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Piracy Cripples iOS Game in Less than a Week

Music_Producer said:
Not every band/musician plays live.. or for that matter, wants to. I quit music a while ago (professionally) because there is no way to make a living anymore as an artist. Only the high-end artists make it (a handful)
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Yeah, it's only massive high-end artists like Jonathan Coulton, Paul and Storm and The Long Winters that are making it now. Oh, wait...

Personally, I pay for my music (yep, all of it). However, the music industry has to recognise that the old business model (well, actually the recent business model - it's only for a relatively short time compared to the history of music that artists have made most of their money from selling recordings via massive companies that keep most of the profits) is dead (or at least dying). The internet and digital are killing it, hopefully along with a lot of the talentless manufactured rubbish posing as bands that we've had to put up with recently from the big labels. The digital genie isn't going back in the bottle anytime soon (if ever) so it's adapt or die time, guys.
 
Why they dont consider things like beejiveim does ? Use the udid to identify paying customers ? Its a damm shame.
 
thewitt said:
Sorry, there is no difference. It's theft.
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Would it be construed as theft if a reader went into a bookstore and spent time reading a novel to completion, as so many people seem to do? No, but if the book was taken from the store, that would be theft.

I'm not quoting any law or reference here, only my opinion, but if the software is taken away from the developer, I would class that as theft, whereas if someone utilises the content it is something else entirely.

I do not condone piracy, it is wrong and for the record, it really bugs me that people read a book in a store without purchasing it, but I feel that as an end user, if more 'free trial' or 'taster' options were available to me, I would end up purchasing more, rather than dismissing it based on cost.

I wholeheartedly believe that devs should be supported, and I regularly upgrade to 'Premium' versions or make donations, just to help them...but IMO, theft is categorically different to what's being done here.
 
IMO, this sort of piracy is more akin to theft.
We always get the tired excuse from people who pirate that "they're not depriving anyone of anything so it's not theft" and "I wouldn't have bought it anyway, so nothing's been lost".

However, in the case of software that connects to back end systems, pirates are permanently depriving the vendor of network bandwidth (which has to be paid for) and server resources (again, which have to be be paid for) that could be used for paying customers.

So, the "nothing has been lost" argument is fundamentally flawed and the pirates are stealing from the vendor
 
cdmoore74 said:
So your saying that the story is full of crap and every ios pays? Or are you saying every Android user is a thief? Not all ios/Apple users are saints. As a Android user I pay for each and every app. Same can be said about ios users as well.
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Um, no.

What I said, and I thought it was pretty clear, was the trial period in the Android App Store has done nothing to curb piracy, and its significantly higher there than in the iOS App Store.

Sorry if these facts upset you, but its the harsh reality of the situation.

Are all Android users pirates? Of course not. I never said that.

What I said was piracy there is so bad however that we will not bring our premium products to th platform.

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iConcept said:
Would it be construed as theft if a reader went into a bookstore and spent time reading a novel to completion, as so many people seem to do? No, but if the book was taken from the store, that would be theft.
[clip]
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Walk into a retail store and use my software on their iPad, and no. You have done nothing wrong.

Install my software on your device without paying me for it, and yes you have stolen it.

The bookstore owner needs to decide how he wants to treat people who abuse his service, but I would not let you sit in my bookstore and treat it like your personal library.
 
It's amazing how many people in here are blaming the developer as if it is their fault that they were stolen from. It would be interesting to have their words handed to them next time something they made is stolen from them.

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iConcept said:
Would it be construed as theft if a reader went into a bookstore and spent time reading a novel to completion, as so many people seem to do? No, but if the book was taken from the store, that would be theft.
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Yes. Not theft from the bookstore but theft from the author who created the book that you consumed without paying for. Reading a chapter to see if you like a book and then putting it back or buying is one thing. Reading the whole thing without paying for it is different. If you need to do that then go to the library where the author was compensated for the book sale.
 
brayhite said:
This analogy doesn't work, considering software doesn't have a CoGS associated with it.

But for the sake of the analogy, I'll say this: what the pirate guy said is no different than someone buying a pair of headphones, trying it out for 29 days, then on the 30th day returning it for a full refund or keeping it. The only difference, assuming he's true to his word, is that he doesn't have to provide a "downpayment" so to speak.
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That doesn't make any sense. If you don't take it back, then your money is still gone and the manufacturer gets paid like they should. Someone who pirates is doing exactly like what he said, stealing something and then paying for it afterwards. There is no way around this.
 
People, just because you write in a forum that piracy is theft does not make it so. Piracy is piracy, there is no connection to thievery.
 
rdlink said:
Then you're a thief.
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Copying something is not stealing because there is no physical harm don. Now when you illegaly use their servers and cause the developers actual harm we can talk about this differently.

With iOS games it might be a slitghtly different story since you can say it´s cheap, why not take the risk and buy a game based on 3 screenshots. But if you look at full PC games for 60 bucks that bind the game to an acount on Steam/Origin/uPlay so you can never trade it in... hell no. Especialy if you got someone as stupid as UbiSoft creating DRM that is so restrictive that the pirated copy of a game actualy works smother than the original 60$ edition.

It´s a battle. They try to take your right in game ownership and you got to take the power back. Pay for the games that deserve it since you will never be able to resell them or bring them over to a frinds house. They are worth less than yesterdays games but sold for the same price.
 
How much bandwidth does a relatively small iOS game use anyway? It can't be that much, can it?

I know, multiply by a few thousand and it all adds up, but surely the better option is to optimise the game so the load on the servers is reduced?
 
DrRadon said:
With iOS games it might be a slitghtly different story since you can say it´s cheap, why not take the risk and buy a game based on 3 screenshots. But if you look at full PC games for 60 bucks that bind the game to an acount on Steam/Origin/uPlay so you can never trade it in... hell no. Especialy if you got someone as stupid as UbiSoft creating DRM that is so restrictive that the pirated copy of a game actualy works smother than the original 60$ edition.
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Fine, in that case pirate the game, then send the game publishers $60. Everybody wins.

I wonder how many of those who pirate games would actually do that. 1%. 0.01%?
 
Not sure I believe this

If this was Android where you can just copy the .apk file from one device to a file sharing site and millions can download it, then I would. But its much harder to pirate games on iOS. I'm not believing what they're saying. To begin with, the portion of people who have jailbroken iphones is not very much.
 
labars said:
People, just because you write in a forum that piracy is theft does not make it so. Piracy is piracy, there is no connection to thievery.
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I guess you subscribe to this theory. Regardless, piracy is taking something that doesn't belong to you, in an illegal manner. Try to justify it any way you want, but you're wrong.

piracy-600x597.jpg
 
coolspot18 said:
Because software is not a physical good. In most cases piracy does not contribute to loss of income as the pirate would not have bought the app in the first place.
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But this very article that you are commenting on is indicating that this is simply not true. It may have been, at one point, but now when apps connect to servers and contribute to server load and bandwidth, then it DOES cause a loss of income in the form of additional ongoing expenses that haven't been paid for.
 
coolspot18 said:
Because software is not a physical good. In most cases piracy does not contribute to loss of income as the pirate would not have bought the app in the first place.
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Parking your car isn't a physical good. Neither is cleaning your house. Or doing your taxes. Or babysitting your kids. People still pay for these things. Why? Because you don't deserve things for free, no matter how self-absorbed and entitled you want to act.

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ncaissie said:
I don't! And I take offence to you saying I do.
Do you think all black people are criminals also? All Muslims are terrorists? :rolleyes: idiot
It's a fact that I JB my ipad two on iOS5 because I wanted to put a theme and use that cool utility. I have since upgraded to iOS 6 because that was the only reason I JB my iPad. I regret it every day because I miss the theme and cool icons.

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One thing that pisses me off and I wish Apple would ban is in app purchases.
Specially these *******s that say do you want this? And don’t even give you the price. They could be charging you $100 and you wouldn’t know it. I am happy there is a way to turn it off but it still pisses me off. Just make a demo and charge for the full game you greedy pigs.

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Exactly. What did they use a 386 for a server?
I believe they did it as an excuse for some reason.
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So to you as long as it isn't TOO expensive for your financial situation, it's okay to just steal. Okay then.
 
baryon said:
Isn't there a way to block only the pirated copies from accessing the server? I mean most PC multiplayer games already do that, so it's not possible to play with a pirated copy. Wouldn't that be an option?

In this case, not only are people using software they didn't pay for, but they're also creating more damage by using a server they're not paying for…
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There are a bunch of developers who have created additional anti-piracy measures for iOS. Some of them are free libraries (like mtiks). I don't have any experience with them personally, but I know they do exist.

He could release an update that includes any of them and require it to connect to the server.

The situation is salvageable for the the developer.
 
Truffy said:
Your photographing a painting analogy is flawed because what you end up with is a different entity (it lacks the texture of paint and canvas/paper, for example, which adds to the specialness of a painting).
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His analogy works. In many cases the pirated software is not identical to the paid App. No online or other features accessible. So you're getting a mostly similar comparison to the original and not paying for it.

And I think piracy is a two way street as is music. Hear music on the radio. Live the song and buy the album. Sale generated.

Play the game at . . . well you can't till you buy it. But how do you know if you want it till you try it hence the piracy. And a lot of times people try out a game love it and end up buying it. Technically it's piracy. But I don't feel bad about that. Cause if they never had the trial then there was 0% chance of a sale being made. The days of good game demos and trial versions are over.

And game reviews are not good enough. Some random game critic gives the game a 9. But I might hate it. There are a few high rated games out there I bought and played and realised . . . what a piece of junk. Was the game reviewer high when they gave it a high score? A few purchases I have regretted. So now for cheap games I take the risk. But for expensive ones I get a lot of feedback first. Friends, critics, game videos/screenshots etc etc and a demo if there is one before I choose to buy or not.
 
An easy solution would be requiring iOS 6. AFAIK, iOS 6 isn't jailbroken. Simply block any requests from iOS 5.
 
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