About 4 years ago groups of people were defrauding "paid to surf" companies such as AllAdvantage and Paid2Surf. One of these groups was SoAngels. I was a part of this group and we coded programs that used gigantic lists of proxies to emulate clicks or views on ad banners. With a lot of the new technology though, this type of "cheating" died out. Most companies now check the origin of click (Country) to see if most of your traffic is from outside the United States (a typical red flag for cheating considering most proxies are offshore). Companies also check views to clicks ratio and compare it to the average that other webmasters have. If emulated properly using Winsock controls, it is difficult to tell that the emulated click isn't legit/real.
If Google implements the above, only people with gigantic lists of USA/UK proxies that don't have "proxy" or another dead giveaway in the hostname can get around this. Timestamps also work well. If an insane amount of clicks come in a relatively short period of time, then flag the account. For the brilliant minds that run Google, this should be a cakewalk.
As a lot of people have pointed out, some people cannot simply afford tools that they need either for work or for school. In my case my parents were somewhat poor and basically refused to buy me any software. Being a minor and having no job, I really had no choice but to pirate Microsoft Office and Windows. Sure, I could have used some open source office productivity suite, but that is just too much of a pain in the ass to deal with considering Office only took 30 minutes to download and install.
Now that I am older and have a job, I pay for all software I deem worthwhile after trying it out with a pirated version. I cannot fathom how many hundreds of dollars I would have wasted if the theory of "try before you buy" was inexistant.
It is true that FPS are taking a big hit due to piracy, but many methods could be taken to help curtail the problem. Starforce 3 or modified Securom anyone? Offer special incentives for people that do purchase your products (see private betas of FlashFXP for members only). I think the STREAM idea developed by Valve that allows you to download new games the second they hit retail shelves is brilliant and saves gamers money. Cut out the bullshit costs passed on to consumers and you'll get your revenue back. Simple.
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About 4 years ago groups of people were defrauding "paid to surf" companies such as AllAdvantage and Paid2Surf. One of these groups was SoAngels. I was a part of this group and we coded programs that used gigantic lists of proxies to emulate clicks or views on ad banners. With a lot of the new technology though, this type of "cheating" died out. Most companies now check the origin of click (Country) to see if most of your traffic is from outside the United States (a typical red flag for cheating considering most proxies are offshore). Companies also check views to clicks ratio and compare it to the average that other webmasters have. If emulated properly using Winsock controls, it is difficult to tell that the emulated click isn't legit/real. If Google implements the above, only people with gigantic lists of USA/UK proxies that don't have "proxy" or another dead giveaway in the hostname can get around this. Timestamps also work well. If an insane amount of clicks come in a relatively short period of time, then flag the account. For the brilliant minds that run Google, this should be a cakewalk.
As a lot of people have pointed out, some people cannot simply afford tools that they need either for work or for school. In my case my parents were somewhat poor and basically refused to buy me any software. Being a minor and having no job, I really had no choice but to pirate Microsoft Office and Windows. Sure, I could have used some open source office productivity suite, but that is just too much of a pain in the ass to deal with considering Office only took 30 minutes to download and install. Now that I am older and have a job, I pay for all software I deem worthwhile after trying it out with a pirated version. I cannot fathom how many hundreds of dollars I would have wasted if the theory of "try before you buy" was inexistant. It is true that FPS are taking a big hit due to piracy, but many methods could be taken to help curtail the problem. Starforce 3 or modified Securom anyone? Offer special incentives for people that do purchase your products (see private betas of FlashFXP for members only). I think the STREAM idea developed by Valve that allows you to download new games the second they hit retail shelves is brilliant and saves gamers money. Cut out the bullshit costs passed on to consumers and you'll get your revenue back. Simple.