you're more of a McDonalds person, so you probably have been paying upfront.

Then you take the gamble. Caveat Emptor.

I'm not going to gamble when I don't have to.

 

[gnagy]

I know about 20 people with iPhones. Not a single one has any pirated apps. I refuse to believe that this article is accurate--iPhone app piracy simply is not that prevalent.

20 people is really not a lot. That's a very small subset of iPhone users.

Fact is that pirating apps is very easy, and there are multiple ways of going about it. Another fact is that people don't feel bad for pirating apps just like they don't feel bad for pirating music.

I'm a developer and I have had people tell me that they were using pirated versions of my app... some of them end up buying it after I provide them with support or answer a question they have.

Piracy tends to happen outside of the USA more often. Also, iPod touch users are more likely to pirate apps than iPhone users.

Oh and I personally refuse to believe that the loss is only $450 million. My guess is that it's much higher.

 

[trevorlsciact]

A 50" TV isn't worth $900 to me, so I can just go take one? That's how it works?

I'm on my way to Best Buy right now! Thanks for the tips guys!

Just to clarify, piracy is NOT stealing. It is copyright infringement. It is not the same thing, despite the propaganda spewed out by record labels, movie studios and even Apple.

I do not support piracy, but it is not the same offense as stealing. At all.

 

[TuffLuffJimmy]

It isn't perfect for reasons people already stated. Theft results in the loss of the costs incurred producing the product and lost profit (if you take it off the store shelf no one else can buy it, and it was very likely that someone would have). Piracy only results in a potential loss of profit (would the pirate have bought it?).

Piracy is its own can of worms and should be treated as such.

You're suggesting that it isn't stealing because the thief perhaps would not have bought it anyway?

_worst_logic_ever_

 

[BaldiMac]

It's no way near a perfect analogy.

If you steal something, you take item A from person B. Person B doesn't have that item afterwards, you have it.

Software piracy doesn't take anything away from person B, other than a highly undetermined potential profit.

Two very different things.

It takes away their rights! Which I, for one, consider more valuable than a hammer.

Also, as pointed out earlier, any push enabled apps or apps that access developer supplied content over the network have definite costs to the developer.

 

[Digital Skunk]

It's no way near a perfect analogy.

If you steal something, you take item A from person B. Person B doesn't have that item afterwards, you have it.

Software piracy doesn't take anything away from person B, other than a highly undetermined potential profit.

Two very different things.

Once again,

I PERSONALLY THINK IT'S A PERFECT ANALOGY

I am perfectly wrong, but stealing is stealing, whether it's an idea, a patent, a digital copy, music, software, etc.

If you obtain it illegally it's stealing and you are a thief.

 

[ericinboston]

How about you stop being a A$$ and get back on topic. There is that grammar better.

1)I could barely comprehend your original, run-on sentence post...if you can't write English sentences, don't post.

2)No, your grammar is still wrong in your reply. Try again if you wish.


Don't hate or blame me due to your lack of education.

 

[BaldiMac]

Just to clarify, piracy is NOT stealing. It is copyright infringement. It is not the same thing, despite the propaganda spewed out by record labels, movie studios and even Apple.

I do not support piracy, but it is not the same offense as stealing. At all.

Again, you are speaking legally. The original statement made no claim as to the legal offense.

 

[disconap]

There is a growing community, for lack of a better word, that reject the idea of owning digital intellectual property, or even the arrangement of "free & public domain" words to form a book or article.

Awesome! Reject away. It's still illegal. That's sort of like me saying that I reject the rights of other people and it should be perfectly legal for me to run over someone with my car if they're in my way.

If it was a true community (and there are PLENTY of them out there that actually are doing this), instead of being whiny little kids and stealing from others, they would simply develop their own software/art/music/etc. and release it under CC licensing or into the public domain.

While I don't agree with their reasoning, I can understand their point. At best Intellectual Property is an artificial construct and not a physical one. At the very heart of anything digital (images, apps, music, video) is all a series of 1's and 0's and they argue that the arrangement of these digits can't be owned.

Um, sorry, this is logically inaccurate. The basis of the idea is the idea. Do you have a right to own your ideas? Philosophically it's open for debate; in most modern societies, it's relegated to laws, almost all of which universally state that an idea can belong to its creator as much as a chair, and can be transferred (sold) with very similar rules/results. The 1s and zeros are the format, not the product.

Intellectual Property is going to come under greater and greater assault as more people reject the owning of digits. Just look at the FSF and their assault on software patents.

The FSF is defending the rights of developers to use code that is universal or structurally necessary, not the rights of people to take whatever they want...

 

[disconap]

It's no way near a perfect analogy.

If you steal something, you take item A from person B. Person B doesn't have that item afterwards, you have it.

Software piracy doesn't take anything away from person B, other than a highly undetermined potential profit.

Two very different things.

Not really. Building a product costs money regardless of its end format. The fact that a digital product has less overhead than a physical one means that you should pay less for it, not nothing.

 

[jlasoon]

Piracy will always exist. Get over it and move on.

Exactly, It's easier today and more accessible. You'll have to shut down the internet (Newsgroups) to stop piracy. NOT HAPPENING.

 

[Vidd]

How have Apple "lost" money?
It's not as if they were given it and had it taken away.

 

[Speedy2]

As for try before you buy, why? Do you sample food in any restaurant you eat in before you sit down and order? Do all the apps on your computer have demo versions available? Most apps are at a price point where you just need to make a simple decision, Does this look good? Is it something I would like? Then you take the gamble. Caveat Emptor.

I'd even go further. It's not so much a gamble as you can read the reviews. There are plenty of them and they tend to be pretty accurate. For most people it's far more transparent than picking restaurants, when you mostly rely on hazy recommendations of very few people (often just 1).

 

[AAPLaday]

I know 5 people with iphones including me. 2 Jailbreak solely to get free apps. I choose not to and the other 2 are non tech savvy females who love the iPhone and have no idea that pirated apps exist. Even if they knew i doubt they would do it.

 

[wizard]

Once a thief always a thief.

Who cares, how many of the people who pirated software would have really bought it? What about the people who pirate it before they buy it to know if it's any good?

Frankly they are as guilty as the person that steals with no intention to buy. As such the best thing that could happen to these people is to be stood up against the wall an shot piece by piece without the dignity of a quick death.

The attitude is as disgusting as the guy that goes around raping woman so he can 'know if it's any good" before a more socially acceptable approach. You certainly can't justify that but there is little difference with respect to the stealing software. Your intentions mean nothing, what you are doing violates the social contract between a customer and the software provider.

Maybe it is a little to strong of a counter point for you but I'd suggest you look at it in another light. Take the position of a software developer that has to support himself, his family and sadly crap like you via the taxes we all pay. Like it or not, not every developer is making millions; some struggle to maintain a middle class life style.

Then add on to this the fact that iPhone software is dirt cheap, relative to what software use to cost. It leave you looking cheap and callous.


Dave

 

[trustbyte]

it's unreal

at first i thought this is sarcasm, but you guys are unreal.

where the hell do you live in!? this is after all a mac forum not a fordcars forum, for God's sake

to jailbreak and then install pirated apps is dead easy and the figures are for sure real. just read about lots of devs who collect info about their apps, they are robbed big time.

and some say, but hey, maybe they just pirate it but not really playing it. that's no excuse, it's like robbing a toyota but just keeping it in front of the house 'cause you you ride more the recently stoled porsche..


i kind myself thinking some of them just pirate lots of them and pay for some they really love, at least some cute indies who usually do sales for .99c but i'm afraid they steal all of them.

i own a Touch, i didn't jailbreak mine yet but i'm close. that 10-11 pages limit of apps is killing me and i know jailbreaking resolves this issue.

there is one problem, recent iphones/ipod touches (mine included) have a different boot thingy and so the jailbreak needs to be done after each shutdown/start of the idevice and therefore i stay all tight in for the moment..

they should stop the pirates but not the jailbreaking, there is tons of tweaking/apps in that unix-ish world of the idevice