But only two of those can submit reviews on the App Store because the other six never paid for it.
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Wow! 10M Pirated iPhone Apps Downloaded!
- Thread starter Zippher
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Is the app. store the only place you read reviews for applications? I know we have a entire section of this forum dedicated to Applications and any one can review them.
If i were a developer i would make a whole bunch of 5 star reviews for myself using the promocodes. That way it would get people to buy it, I know some of these reviews are not true due to what i just stated.
Piracy for the iPhone and iPod Touch is a great thing. There are PLENTY of people who will buy the apps they like, and trash the ones they don't. The ones that won't buy probably wouldn't have ever bought any of the apps in the first place if there wasn't piracy. Since this is a mobile device, the apps can easily get great exposure when people ask to see their expensive little toy to check it out. Piracy isn't stealing. It's copying. New copies are added and nothing is taken away from the developer.. the developer loses nothing from piracy. The majority, the vast majority I'm talking about, purchase their goods - at least, when it comes to the iPhone and iPod touch, cause those are expensive and people in developing countries are the ones who pirate most and a ton less those people have any of those devices anyways.
While there are some great Devs out there, I really am starting to think a large chunk or maybe even a majority are big freaking whiners.
Oh - you can't review the App without buying it. GIVE ME MONEY!
Oh - don't try my App first, GIVE ME MONEY up front! Return Policy, YEAH RIGHT!
Oh poor me. Cheaper Apps are getting more attention. Apple needs to change the displaying of the store so you can GIVE ME MONEY!
Oh there is a 1% piracy rate of Apps. Those people are stealing and go to jail. They would have otherwise GIVEN ME MONEY!
Come on! Get a Fu$king life
So implement a detection in your app so if get cracked the cracked version won't run or have ads or something.
That's a waste of time. Something like that would just be stripped out by any cracker/release group worth their salt.
Yeah, it's almost as if they want to be paid for their effort or something. What a bunch of jerks!
If they put a little more effort in their games and made good ones, they still would make good money even if they were being pirated, because a great app is still going to sell well if its good.
It's surprisingly easy to do this. Once the iPod or iPhone is jail broken, you simply download the Appulo.app and begin browsing. At any time you can select the app, wether or not it's a paid app, and simple tap to download. I know this because I've seen so many people do it. I believe it's more popular than you think. 10 million sounds realistic to me based on what I've observed myself and just how many people have jail-broken has really grown. I fully support going on the offensive. As a prospective developer I would be furious to know I have been ripped off as many times as 25K! Unfortunately I don't think you can do much, and I'm sure I've heard of someone in the past trying to go after Appulo, but failing miserably.
They are getting paid. Although they are trying to screw the customer.
Do I really need to download + buy an App that I know is crap to warn others? (All the reviews I posted when the AppStore opened and I tried during the non-AppStore JailBreaking time are now deleted.) Seems a bit undemocratic.
If I download an App that someone says does one thing and it doesn't, I can't get a refund. That is Theft.
Why do Apps that cost money need special coddling? Why do those Apps need to be first? There are plenty of great Ad supported Apps that are better than Paid versions. Shouldn't the best Apps be displayed prominently? If they were truly as good as the dev says, then why isn't it on the top of the list anyway?
Again, people are causing a fuss over 1% of all this stuff. With legal fees and time spent, is it even worth devoting all this effort?
Maybe instead of complaining, they should put more effort into creating better Apps. Apps that people would willing pay for. Apps that deserve some of my hard earned money.
Copying your own purchased media is a lot different from downloading and installing cracked apps.
I think that if somebody DL's an app and it does not work or it is horrible you should return it. If you go into a restaurant and buy chicken, and the chicken is bad, you deserve a refund. I do think that also that if the chicken is perfectly fine and the buyer is just picky they do not deserve a refund. I'm not for app piracy, but I am for some sort of insurance for the consumer. Maybe the Dev's and Apple could come up with a way to address this problem. On top off that media and applications are 2 different things.
If any part of their setup is in the US, domain registration, domain hosting server etc. you can send them a take down notice for copyright violation and they will have to take down your app.
If the hosting provider, for example, can't get a hold of the owner to take it down, they will have to take down the whole website until they can get the file removed.
Here is a link to some instructions on sending DMCA notices.
http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/articles/how-to-file-a-dmca-copyright-violation.html
Looking at the appulo.us site, it is hosted in the netherlands. However all their admin contacts are listed in Boston. I would send them a DMCA notice first. If they don't respond, since I doubt it will do any good to go after their provider, I would see about going after their Registrar, Go Daddy.
Appscene.org is hidden with a privacy entry from Enom. they are also hosted in the Netherlands. You can still get in contact with them through the contact information for Enom. Send them a DMCA takedown letter. If that does not work proceed with Enom directly.
If the hosting provider, for example, can't get a hold of the owner to take it down, they will have to take down the whole website until they can get the file removed.
Here is a link to some instructions on sending DMCA notices.
http://www.hooverwebdesign.com/articles/how-to-file-a-dmca-copyright-violation.html
Looking at the appulo.us site, it is hosted in the netherlands. However all their admin contacts are listed in Boston. I would send them a DMCA notice first. If they don't respond, since I doubt it will do any good to go after their provider, I would see about going after their Registrar, Go Daddy.
Appscene.org is hidden with a privacy entry from Enom. they are also hosted in the Netherlands. You can still get in contact with them through the contact information for Enom. Send them a DMCA takedown letter. If that does not work proceed with Enom directly.
I'm not a developer, but I am an Economics professor studying the iPhone phenomenon. I feel compelled to contribute a thought to this conversation.
I'm not buying into Fleshman03's arguments. I take exception to two items:
1 - There are many applications on iTunes that have a trial version of their game. For example: iShoot. The developer, Ethan Nicholas, offers the consumer an opportunity to buy without any risk or cost. Yet, the pirates still feel compelled to put his full application on their websites.
2 - The 1% of the total apps downloaded comparison is misleading. That is 1% of ALL applications downloaded. Although the ratio of free apps to paid apps available on the App Store is 1:3.5, the download ratio of free apps to paid apps downloaded is over 100:1 (Heard in an Apple interview last month.) This places the total number of downloaded paid apps around 100M and sets the total percentage of downloads of pirated apps to paid apps to about 10%. Is 10% a big enough problem? Consider that the App Store had a 4-5 month head start before the pirates started to pop-up and their popularity to the masses is less than four months old.
The problem is growing and the ratio of pirated to paid apps is increasing:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/20627/
I'm not buying into Fleshman03's arguments. I take exception to two items:
1 - There are many applications on iTunes that have a trial version of their game. For example: iShoot. The developer, Ethan Nicholas, offers the consumer an opportunity to buy without any risk or cost. Yet, the pirates still feel compelled to put his full application on their websites.
2 - The 1% of the total apps downloaded comparison is misleading. That is 1% of ALL applications downloaded. Although the ratio of free apps to paid apps available on the App Store is 1:3.5, the download ratio of free apps to paid apps downloaded is over 100:1 (Heard in an Apple interview last month.) This places the total number of downloaded paid apps around 100M and sets the total percentage of downloads of pirated apps to paid apps to about 10%. Is 10% a big enough problem? Consider that the App Store had a 4-5 month head start before the pirates started to pop-up and their popularity to the masses is less than four months old.
The problem is growing and the ratio of pirated to paid apps is increasing:
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/20627/
Since you're actually doing some academic work, I want to share a few points with you.
I do agree that illegally downloading Apps is wrong and should be frowned upon. We currently have laws to handle such situations. (I'd argue that are too strict.) However -- I do want to make some small points.
The whole point of Copyright protections is to "promote science and the useful arts." There can be a case made that these hackers are promoting science and art. They are pushing the boundaries that Apple limits the community to. (I.e., video recording, Jailbreaking) Once the hacking community does something and is successful at it, Apple rips off that idea to implement it themselves. I wonder if those who created the installer.app would have a good infringement suit against Apple for "Pirating" that idea and turning it into the AppStore...
Since the AppStore came out, I would put forth the idea that the jailbreak community wanted to find a way to remain relevant.
Also worthy of note is that the "loss" to developers is decently less than 10%. (Apple takes 30% off the gross anyway.)
Additionally, if the music model holds true to Apps then these "pirates" would constitute a large percentage of sales anyway. As an Econ Professor, is alienating your customer base a good idea for business?
With respect to your first point, many does not equal all. Even with gimped/limited demos, with no refund policy or no trial period for all Apps, there will always be a place for "try before you buy" technologies. Not everyone is willing to plop down money on the word of the salesmen/dev. I would argue that in light of the music industry study linked to earlier, some of these people are simply looking for a proper demo.
Finally, I want to make a solid point. We all know that if something is free, more people are going to want it. Once a price becomes involved, that same number of people would not be interested in purchasing. Therefore, we should all be very hesitant to call that 10% (as you put it) as a loss. I'd reckon that to be more along the lines of 3-5%. (Additionally subtracting Apple's take.)
I'm very interested to hear your point of view on my comments. It really is nice to have another academic to discuss these points with. I would recommend adding a few books to your literature review.
Pirate's Dilemma (Free download under CC)
Free Culture (Free download under CC)
The Public Domain (Free download under CC)
Not if you obfuscate you code well enough
Besides; it would require them to get your source code and usually cracking your app is only removing the DRM.
Not the same situation.
In a restaurant, you know within the first few bites if the entree is bad. You can then send the dish back and not be forced to pay for a bad meal.
Why not try and implement some anti-crack feature like the makers of BeeJive do? Then you won't have people stealing your app(s) AND you'll also save money by not having to buy boxes of tissues to wipe away your tears.