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Single Software Licence Shared 774,651 Times
nk497 writes "A single licence for Avast security software has been used by 774,651 people after it went viral on a file-sharing site. Avast noticed that a license for its paid-for security software, sold to a 14-user firm in Arizona, was being distributed online. Rather than shut down the piracy, the company decided to see how far the software would spread — it's since popped up in 200 countries, including the Vatican City. Now, the company is turning it into a marketing opportunity, with a pop-up encouraging users of the pirated copy to download a legal copy of the free or paid-for version. Avast isn't sure how many pirates have gone legal, but said some have made the switch."
I would love to see how they worded their pop-up so as not to offend people or scare them away.
ATTENTION! The Virus Software you are using has been pirated.
Please put in your name and credit card number, and you will be legally licensed.
The last thing I want to do, if caught pirating something inadvertently is to provide my identification.
You can see it near the bottom of this page.
I was mildly disappointed at how scary they made it look, but meh. It’s not like they were telling the users anything they probably didn’t already know, and I’d say that the music industry has successfully waged a shock&awe campaign to inform people of what, exactly, they can do to you if they catch you making unauthorized copies. I’d have been much more impressed if they had tried to present a more friendly and informative message. Something along the lines of:
Simple, to the point, and non-scary.
Distributed Denial of APK: It takes 15 seconds to reply to him anonymously, but wastes tons of his time if we all do it.