Slashdot Mirror
Ask Slashdot: What Is a Reasonable Way To Deter Piracy?
An anonymous reader writes "I'm an indie developer about to release a small ($5 — $10 range) utility for graphic designers. I'd like to employ at least a basic deterrent to pirates, but with the recent SimCity disaster, I'm wondering: what is a reasonable way to deter piracy without ruining things for legitimate users? A simple serial number? Online activation? Encrypted binaries? Please share your thoughts."
If you need DRM, you are ALREADY DOING IT WRONG!
Read this. Memorize it. It tells you everything you need to know as a developer:
http://tommyrefenes.tumblr.com/post/45684087997/apathy-and-refunds-are-more-dangerous-than-piracy
That reminds me of an early 1980s copy protection scheme I heard about- signing the (magnetic floppy) disk with a ball point pen before formatting, then using a special cataloging program to record and analyze bad sectors at bootup.
Worked well until hard drives came into play, but a sector copy program that ignored bad sector warnings could accurately defeat it.
SJW: a person who perceives an injustice, and while correcting it, commits a greater injustice.
There is also an app store for the Mac. Microsoft also has an app store for Windows now.
A sufficiently advanced simulation is indistinguishable from reality.
I usually don't bother to respond to posts like this, but this one is so blatantly off-base I feel compelled. What you experienced was not Credit Card theft. It was Debit Card theft. You can't be late on your mortgage payment because your credit card was stolen and/or used for unauthorized purchases because you are using THEIR money, not yours. While I agree that everything that happened to you was unfortunate, it all could have been easily avoided by using the cardinal rule of plastic, don't use it online if it's tied to YOUR money.
Every single item the parent mentioned is valid and true. If anyone does anything unwanted with your account, simply login and click dispute, or phone customer service and spend less than 5 minutes explaining. The bill doesn't even come out for ~30 days, and you have several months after that to get it reversed. Let them deal with it, it's their job not yours. You wasted 110 hours of your life, but have you changed the way you do things now? Or do you still use your debit card for all your purchases? If it happened once, it can and WILL happen again.
PS - Your anger is showing, you used the word "fuck" 4 times in your post. Calm down and be rational.
That would be Chocolat, a text editor for Mac.
Here's a screenshot of the warning
But if it means you sell that many more, it's still a good idea.
Or you sell at a higher price in that app store. Whatever works.