Independent Developers Fight Piracy & Lose 1053
An anonymous reader writes "The author of the Echelon decided to take his fight against software piracy to the next level and then threw in the towel. After someone began posting new serial numbers on a well known hacking site, the author took matters into his own hands. With version 1.0, entering a hacked serial number causes the software deleted the user's Home directory. Yes, you read it right, the software completely erases it (aka rm -rf ~). A variety of people have voiced some some strong opinions on this. While some argue that piracy is good for established companies, a few large companies are battling piracy and having limited success. Small, independent developers, however, are recognising this is a serious problem and are generally stumped by what to do about it."
Too Far? (Score:4, Insightful)
- Delete Perl
- Stop Apache, Samba, & nfsd and remove their startup scripts.
- Delete X
- Delete ftp, grep, ssh, or other important programs.
The key is to piss off the user. Each of these things are replaceable, but a PITA.Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Interesting)
Tools like these should also have a built-in sunset date. If, in fifteen years, someone is using this ancient copy of your software b/c they can't purchase it... just let it go.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Re:chroot jail (Score:5, Insightful)
Still kind of funny that a textbook suggests this
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too Far? (Score:4, Insightful)
Almost modded this funny, then I realized you weren't try to be funny. Anyone who does this isn't going to have a support number, and isn't going to put up with your BS if they do. Clearly they don't care about customer satisfaction if they're wiping home directories. What makes you think they'll be able to recover your rm -rf ~ better than you can anyway?
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too Far? (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't think he'd have faced a lot of criticism if the software's reaction was that mild. However, he might have caught a lot of heat if it happened accidentally with a legit user.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Interesting)
At the time, they weren't using serial numbers as copy control. The floppy had some kind of copy protection on it (a "diskcopy" wouldn't work), and it wrote some files in the install directory that were marked system and read-only. You couldn't touch these files. If they got moved by a defrag program (for example), the program would zap itself. (I found that out the hard way. It was not mentioned anywhere in the manual.)
Doing this is probably the only legally defendable kind of destructive copy-protection. If the user pirates your software, he has done something illegal. That does not give you the right to do something illegal back to him. If he has no right to run your software in the first place, then there's nothing wrong with your software deleting itself, since he shouldn't have it in the first place.
As with my example above, when implementing destructive copy-protection, you must be very careful to make sure it won't backfire on legitimate users. I did own a legal copy of Lotus 1-2-3, which I had installed from the original disks. I didn't know that allowing the file to be moved by my defragger would cause the program to think it was pirated. Suppose Lotus had decided to delete my data files (no "home directory" on DOS) instead of just the 123 program? Then I would have lost my data even though I was a legitimate owner of the program and I was doing nothing wrong, according to the software manual. As it was, instead of losing my data, I only lost about half an hour of time performing a re-install.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Doing this is probably the only legally defendable kind of destructive copy-protection.
Actually, there is no legally defendible copy protection of any sort. A pretty important nit to pick, really. The DMCA itself should actually be declared unconstitutional, because it is.
You see, copy-protection violates the sacred arrangement that copyright represents: it prevents the software from entering the public domain upon expiration.
The DMCA should be declared unconstitutional for this reason exactly, because it protects a method that is used to prevent copyrighted materials from being copied without the owner's permission, more or less indefinitely. Copyright is supposed to expire, and unless your copyprotection accounts for it, you're in violation.
I'm still very much in favor of revoking copyright for people who use copy protection on their stuff and immediately forcing it into the public domain. So it should be legal to break the copy protection. If you want protection from the law, honor your end of the bargain and place the work into the public domain upon expiration of the copyright. If you don't want protection from the law, then go ahead and use copy protection. but don't whine about piracy, you had your choice.
Re: Not far enough. (Score:5, Insightful)
What, excatly speaking, does open source movement have to do with piracy ? Open source is all about making the source code of the program available to the end user; it has nothing whatsoever to do with removing copy protection from closed-source programs.
Furthermore, all the various stupid copy protections do is make cracks sometimes an absolutely neccessary part in getting the program to run. For example, the (legally bought) game Morrowind kept crashing on my machine at startup because of copy protection check; applying the no-cd crack solved the problem completely. Copy protection does not slow pirates in any significant way, it simply annoys legal users.
And deleting the users home directory simply ensures that no one will buy your products out of fear of them deleting their directories because of typos when entering serials or programming errors.
Re:Too Far? (Score:3, Interesting)
Is clearing the Home directory much worse than inserting files into the network stack, creating Viral software that is almost impossible to remove, and that reinstalls itself when it detects part of it was removed?
Illegal? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
yes (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Too Far? (Score:4, Insightful)
Your emphasis is on the wrong guilty party there fella. While it is illegal to set traps to injure or kill people, no one MAKES junkies break into houses. If I did trap my place, I would sleep very well knowing they killed THEMSELVES.
Re:Too Far? (Score:4, Insightful)
Does that go for any policemen, firemen, small children, spouses, relatives, housesitters, etc, who might actually have a reason to be there too?
Or have you invented a new form of trap that magically springs only on the guilty?
Re:Too Far? (Score:3, Insightful)
Warez is a result of this lame sense of entitlement that today's computer users have. Arguing piracy is "good" for companies doesn't matter--it's not provable, but more importantly you don't have the permission from the copyright owners to do it. Pirates are just freeloaders who get bitter when the free ride is taken away.
id S
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Besides that you have a legal problem. I'm fairly sure that somebody could argue that even though they caused you a $100 of loss (or whatever it costs), the nuked home directory caused $10K of loss. That kind of thing could turn out *really* ugly.
How about enlightened self interest (Re:Too Far?) (Score:5, Insightful)
However, consider the consequences. The publisher could get sued. Sure, he probably will (might?) win, but it costs money to defend. Oops, there goes more profit. The publisher loses goodwill (hard to define-but not all publicity is good publicity....). Oh, and maybe the publisher gets hacked/cracked by someone he has pissed off (people pirating software may not have the strongest morals/ethics/logic but some may be good at computers). Oops. There goes more profit.
In short, I see a lot of downside and little upside. And I sure as heck wouldn't want to use a product as a LEGITIMATE user if I knew it was designed to screw up my system (even if only for illegitimate users).
Re:How about enlightened self interest (Re:Too Far (Score:4, Insightful)
More like -will- get sued.
I'd gladly admit to one count of copyright voilation and pay my dues if I could at the same time prove he deleted a million or two dollars worth of IP from my account.
Then on top of it, toss in any/all new malware and trojan horse laws at him, add a pinch of whatever they are calling 'cyber terrorism' nowadays, mix, stir, sit back and laugh all the way to the bank.
Worst part for the author about this, his software is 'out there'. It's not something he can easily take back.
One could spend a few months cleaning up any piracy connections they have, building/collecting this few million dollars in ligit IP, and install his software knowing what will happen. Its alot harder to prove someone isnt stupid than it is to prove this software author intended for his program to do this.
About the only recourse is posting a warning on his site that whichever version this is is seriously broken and will (read; WILL) cause damage to your system.
I'm sure there are even courts that will not look favourably at that, based fully on his intent.
Dude seriously needs some perspective.
It may feel good to pump 12 rounds into an unarmed tresspasser, but comon...
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
In a civilized society, consequences are doled out by a court of law, not by vigilantes their software.
Re:Too Far? (Score:4, Interesting)
Your software *thinks* I pirated it, ergo it can do anything it wants and get away with it? Nuh uh. What happens when a pirate releases a keygenned key that happens to match mine? What happens when I hit a bug in the key verification code? What happens when a cosmic ray flips a bit in the relevent code and a FALSE turns into TRUE?
Says who? Based on what evidence? I pirated it, saw that it sucked, and then did exactly what I would have done anyway; I didn't buy it. Did they lose $60 on me anyway? Maybe they would have if I'd cancelled my preorder based on that, but then I'm just using my increased knowledge of the products available to spend my money more wisely. Is that still a bad thing? Maybe for Id, but not for me, and I don't think for the market either; mindless shooters with crappy atmosphere and insanely repetetive gameplay should not a blockbuster make.
Kindly provide statistics and sources that show more and more people are pirating software, and that as a result the amount of purchased software is going down. Or are you just assuming that's what's happening?
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
If the program instead followed your suggestion (never minding the permission issues - it would have to be run as root) and deleted system software, what would happen if the program was run on a production server? Sure, it really ticks off the user, but a lot of things on the server for all users would grind to a halt until the deleted files are replaced. You just can't justify doing something this drastic.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Rediculous extremes (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Rediculous extremes (Score:4, Insightful)
Or even a known-pirate S/N that the installer used because they left the legitimate number lying on a notepad on their desk at home, and need to get system at a remote site up and running now?
Back in the Windows 98 days, I found myself in the position more than once of having left the OS box with serial number at home, so I'd have to Google (well, AltaVista) for one of the popular warez versions so I could finish an install and go home. Note that I was not pirating anything; I had the legal right to install one copy of the OS, and I installed only one copy.
So now I'm visiting my mom's city on a long weekend, and helping my sister install Echelon so that she can burn copies of her vacation video. Dang, the legit serial number is sitting in my mailspool behind a ridiculously paranoid firewall 500 miles away. I know - I'll just grab a S/N from the 'net to get her system going until I get home. Oops, sorry 'bout that, sis! Hope you had backups!
Re:Rediculous extremes (Score:4, Funny)
No, it's not. It may be against your particular Terms Of Service, but it's not illegal. First off, I can't imagine any software company in the world that would object to this as long as you stick to the correct number of seats / connections / whatever. Second, try explaining that to the judge:
Them: "Your Honor, the defendant paid $39.95 to buy this sequence of digits that would allow him to use our software, but he really used that sequence."
Judge: "And he using features that he wasn't entitled to, under the terms of the correct sequence?"
Them: "No."
Judge: "Oh. So, then he sold the 'legitimate' sequence while still using the one he downloaded from Google?"
Them: "No, Your Honor. The thieving pirate went home, printed out the legitimate sequence, mailed it to the customer whose machine he illegally installed our software on, then deleted it."
Judge: "Are you on crack, or does this really make sense to you?"
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
The purpose of anti-piracy measures is, presumably, to reduce piracy. When you decide you're going to take revenge on anyone who pirates, all you are going to do is drive away people who might otherwise pay for the software. Nobody says "gee that guy wiped out my hard drive. I should pay for the software I stole from him." Would you do it if you were in that position?
The pirates will continue to pirate, while finding a way to make the program work without permissions to do anything harmful. The innocent user who enters the activation key incorrectly will likely be harmed by this. And the developer will lose future business, and rightly so. And if serious damage were caused, they will face a lawsuit.
If there are any developers out there thinking about doing something stupid like this, please reconsider. It will not help you in any way; it will only hurt you. I for one will never install software that has provisions to wipe out my home directory. What if it does so by mistake?
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
When you download something of the official site, it will not work, spy on you, advertise random crap and now delete you home directory; but if you download it from a warez site, it is clean and functional. This counts even for software bought in shops, like Windows XP, which doesnt require "activation" in the cracked versions.
No wonder piracy is on a rise!
Comment removed (Score:5, Insightful)
Better yet... (Score:5, Insightful)
However, in order to get the code, the person in question must prove their own identity... Opening themselves to criminal and civil charges.
I like that.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Interesting)
Now if my hard drive were trashed by such a program, I would sue (yeah, it's probably in the EULA that they can do that, but there's a good chance that such a clause will be neemed null and void).
In normal (non-internet) society, such an action would be the revenge a phycho would extract by killing the person sleeping with his girlfriend.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
Untrue
It's not common, but when I lose my key to a software product I have paid for, I don't bother with the (sometimes) huge hassle of trying to get it again. Over the past 7-8 years I'm sure I've registered many different software packages with many different email addresses so I usually have no idea what one goes with what software package.
I am in no way stealing. This guy is out of line. Removing the home directory of a user is ridiculous. Just delete the f'en product directory.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
IANAH, but I play one on hackthissite dot org.
I have spent hours learning to hack websites, applications and databases, I'm not great, but I found the process of learning fun.
I don't think you can dissuade people from cracking your apps by making it hard work, the harder it is, the more credibility you get in cracking circles.
The thing that gets to me is that coders and packagers can spend so long trying to lock up their apps that they spend time on that which could be spent debugging or advertising, fundraising for the next version or putting eye candy in the app so that the people who actually pay for software will find it attractive and pay for it because it looks professional.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
if status=valid,
run normally
else
delete all files
end if
If the stupid program can tell when a fake number is entered, it should simply refuse to run.
Re:Too Far? (Score:5, Insightful)
FADE (Score:4, Informative)
Oh dear... (Score:5, Funny)
Really immature. (Score:3, Interesting)
Anyway, this guy's product and any future products will definitely not be getting any of my money (and I certainly won't be downloading his apps).
Ha, who am I kidding, I wouldn't download it anyway. Open source all the way baby!
Addendum (Score:4, Insightful)
I was impressed. I was maybe 16, and I wasn't necessarily using keygens because I hated companies or wanted to be malignant, I just had no money. This was the first program that had been able to detect a keygen'd serial. So, I actually bought a license for bpftp... (it was cheap anyway).
Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, but I had to hand it to 'em. It's a respect thing, I guess.
Or maybe it was just adolescent "logic" running through my head. Nowadays it seems kind of dumb. Oh well, thank god I don't use windows anymore.
A Better Idea (Score:5, Funny)
The decryption key will be provided when the product is registered.
-Mike
Re:A Better Idea (Score:5, Insightful)
The decryption key will be provided when the product is registered.
This is likely to be only slightly less illegal than deleting someone's files.
Effectivly you'd be holding someone's data to ransom.
Re:A Better Idea - trashing output files (Score:3, Interesting)
I admit that deleting the root directory is too far and I would agree encrypting somebody's files but surely a program using a pirated serial number could not be expected to work properly?
Maybe they could even catch a few pirates that asked for suppor
Not portable (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Not portable (Score:3, Interesting)
But I don't store anything in "My Documents," "My Pictures," or the like. Sure, some games default their saved games there, but boo hoo.
My Powerbook on the other hand, I'd have to kill someone. Seriously, I'd wring their little necks.
But I don't pirate software. I make enoug
A few things... (Score:5, Informative)
I always thought it was kind of ironic when the small people back the groups like SPA / BSA. Those "industry" groups represent those who fund them, and AFAIK will do nothing for the little guy. They are funded by the big players.
There have been a few other similiar cases. I believe one of the popular Windows CD recording packages would burn garbage CDs if you entered the wrong serial number, or entered one of the popular serial numbers found on google.
While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:4, Insightful)
I don't want to sound too harsh here, but if you take a hostile view of your customers, they will respond in kind. This might be a good opportunity to step back and see if there is anything you could be doing differently to make your product more buyable in the eyes of your consumers.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:5, Insightful)
Ummmmm.... By definition, they are not customers becuase they haven't purchased anything yet.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:3, Insightful)
By that definition, a customer has never walked into a store.
I think that illustrates the point the other poster was trying to make. If there are thousands of people using the software, and many asking for support, then I can't see how directing them to a website that explains how one gets support (by buying the product) would be so difficult.
It's got to be pay to work, because the scarcity properties of digital artifacts and our understanding of economics makes paying a hefty
Well.... (Score:4, Insightful)
2) If you have a copy of the software that does not work as you expect it, then DON'T BUY IT, and don't ask for support. If you use the software then buy it! It is that simple.
3) Piracy has NO justifications whatsoever. If you don't like it, use open source and don't pay a cent. But don't pirate because you are a cheap ass.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:5, Insightful)
Here's an example,
there are gobs of DVD authoring apps out there, Most in the $199-$399 price range with the most expensive beign Scenerist at $30K+ All the cheap DVD authoring apps suck and make you do their "templates" that all look cheezy and crappy. So DVD authoring apps are pirated by most Indie and enthusiast movie makers.
A year ago I found DVDlab, something with almost as much power as Scenarist and it costs $99.00.
out of the 20 or so Indoe film Makers that had pirated versions of other DVD authoring apps, all but 3 of them have bought DVDlab.
why?
because it's affordable.
software price is the #1 cause of piracy. why the hell pirate something when it's easier and cheaper to simply buy it?
Most people are suspicious of software today. they are used to spending big $$$ for utter crap that only barely does what is promised. (Final Draft for example!) They are tired of being extored at every turn and paying huge $$$ to some guy that thinks being a programmer is worth more per hour than the engineers making high end bikes and other physical items that they know they own.
Software is overpriced, espically consumer grade software.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:3, Insightful)
Why?
If your goal is to make money, I submit the market has already shown you what people are willing to pay for an HTML editor.
Your decision, of course, but it is possible you are running on sheer inertia. Have you stopped for a moment and asked yourself if you really want to be doing this?
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:3, Insightful)
Because I use the program myself. In addition, the market has indeed shown what its willing to pay for a HTML editor, just look at programs like Home Site Builder.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:5, Interesting)
I'm working on designing my site so that the keys are available on a web-based DB. Do an MD5 on the key, and match hashes with with the one on-line at program startup. No match, no save capability. Too many people going for one key? Disable that key.
Have the program run OK if it fails once or twice in a row, but the third time, the program dies until it can check its key.
People may still be able to crack your software (No real defense against people rewriting your program...), but keygens and re-used keys become a rarity.
~D
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:3, Interesting)
Most effective forms are- (Score:3, Insightful)
But I believe we already have some glowing examples of effective anti-piracy measures:
#1) Counter-strike. The video game. Yes, Valve's CD-KEY system actually works here because in order to play the game you have to connect to a server. To be able to connect to a server your CDKEY has to match one of the keys in their
Suggestions (Score:5, Insightful)
1. Firstly, as far as I can tell your product is an HTML editor with no CSS support. Well, these days that's like trying to sell a graphics editor that doesn't do PNG, or an e-mail program that doesn't handle attachments. Even people who don't want to do their entire site design in CSS still want to be able to do the neat stuff you can only do with CSS.
2. Related to the above, HTML standards have changed a bit in the last 5 years, and you haven't kept up to date by the looks of things. Not valid XHTML, no DTD statement, and so on.
3. You've chosen a field where there is massive amounts of competition, and that's never a good way to make money. Everyone and his dog has made a simple text editor that handles HTML and makes it a bit easier. So, even if you had the best HTML editor in the world, I still wouldn't expect you to be raking in big bucks, because you'd be up against at least half a dozen big companies with big advertising dollars, shelf space in every Best Buy, and major mindshare.
4. Think about who your target market is. You're not going to stand a chance of cracking the pro web designer market with the product you have; pro web designers need CSS, template libraries, DTD validation, image slicing, applet and plugin integration, and so on. At the opposite end, you're not going to get the Joe Sixpack market either, because they'll see raw HTML and recoil in horror. So, you're going after what I'll call the "dabbler" market--people who've learned a bit of HTML for fun and want to build a small personal web site. That's a pretty small niche to be in.
5. You don't have enough differentiation from the free offerings for that niche, in my view. Every half-decent free text editor can edit HTML with syntax coloring, and usually validate it and generate IMG tags too. You clearly know what your differentiators are, which is good: they're the table editor, the form editor and the frameset editor, and maybe the font dialog if it supported CSS, which it doesn't. Trouble is, dabblers generally don't need forms or tabular data--they use tables for layout, which it doesn't look as if your table editor is suitable for. They sometimes use framesets, but most of them know by now that frames suck. So, what can your product do that makes it an essential $20 upgrade from vim or jEdit? Nothing as far as I can see, and...
6.
I don't honestly think that you can hope to make money in the market you're currently aiming at. To do so, you'd have to fix all the defects and shortcomings, and then come up with some "killer app" functionality to beat Mozilla Composer, jEdit and the rest.
So you'd have to get up to date with the standards, and support XHTML and CSS. Then you'd need to add all the other features the free text editors have that people just expect these days, like file browsers, folding, abbreviations/macros, regexp search and replace, autosave, bracket/tag matching, multiple cut/paste buffers, and spelling correction. And then, you'd need to add more compelling features, like a graphical color selector with tools to help users pick complementary colors, and something to search and replace across multiple pages.
That's a hell of a lot of work for a product which, realistically, people would still only pay $20 or $30 for. If I were you, I'd cut your losses and write software that does something nobody else has done yet, or nobody has done cheaply, or nobody else has done well.
Ok well I'll thrown in my 2 cents (Score:5, Insightful)
Ok, well that's nice. That is certianly more HTML related features than notepad, and even a bit more than my beloved UltraEdit. However, you still face the same problem: You have released a text editor. It has a couple nice features, but it's just a text editor in the end.
Well, that's the kind of thing that most people will take for free, but just aren't willing to pay for. I mean there are some nice features over a basic one, but I have a feeling if you made copying impossible, most people would just do without.
You aren't asking a lot, but then again, you don't give a lot. I mean your HTML wizards for tables and frames seem unique but, really, those aren't that useful. Your editor also lacks most of the advanced features that Ultraedit (slightly more expensive than you) or Textpad (slightly cheaper than you) have.
Finally, your stuff is out of date. Tables and frames are NOT the recommend way for doing layout anymore, layers are. If I was going to get an editor that could help me do something in HTML, layers would be my top choice.
So, what you need to do, if making money is your goal, is do something to make your editor more worth buying. Here are some directions you could take:
1) Go the text editor route. Flush it out with support for huge files, hex editing, regular expressions, alternate encoding, macron, etc. Make it a full featured text editor to comete with Ultraedit, but add something more, like your HTML wizards.
2) Go the wizards route, but have them for EVERYTHING. You list like 3 wizards (form, tables, frames). K, nice start, but you need to add a whole lot more. Layers, style sheets, DHTML, JavaScript, etc. Make it so that the wizards can more or less write anything for you.
3) Go the visual route. Try and make something like Fireworks, only probably less featured (And also less espensive). Something for those that want the pointy-clicky but can't afford a Macromedia product.
However where you are now, I'm not supprised that you aren't getting sales. Your product is nice, and maybe something I'd use for free, but I don't see that I'd want to pay for it, espically not instaead of Ultraedit or Textpad.
Not trying to justify the copying, just trying to explain it and give you some ideas.
Also, the whole OSS/GPL push doesn't help. People are becomming trained that little programs that are downloadable ought to be no cost. Software in a box costs money, not software on the web.
Also, don't feel like no one ever buys things like this. The University of Arizona has a site license for Textpad. People do buy text editors, but you need to find an angle that someone doesn't ahve, or do it better than someone is doing it now.
Re:While I sympathize, this is going to far. (Score:3, Insightful)
The problem with automated anti-piracy smack-downs like this is that they are going to register false positives. Like when the MPAA assumed that seeing a file by the name of "one.mpg" meant that the file must be the song "One" by Metallica, and that it must be a song for which you don't own the legal
Typo in the headline! (Score:5, Funny)
Wow, what was his clickthru license like? (Score:5, Insightful)
This guy is a criminal, and douche. (Score:4, Insightful)
In fact, simply writing the software may have been illegal.
If someone steals some CDs from you, you don't have the right to burn their house down.
And, as a matter of fact the software in question may have been violating the GPL. It was basically a front-end to FFMPEG, which is GPL'd, and it may have come bundled with it.
So basically the guy wrote an easy to use front end to some free software, and then trashed people's work when he stopped getting money from it.
wrong, here's two examples (Score:3, Insightful)
A New Slogan (Score:5, Funny)
Use the carrot not the whip (Score:3, Interesting)
What the h*ll? (Score:5, Insightful)
Disable your own software, do bad encodes, draw goatse/tubgirl images on the encodings, but dont, DONT mess with files that doesn't belong to your program.
This is just plain immature, not to mention very wrong.
And yes, it seems like the author already removed it, but putting it there in the first place is bad.
Mixed feelings about piracy (Score:5, Insightful)
As a software developer, I feel that I ought to get paid for the work I do. I do work for a company that pays me to develop, so it's really their responsibility to make sure their software isn't pirated (if they want to protect their business).
Nevertheless, I feel that piracy can be benefically to any company, regardless of size. I think that it may even help smaller companies more than larger companies, because piracy may be the vehicle in which a particual software package becomes very popular. However, one has to realize that 100% of software can't be pirated, otherwise nobody would develop anything meaningful (excepting the free software movement, but that's something pretty special [and I do wholeheartedly support it, even with LOC when I can]--I am speaking in a manner of business). Like most things in economics, it probably requires the right critical mass (you need to have the right number/ratio of people buying your software to make you profitable, but you need to have a certian number/ratio of people pirating it to make it popular).
I never think that software should ever use measures that destroy your property (digital or otherwise) as a means to prevent piracy. I am glad that the author of the software mentioned above took out the folder deleting technique--I cannot believe he did that in the first place.
Completely Unacceptable (Score:5, Informative)
If the author of the software had simply deleted the software itself, or disabled it in some way, this could be acceptable, but deleting a user's home directory goes WAAAAY over the line.
A good general guideline for ethical behavior in CS is theACM Code of ethics. This violates several points, including: [acm.org]
1.2 Avoid harm to others.
1.3 Be honest and trustworthy.
1.7 Respect the privacy of others.
(1.2 is the most applicable here, I think)
Re:Completely Unacceptable (Score:4, Interesting)
The game floppy had its write-protect notch covered, as with most commercial software. We played around with the disk, changed some things, and then tried to run the game.
It turns out that the very first thing the program did was to attempt to format the floppy disk!! Of course, for most users nothing happened, because of the write-protect tab. But we had to go back to the store to get another copy. (First thing we did after that was to take out the format command.)
We were annoyed but respectful.
yo.
possibility (Score:4, Interesting)
I mean, with MS you click "I Agree" to a box that says they can modify or delete anything on your PC anyway. I think the big licenses even include a "search anytime we want" language too.
Oh, wait -- This is a MAC program. They're not used to losing all their data instantly (viruses, hideous crashes... etc...)
Well, you Apple fans don't have any decent viruses yet, and you need something to share our pain...
Brilliant! (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, this is not the first time a program detects a hacked serial key and then [insert some behaviour], though this is the worst measure I have ever heard of.
Windows XP for instance doesnt allow you to install SP1 if you are using one of a few leaked keys.
IIRC, CDRWIN (a cd-burning program) would slowly 'degrade' your burns over time if you used an invalid key. Very insiduous, as it would seem to work at first then slowly get worse and worse.
What if you mis-type in your valid serial and the program thinks it now matches a banned key? Whoops!
If you insist on deleting something on the detection of a hacked serial, then trash the programs binary, *not* the users whole home directory. That's just assanine.
Good for him (Score:5, Insightful)
Free software depends on adherence by users to an agreement with the developers not to illegally use the software in a proprietary manner. If we expect people to abide by free software licenses, we have to abide by commercial software licenses too.
In my opinion, the only thing he did wrong was to not put a clause into his license that when the user clicks on it specifically authorizes the code to delete the home directory if it chooses to.
Stop stealing music, software, etc. while at the same time expecting free software to remain free. It's hypocrisy.
What about typos? (Score:3, Insightful)
And what about a random bug in the software that could end up doing the same?
Personally, I wouldn't even consider running a piece of software that has the capacity to delete all my stuff.
Wouldn't it make more sense to hit a webpage and save the ip number or something?
hitting back is illegal all the same (Score:5, Insightful)
On the other hand, I can understand the difficult situation of small companies defending theirselves (we've also had to deal with similar situations lately).
I just don't accept this course of action. It just doesn't make him any different. Acting like this just proves his ignorance and inability to come up with a suitable defense (has not to be perfect, just enough to generate some reasonable income).
Been tried before (Score:3, Informative)
Anti-piracy sabotoge has been around for a long time - it dates back to the days of some manufacturers using 5.25 inch floppies that included an unused disk track containing sandpaper - attempting to copy the master disk would result in moving the floppy read head over the sandpaper covered track, thus destroying it.
This was stopped for probably the same reasons as discussed in the home security thread regarding booby traps. Destroying somebody's PC is illegal, even if they are making illegal copies of your software. Besides, what if they were using somebody else's PC to do it? And who would want to purchase a product that could destroy your PC if you make a mistake? Kind of like purchasing a car with a built in self-destruct as an anti-theft device. God help you if it malfunctions.
Developers still don't get it (Score:5, Insightful)
Spending time trying to convert them into customers is completely wasted. Stop them from using your program with a perfect protection scheme, and all they'll do is use a different program.
Do it in a rediculous manner like this joker, and all you're going to do is drive away your legitimate customers. I wouldn't pay for this thing in a million years. Who knows what crap this thing could pull in the future? All it takes is one bug, and suddenly it thinks legit users are pirates...
This stunt he pulled has caused far more loss of sales for him than any software piracy.
This has been tried before (Score:3, Informative)
It's just like physical security... (Score:3, Insightful)
There's only so much you can (and should) do with software. Even the boys in Redmond have a line item to deal with lost sales due to hacked code - it's simply a fact of life that not everyone is going to be a paying customer; it's a cost of doing business.
Piracy is sometimes due to copy protection. (Score:3, Insightful)
For example, recently I bought Neverwinter Nights and both expansions. Previoulsly I had the pirated NWN, but of course I couldn't play online with it. So after I found I in fact like it, I bought two copies of NWN + SoU, and then a HotU one too.
Installing it on Linux was a bit unintuitive, but I can live with that. Next problem was that the font of the CD key was illegible, and "A", "R", and "O", "D" and "0" look the same. Just great, with a pirated CD it installs directly, and with the legal one I need to spend 15 minutes trying to figure out which is the right key. And what if I happen to find another valid one, but which is not mine?
For the SoU expansion, Bioware forgot to include some background music. The sad thing about this is that the pirate copy of SoU probably comes with the sound files on the CD, or at least it's something that could be easily done.
Then there are some games in which copy protection goes to ridiculous levels, like installing special drivers. I *hate* this kind of crap, which is almost all the games I play are on Linux, where this stuff hopefully will never become common.
Was there a warning? (Score:3, Insightful)
Ah, on the topic of cost of software. The interesting thing is that software market is NO MARKET AT ALL! To be a market, one has to be provided with choices of a product doing substantially similar things with prices set by supply and demand and some competition to boot.
Often in software there is no choice - there is one product doing one thing and sold at a fixed price set by developers. When there is a true choice of products, prices still don't seem to be set by the market. Rather, developers randomly set the price and users excercise their market power by pirating (i.e. leveragint their fear of illegal action or acting immorally vs. the cost being too high for functionality provided.) Want to reduce pirating - auction your software. The real price will be found very soon, but it will very likely be a lot lower then $20 most seem to be asking for. BTW, $20 is an astronomical price for all but the most complicated software packages geared for ahome user. I would bet that market set prices would be somwhere between 5 cents and 2$.
rm -rf * (Score:3, Interesting)
So, to everyone who is asking "what if he made a mistake?": Mistakes can result in data loss even if you don't intend to delete anyone's data.
Guilt Trip (Score:4, Interesting)
It worked. I decided to delete the program until I could convince work to buy it for me. (New job, so the copy stayed with them.) I've never looked at pirating serial numbers the same since. I try hard to get work to buy the smaller software companies stuff that I use, or I delete it, or look for freeware so at least I'm being cheap but without the guilt.
Piracy is NOT a problem. (Score:3, Insightful)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:Oh, the irony... (Score:5, Informative)
So, he wrote a program whose main audience was people who violate copyright, and was then surprised to find people pirating his software? Oh, cry me a river.
I feel the same way about people who write shareware "file sharing" applications, and then act all irate when we share the registration codes for those applications. If you don't want your work to be ripped off, it'd help if you didn't go out of your way to assist people in ripping off the work of others. I've registered fifteen pieces of shareware, but I'm sure as hell not registering "file sharing" software.
Plus, the "meat" of his software was apparently GPLed projects such as ffmpeg anyway...
Subject line? (Score:3, Funny)
Open Letter to Slashdot (Score:3, Funny)
I'm an independent car manufacturer. The cars I build are licensed to be driven only by the purchaser. Sort of like the airline industry selling non-transferable, non-refundable tickets. Recently I have been losing money to transporation pirates who loan their cars to friends. They keep defeating whatever user-identifying technology I build into the cars. Based on one new car purchase per unauthorized transport, I estimate that I lose $400 billion annually to these pirates.
I've already bribed Orrin Hatch to make it illegal to drive somebody else's car. I even got Congress to spend billions of taxpayer dollars to install anti-piracy, I mean anti-terrorism cameras on every freeway overpass, to photograph people driving other people's cars, in case they're terrorists. Transportation pirates soon discovered they could simply wear a paper mask of the car owner's face. Some driver-id protestors even wear opaque, featureless masks when they drive their own cars. I've tried randomly suing people, but the shock value wore off pretty quickly and I barely recovered my legal costs. But at least I proved that I'm right.
Accepting that my business model doesn't work in today's world and going into another line of business is not an option. I don't want to face reality, I want to change the world to be the way I want it to be, regardless of the side effects. I also want everybody to be on my side and admit that I'm right. What should I do?
When someone else installs the warez on your PC (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:pirates and all (Score:4, Insightful)
I have always been amazed that the large companies probably get a big benefit from releasing their software into world... people learn to use and depend on it... and eventually as the rep gets better, then sales improved.
However, I have no doubt that piracy has really hurt programmers like this guy. He reports a 30% decrease in sells. I can understand why he is so desperate.
Do two wrongs make a right?
If you know a kid is going to steal a coke, is it okay to put poision in that coke?
I don't know what is morally right or wrong, but I can understand why this guy is so worried.
AlexTheBeast
Re:pirates and all (Score:3, Interesting)
I think a better analogy is: if you know a kid is going to steal a coke, is it okay to put laxatives in that coke, along with a sign on the coke saying "if you didn't pay for this it has laxatives in it"?
Just a question for everyone (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Check the EULA (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Check the EULA (Score:5, Insightful)
A provision in a license does not give someone superpowers over you. The only remedy legally available to software distributors/makers/developers that have users who are breaking the terms of the license is: termination of the license. There is no way to legally destroy files on a user's machine no matter what they have done to you.
-Jem
Re:what if the sw makes a mistake? (Score:3, Insightful)
Common contract law would not allow you to just include any terms you want to in the agreement, even if someone accepts. And contracts cannot be used to justify illegal activity.