Nicolas, I asked that question for a reason.
As lbcoder already pointed out, piracy is always an issue for the software industry, regardless of whether you are an individual developer or a large vendor. Now I don't advocate software piracy, and as a developer myself I have good reason to be against it. However, I'm also one of the unfortunate Android owners who can't buy paid apps using Google checkout (or subsequently the Android Market). We have filed our bug reports, we have made lots of noise and begged developers to consider advertising on other markets. Eventually all these people fall into the following routine when they want a paid app like yours: 1) Search for the app on the popular alternative markets, such as (in my case) AndAppStore and Handago 2) Do a Web search for your app, maybe you offer it direct, or somewhere else 3) Find a free alternative 4) Email the developer and ask them to distribute their app somewhere else 5) Go back to the search results of (2) - and click on one of the links for the cracked version Not everyone follows all those steps, and in fact many start skipping (3) and (4) fairly early on. Remember that many of these people want to give you money for your work, but unless they are successful with steps (1) (2) or (4), you haven't given them the opportunity. I can't explain why your sales might have dropped 50%, although I do have my serious doubts that the site you linked had this effect either. However, as revenue is one of the main consequences for this, I would suggest you try and maximise your profits; by making your app available to the many people who end up with little choice but to hope for the paid app they want to be cracked and distributed for free. I would have said all this straight out, but it would seem futile if you had already made your app available on other markets. My searching around so far (on AndAppStore, Handago, SlideME, etc) has not turned up any alternative means of getting your app legitimately. Therefore, these so called "Warez" file sharing sites are providing a sadly necessary service to much of the world outside of the U.S. On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 2:46 PM, Nicolas Gramlich<[email protected]> wrote: > > Please open another topic for that... > > On 2 Sep., 15:11, Sean Hodges <[email protected]> wrote: >> Nicolas, >> >> On a slightly related issue... >> >> I can't buy paid apps from the Android market because Google checkout >> doesn't support my bank >> card:http://www.google.com/support/forum/p/Android+Market/thread?tid=57912... >> >> There are also other countries that have Android phones but are not >> able to see or buy paid apps because it is not enabled in their >> country. >> >> How can we buy your app legitimately? Is it available on any markets >> besides the Android Market? >> >> Thanks, >> >> Sean >> >> On Wed, Sep 2, 2009 at 1:31 PM, plusminus<[email protected]> wrote: >> >> > Hi guys, >> >> > when I returned from my vacation I realized a 'sudden' drop (50%) in >> > sales of my application AndCam3D >> > (http://www.cyrket.com/package/org.anddev.andcam3d >> > ) >> >> > Having activated the 'Copy Protection' I first did not think of piracy >> > and not being aware of the possibility to easily circumvent even the >> > CopyProtection, I did a quick google search on "AndCam3D" ( >> >http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=andcam3d) and just on the second >> > page I found the following: >> >http://android-leak.com/applications/andcam-3d-1-3/ >> >> > I was struck by what I saw! >> >> > 5 links to different file-hosters: >> > DepositFiles:http://depositfiles.com/files/kwldtfwis >> > zSHAREhttp://www.zshare.net/download/6469090898da396f/ >> > Megaupload:http://www.megaupload.com/?d=67WJUDUU >> > Rapidshare:http://rapidshare.com/files/271793746/org.anddev.andcam3d.rar.html >> > and another one where I could not yet get the file deleted. >> >> > When I tested the offered version and it was actually working very >> > well, I got really angry and did a quick whois lookup: >> >http://whois.domaintools.com/android-leak.com >> >> > I found a wild combination of China, Seychelles and Turkey. But >> > obviously the owner (who btw doesn't find those files on the net, but >> > even uploads the files to the file-hosters by himself (you can see >> > users requesting newer versions, and he responds) >> > Also see the FAQ: >> > ####################### >> > Q: What I have to do when all Downloadlinks are death? >> > A: Please post a comment to the concerned App or Game. Then we try to >> > upload them again, as fast as we could. >> > ####################### >> > ) is from Germany! You can see that by the links to German websites >> > (http://nichts-zutun.de/,http://piratenpartei.de/(now removed), >> > the second one is a German party I am thinking of voting for...o_O ) >> >> > The funny thing is that there is neither an Imprint or a Contact-mail, >> > which is also not legal in Germany... >> >> > So if you sell an app and you find it on his site, either contact your >> > lawyer, or write an really mad comment (like I did) in English (or >> > German, as I did) AND request removal of the files due to copyright >> > infringement with the file-hosters. Most of them will listen within >> > 24h. >> >> > Let me know what you think and what could be done to bring this site >> > down. >> >> > Best Regards, >> > Nicolas Gramlich >> > # anddev.org | Worlds largest Android Developer Community >> >> > > > --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Discuss" group. 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