Unfortunately it's not just paying and refunding that is the issue with these guys.
>From the twitter account of appbucket: "haha...They finally found the crack we have been using for some of our apps....Took them long enough. We have a few more up our sleeve..." They are clearly actively cracking protection systems incorporated into apps. Of course Google's protection system is a deterrent, however it's never going to be a silver bullet. Major game companies have struggled for years with piracy (and still do), and in that arena the games are cracked by people who seem to be doing it for nothing, other than the challenge. My view is that you won't be able to eliminate people like appbucket. It's the same problem faced by all media publishers (music, film, tv, games etc etc). All you can do is mitigate the risk. If 90% of a publisher's install base is generated from pirated sources, then a 10% reduction in this is meaningful. I don't believe it's possible, or productive to seek 0% piracy. We just have to accept that: 1. Google probably won't (can't) do much more than they already have to help 2. Law enforcement is not a plausible avenue for resolution 3. Mitigation/minimization is the only strategy In the end like everything else it's a numbers game. If there are 1 million people in your "addressable market", but you have 90% piracy, then your addressable market is effectively 100K ppl. It then just becomes a decision as to whether this market is large enough to sustain your business. Increasing this market by mitigating piracy is, IMHO, the only viable strategy. On Sep 20, 1:28 pm, chrispix <[email protected]> wrote: > The other solution would be to > incorporatehttp://developer.android.com/guide/publishing/licensing.html > licensing.. That way they would have to be authorized. Seems pretty > straight forward... > > yes, it sucks to have to change the applications, but better than the > alternative. > > actually, if I recall from my experience in the past, they actually > buy, download then refund their money. It should be pretty easy to > setup an app for say $50.00 or $100.00 that maybe they would pay for, > and have it phone home to find their IP address. > > Chris. > > On Sep 19, 10:23 pm, chrispix <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > Obviously they have to get their money some how. Sign up for an > > account as > > a developer, then find out what their account is. > > Email the paypal operator etc, and say you will file a suite for > > assisting in > > illegal activities and want xyz$ refunded to you. > > > [email protected] > > [email protected] > > > Chris. > > > On Sep 19, 5:37 pm, mot12 <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > On Sep 19, 5:15 am, Pent <[email protected]> wrote: > > > > > I'm surprised everyone is focused on what the app developers can do. > > > > > The people responsible for the market need to remove this stuff, it > > > > can't be so hard. > > > > > I waited a few weeks then posted on Market Help. > > > > > Amazed they've not done anything, it looks really bad having an advert > > > > to cracked apps at the top of > > > > all the paid app comments. I mean really. > > > > This is a very good point, Pent. It would take little to > > > - remove the comments from these criminals since they are very easily > > > identified > > > - ban their gmail accounts > > > - allow developers to make a comment in the market by allowing them to > > > purchase their own apps: "appbucket is a website by thieves, the > > > developers get screwed and you will get screwed." Or something like > > > this. > > > > Instead, Android gives a free advertisement platform for these > > > pinheads. I feel really ignored by you, Google. Hellloooo!!!! -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
