Pirated games! has anyone seen this???
I was browsing for a review of my game earth control and noticed this site!
http://www.ipmart-forum.com/showthread.php?t=437597
I can't believe it! has anyone noticed this sort of thing?
I'm gonna kill someone for this!
http://www.ipmart-forum.com/showthread.php?t=437597
I can't believe it! has anyone noticed this sort of thing?
I'm gonna kill someone for this!
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
What is it?
Someone taking credit for your game or something?
Thats ilegal without YOUR permission. if it was 100% made by you.
I know that your device has to be jail broken for that though.
you should sue them.
it happens to every developer, you can think of it as a badge of pride that someone liked your game enough to crack
however, in my experience, someone who's downloading the cracked version would never have bought it in the first place, but they may show it to someone who will buy it.
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C stand for copyright
D stands for Digital
not sure about the rest.
here's a sample, I've gotten a few things taken down, but not all, and they always pop back up.
Hopefully GS can build in some anti piracy things as it gets out of beta. Nothing is perfect, but some work well. Stair Dismount only lets you play for 1 minute before it quits and brings you to an antipiracy website asking you to purchase the app.
Subject: Notice of Copyright Infringement
The copyrighted work at issue is the text that appears on www.mycontent.com/page1.html and www.mycontent.com/page2.html
The URLs where our copyrighted material is located include www.copypaste.com/abc.html and www.copypaste.com/xyz.com
You can reach me at myemail@mycontent.com for further information or clarification. My phone number is +1-202-393-3984 and my mailing address is John Q Public, 323, Park Avenue, Willcity 39232 CA.
The email address of the website owner, who has reprinted our content illegally, is alex@copypaste.com.
I have a good faith belief that use of the copyrighted materials described above as allegedly infringing is not authorized by the copyright owner, its agent, or the law.
I swear, under penalty of perjury, that the information in the notification is accurate and that I am the copyright owner or am authorized to act on behalf of the owner of an exclusive right that is allegedly infringed.
John Q Public
September 11, 2007 [14:50]
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When I started to develop for the iPhone and heard they were going to implement FairPlay, I thought it would be the end-all solution to pirating. Boy, was I wrong!
So, the two recommendations I have are going to require some assistance from GameSalad: 1. either give a free game and do an in-app purchase for the rest of the game (additional levels, etc.), or 2. gain access to the source code to implement third-party solutions like Oliver "Dr. Touch" Drobnik's AntiCrack.
And hackers are hackers.. if too many apps start using something to prevent hacking, well they'll ust hack that too.
Really nothing can be done about this, and like someone already said.. someone who copies games never (or almost never) buys any. So you are not loosing potential customers.
Hopefully the people with jailbroken devices know some people that will pay and download your game once they plaied it for free .... maybe !
BTW did the rule about in-app purchases only applying to paid games change ?
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@BeyondTheTouch: I hear Dr. Touch has to keep re-implementing changes to reinvigorate the crack protection. The old cat-and-mouse game of developers/crackers.
On a more positive note though, most of the world does not care or understand enough to go through the trouble of jailbreaking their devices. I'm going to say the actual percentage of those doing this is small compared to those who don't. And those that are doing this are probably not people who would have purchased your app in the first place, so I wouldn't look at it as a sale lost. Maybe look at it as "free" advertising. That does suck though, as I said, I haven't downloaded any of these pirated apps. It just doesn't sit well with me. I know that a lot of work goes into these programs and if a developer wants to be compensated (heck I know I do!) they should have a right to be.
I'd say follow the advice some have already posted and try to get the downloads removed. It'll be a constant battle though. I'm sure there's probably torrents of these as well, though I've never checked. I don't even KNOW how you'd begin to crack down on that!
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Personally, I'd be pleased someone bothered to pirate my game - it must have some level of merit, quality and desirability.
Nobody really pirates 'crappy' games very much.
You could build in a 'thanks for purchasing' and 'please don't pirate' message within the game. This would have little effect sadly, and doubtful it would make a pirate see the error in their ways and pay the 99c - but you might feel better!
Suffice to say if your game is polished enough you should still attract sales and some profit regardless of piracy really.
Keep updating your game, keep your game content and features fresh and appealing with new levels, weapons, whatever.....
Will be releasing my game soon, just have to get all my marketing stuff setup!
@tshirtbooth
Im with you on that
I suggest you look here...
http://www.copyright.gov/
Then, he comes running up to me and says, "Jackson, Installous has crashed and wont start up anymore! Did you do something with your stupid computer nerdy brain???"
I told him to try and reinstall the app from cydia, but i screwed that up too. and to this day, no one knows i did it!
Anyhoo, here's Gizmodo's take on iPhone App Piracy: http://gizmodo.com/5477732/the-myth-of-iphone-app-piracy
After reading this article in depth, if GS were to take either direction of incorporating an anti-piracy method or adding in-app purchasing, I think we'd all be in agreement that in-app purchasing would be the way to go.
Let's hope at least something like this is on the horizon. Of course, the powers that be will never tell us... or will they?
This presents me with an interesting dilemma. I don't want to sue young kids or grandmas out of their life savings... but with a website hosting files... that's not something that I think I should ignore. If they're showing people how to steal my games, shouldn't that be stopped?
As for jail-broken phones, I was surprised when I saw a former co-worker with her new device... brand new... already jail-broken. It really hit me how rampant this problem can be.
Although, I'm wondering if I should have the same attitude as tshirtbooth. Is it a badge of honor? I don't know... if sales are good, it might be easy to see it that way. I don't know how I'm going to react. There's a huge risk involved in making these games. I had to spend well over a thousand dollars on Mac hardware/software and weeks of my time to create my game.
User registration would be the best way to combat this issue.. In-app sales sounds great. That way, I wouldn't have to fumble with "lite" versions of my games and it could help defend against piracy.
BEGIN RANT
Yes, some take the attitude of "I'm not worried about the people who steal my game, because they wouldn't have bought it anyway."
I think that attitude sends the wrong message. If someone would not have purchased the app, they they shouldn't have it. Period.
Let's say I own an electronics store. I sell MP3 players, phones, etc. If 100 people come into the store, pick up an item, and then just walk out without paying for it, should I say, "Wow, I must have selected some excellent products, because they seem to be really popular. I'm not worried that 100 have been stolen, because those people wouldn't have bought them anyway."
How about when a friend says, "Hey look at the cool new phone I stole from the store down the street." Or, "Yes, I stole this iPod Touch from the Apple Store. I stole 6 other iPods last week."
It has become so ingrained in some parts of society that to steal something like music or software -- something non-physical -- is a victimless crime. Nobody got hurt. "They" don't know or care. "They" are making plenty of money anyway.
In this case, "WE" are "they". We who spend our money, our time, and our creativity making games are the ones from whom they're stealing. I don't excuse them just because they wouldn't have bought my game anyway. Yes, I hope they show it to someone who does buy the game, but I hope that person admonishes them for stealing in the first place. "Wow, you stole all these apps? You didn't have to pay for any of them? Well if you think that's fine, then I'm going to steal your iPhone now. That's OK, right?"
I think the threat of a potential lawsuit doesn't deter most people, since the likelihood that they will be the one that the music industry -- or the individual game developer -- targets is very low.
Copy protection only works for a short time, and the more complex it is, the more interesting a challenge it becomes. It will defeat or slow down some, but it's not the whole answer.
I believe the best way to stop people from stealing music and movies and software and OUR GAMES is to let them know it is NOT OK to do so. It's not hard. Change the attitude and you change the behavior. Yes, you might offend or embarrass a friend, but in my opinion they should be embarrassed, because it's you who is offended at having a thief for a friend. Your friend doesn't steal DVDs from the store, or blue jeans from the mall, or steaks from the market, do they? If so, maybe they shouldn't be your friend.
I don't have a magic wand to wave and change everyone's attitude about piracy. But I have a voice with which to express my view that it's wrong. And so do you.
END RANT
Just my opinion. All comments welcome.
You know there are some people in this world who live in rubbish dumps on less than $1.00 a day when they are lucky and have to scavenge for food when they are not.
Still others live in a different country polluted with land mines left over from decades of civil war! When they go out to the field to plant and grow plants for food they often get their legs blown off and spend the rest of their lives begging for food as they can not work any more. If this is not bad enough, the whole country is still recovering from a genocide was was ignored by the whole world for 3 years 8 months and 21 days in the middle of the 1970s. A genocide where those responsible are just now being brought to justice. I have seen where over 8 million people are buried in unmarked graves; teeth litter the ground like stones and bones and clothing stick out from the ground as they slowly erode back to the surface.
With that being said I am sorry people pirate games but I still I hope I put things in perspective a little bit.