Beyond that, the software only costs $25. It is inconceivable that this is putting it beyond the price range of someone who truly needs it. I suppose that MAYBE there is some teacher out in the third world for whom that is an insurmountable amount of money who really needs the software, but there’s nothing to stop said impoverished third world teacher from personally contacting the author and explaining that in their country $25 can buy you three yaks and a small hotel, and politely asking if some sort of discount could be had.

The impetus isn’t on anyone to make stuff that’s worth buying, the impetus is on users to NOT STEAL. It doesn’t matter if the reproduction cost is zero, because it still cost time and money to produce in the first place… never mind the bandwidth and other hosting costs for the site where it can be downloaded (oh, yeah, maybe the reproduction cost isn’t quite zero after all…). Anyway, if the software isn’t worth buying, then why go to so much effort to pirate it at all?

Pro’s and Con’s:

-Infinite profit potential through software patents (both good and bad)

-Zero reproduction cost (good all around)

-The time it takes to make software versus the end user results a user gets out of it are currently disproportionate for software makers. If software was easier for users to create many programmers that sell programs that don’t do a lot would be out of a job.

-Robots and Artificial intelligence will eventually make a lot of programmers and human beings in a wide variety of fields obsolete anyway and we’ll have to come up with new socio-economic, and socio political models.

-Defects of markets and business models, create demand for pirated software.

I think of many pricing models for software that adjust according to the users income, i.e. the more income u make the more u pay, the poorer you are the less u pay. Has any enterprising programmer or business done this? No the stick to their old fashion “one size fit’s all model”, in which they can maximize profit and DENY people the enjoyment of using their software, all for the sake of their own greed. You create goodwill by not treating potential customers like crap. It’s up to you to come up with something that people will want to pay for.

Lastly… you know the pro’s and con’s of developing software, if you can’t take the heat, find another job.

You’re like the old factory workers who’s job’s got shipped to mexico for cheaper workers, boo hoo. Fact is most software is too expensive for what most people who pirate it use it for, much pirated software isn’t even used enough to justify paying for it.

I’ve paid for a lot of software in my life that I USE all the time, if I don’t find myself using it in my life and that it is adding value to it, I wouldn’t bother paying for it. The fact is, it’s up to the developer to come up with Killer applications that he can monetize, not the user.

Many programmers made a hell of a lot of money by realizing they could get rich developing P2P software or DVD copying software, they SAW DEMAND and jumped on the bandwagon and made mad profits, or they started their own businesses creating commercial websites or FILLED a DEMAND in the market, so why didn’t you?

This is why things like Daemon tools, etc, are so popular, and make that author money… he realizes that SUPPLY and DEMAND are king, you have to find something there is truly demand for and fill the need, there will always be people that want something for nothing, but there are also those of us who wish to SUPPORT those who serve our needs, and are not just selfish bastards out for themselves and realize the defects of markets and society.

IMHO piracy is just shows you that if real world goods were not scarce, socialism would be the norm. i.e. the greatest goods to the greatest number of people.

Maximizing utility, happyness, exposure and distribution, something that strictly market based commercialism cannot do.

The whole point of it goes away when you make a stupid post like this on a blog in google that you link to on a number of sites. It was so simple as for me to find it (though I have seen bitching about your “Bingo Card Creator” getting pirated on /.), it’s going to be really easy if someone is looking.

But that’s off topic.

You sit here and whine and complain that “pirates are ruining your sales”, yet how many have you lost? I am willing to bet it’s less then what you would have made making another app, or add ons to your current app, instead of whining about pirates.

As far as for google bombing to the point of not finding a crack…. you cannot really think that will help. Take a trip to any crack site and there you go.

Or is it something else you want to hide? I googled for a crack, because I wanted to know how easy it was to find. Surprise-surprise, I seen no crack, yet I did see a number of other apps that did the same thing- a few free and a few OSS. Is this the real goal? Bomb out the competition? I am not sure, but it’s at least a side effect.

Nice to see also how you use a free host to post your rants about “freeloading pirates”….

You are perfectly within your rights to burn Apache to a CD and sell it to whoever you like. The license states that you must make the source code available, even if you have made changes to the source code and that the source code must not cost extra but it doesn’t say that you can’t charge for it.

Conversely, even if Patrick allowed you to download his Bingo Card Creator without paying him any money, that would not make it “open source”. It would only become open source if he also allowed you to download the source code.

There is presumably a license that applies to this software that states that you are not allowed to distribute it to anyone else for free or for money. The author has also attempted to enforce this by technical means. This is legal and within his rights to do. The author has also come up with a way of reaching the top of the Google search rankings for the search terms most likely to be used by someone searching for software that would break his copy protection. This is also legal and if Google don’t like it they will do something about it however I suspect that this is probably the most desired outcome as far as Google is concerned.

You may argue that software should be free (and I believe this also, in both senses of the word), but the fact remains that not all software is free and attempting to make it free in either sense of the word is not necessarily legal if the license does not allow it. There are also arguments about the enforcability of license agreements but that is another matter.

Lastly, kudos on the Google idea but I don’t think it will make much difference. Google displays 10 results by default and the chances are good that there will always be one that is a valid serial or serial generator. That said… do let us know if it does make a difference (how do you tell ?) or if it just gives a warm fuzzy feeling.