RE: [little OT] Licensing/Implementing in Cocoa/Obj-C
RE: [little OT] Licensing/Implementing in Cocoa/Obj-C
- Subject: RE: [little OT] Licensing/Implementing in Cocoa/Obj-C
- From: "Josh Ferguson" <email@hidden>
- Date: Tue, 20 Apr 2004 13:14:12 -0500
- Thread-topic: [little OT] Licensing/Implementing in Cocoa/Obj-C
"The unstated, but implied notion, is that every copy pirated is a lost sale. "
I would argue strongly that this is not an implied notion at all. In the several discussions I've been involved in on this list, this has always been explicitly stated. You're also implying that a certain percentage of customers will NOT buy your product based entirely on your licensing scheme. I highly doubt that there is a significant number of people who would halt their purchase process because of the license scheme. I also have yet to hear a valid argument against product activation, other than "it's an inconvenience". Cry me a river! My experience with Product Activation backs this up. We've only had one person who requested a return, citing product activation as one of the reasons (although it wasn't the only reason). And guess what! After we returned the product for him, he activated it several more times! I find it very difficult to feel sorry for making the occasional customer email me because he licensed his product on several computers (when the license only granted him use on one computer) so that I can reset his activation limit (which I generally do without question). If we refused to buy a product or demanded a return every time we were inconvenienced, nobody would own cars, everyone would be living on the street, and nobody would have computers to bitch at in the first place ;).
>
"I'd recommend worrying about taking care of paying customers and forgetting about people who might not pay you even if piracy were impossible."
Why do these things have to be mutually exclusive? I find it much easier to take care of my customers while maintaining a fair product activation. Nay, I'd say it's easier with product activation because I don't have to worry about supporting customers who do not and will never pay me for my work. As long as you put out a solid product and follow it up with good customer support, you're invariably going to maximize your sales.
Josh Ferguson
-----Original Message-----
From: email@hidden
[
mailto:email@hidden]On Behalf Of Glen Simmons
Sent: Tuesday, April 20, 2004 10:22 AM
To: Greg Hurrell
Cc: Apple Cocoa Dev-List
Subject: Re: [little OT] Licensing/Implementing in Cocoa/Obj-C
On 20 Apr, 2004, at 5:46 AM, Greg Hurrell wrote:
>
El 20/04/2004, a las 11:38, Andreas Mayer escribis:
>
>
> I think product activation is absolutely unacceptable.
>
>
>
> If the activation server goes out of business you might lose the app.
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> No way I would buy anything like that.
>
>
The beauty of the free market is that no one forces you to buy
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anything if you don't want to.
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>
Personally, I'm prepared to accept the risks of product activation,
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just like I accept the risk on every single shareware (or commercial)
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product that I license, knowing that the company could go out of
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business and I'll never get any support or updates, even though their
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product could cease to work the next time Apple updates their OS.
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Sometimes the company doesn't even go out of business, but it still
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withdraws support (even big companies like Adobe; look at the apps for
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which they have ceased to do Mac development, like Framemaker).
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>
But like I said, it's a totally free choice. Those who object to the
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activation can shop elsewhere. And the economics of the question mean
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that I would rather lose 100 sales to honest customers who don't like
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activation, than have 10,000 copies pirated.
I have to ask - do you think that, by preventing those 10,000 copies
from being pirated, you'll gain 10,000 sales? Or is it just the
principle of the thing? What if, by making piracy practically
impossible, you eliminate those 10,000 illegal copies, but only 10 of
those people purchase your app? You've traded 100 customers whose first
thought was to buy your app for 10 customers whose first thought was to
illegally copy it, but when that failed, resigned themselves to
purchasing it. I have no idea if these numbers are realistic, but I
would think it's something to consider.
If it's the principle of the thing, might I suggest that you're
focusing on the wrong people. I'd recommend worrying about taking care
of paying customers and forgetting about people who might not pay you
even if piracy were impossible.
This is a problem I have with all of the anti-piracy hoopla. The
unstated, but implied notion, is that every copy pirated is a lost
sale. I would be quite surprised if even 1% are actually lost sales.
But maybe that's just me.
Glen
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