Classic British Flight Sim

I used to use a form of keycoding for some products a year or so back... Worked okay for a short time, until people just extracted the installer to a temporary folder, zipped the files up and sent them to some usual bittorrent site..

At the end of the day it just made it more difficult for the honest purchaser to get hold of their products and consumed more time out of my day doing activation keys left right and center. Now I just don't bother with anti-piracy measures.. apart from remembering who's requested re-downloads an unusual amount of times that is...

On a sidenote, I picked up the Ariane 737 BBJ the other day... now there's anti-piracy measures that border on the extreme..lol. each to their own I guess.

IRIS - David Brice wrote:On a sidenote, I picked up the Ariane 737 BBJ the other day... now there's anti-piracy measures that border on the extreme..lol. each to their own I guess.

I'm sure if Ariane are still associated with 'that bloke', most wouldn't give two hoots if they lost money to piracy! Perhaps that's why such extreme measures are in place...

IRIS - David Brice wrote:I used to use a form of keycoding for some products a year or so back... Worked okay for a short time, until people just extracted the installer to a temporary folder, zipped the files up and sent them to some usual bittorrent site..

At the end of the day it just made it more difficult for the honest purchaser to get hold of their products and consumed more time out of my day doing activation keys left right and center. Now I just don't bother with anti-piracy measures.. apart from remembering who's requested re-downloads an unusual amount of times that is...

It's refreshing to hear a developer speak some common sense like this! Whatever protection you have *will* be cracked sooner or later, there are people out there who see it as a challenge. The developers/publishers who use ever more complex anti-piracy measures just end up making things very inconvenient for their customers to the point where they can't actually use the product they have paid for. I am also guessing that it costs lots of money to implement the protection, which will of course drive up the price legitimate customers have to pay. I think lots of developers see their product on a torrent site and think of all the lost sales. I would be inclined to believe that the kind of person who downloads pirated software was never going to buy it in the first place!

Then of course I like to think that if some developers put as much effort into the quality and content of their product as they put into the anti-piracy measures we would have a lot more fantastic addons


Forgot to mention - I purchased the PC-9 from Simmarket a couple of weeks ago.... great work! I've been having lots of fun with it!

Whilst I think that their approach was 'mis-placed' I do agree with thier right to be concerned about piracy. When Skysim released the Vixen we were slaughtered.... I think the torrent version appeared the following day. People were actually buying it to post complete with their install keys.

Suffice to say that we learned a lesson there and although it doubtless get us bad press, we are introducing an activation process with the Hawk when it comes out next week. Activation will be by phone or email. I know that in some cases that will mean a non-instant use of the downloaded product but hopefully we won't be too 'retentive' about the activation/re-activation process.

Brian

Brian Franklin wrote:Whilst I think that their approach was 'mis-placed' I do agree with thier right to be concerned about piracy. When Skysim released the Vixen we were slaughtered.... I think the torrent version appeared the following day. People were actually buying it to post complete with their install keys.

Suffice to say that we learned a lesson there and although it doubtless get us bad press, we are introducing an activation process with the Hawk when it comes out next week. Activation will be by phone or email. I know that in some cases that will mean a non-instant use of the downloaded product but hopefully we won't be too 'retentive' about the activation/re-activation process.

Brian

Everyone has a right to protect their products Brian, and I for one don't mind waiting 24 hours for a key or suchlike to be sent out to me. I think the problem with Captainsim is that if you have an issue with a product key or need to request a re-activation they vanish off the face of the earth and do not respond for weeks, sometimes not at all. And they don't have a support forum so it's hard to get in touch with people when you do run into issues.

I have no problem at all with waiting a day or so for an activation key

As long as when I come to reinstall it on a new system in 18 months time I don't get an FSD style nastygram telling me I must be a software pirate because I have installed it three times already :@

Oh so right!, thats why we have opted for a person on the end of a phone or email so the decision can be made realistically instead of cold hard yes or no from some server.

Anyone has any problems....then phone me at home and i will always give you the answer you want....... ;-)

Hmmmmmm...... :think: I wonder if the Samiritans are recruiting.....?

:roll:

Maybe they should send their lines to India and we could get 24 hour Cap'n Singh support....?

Tis a joke.....

Tony

Pielstick wrote:iii) Take the line that as you have already purchased a license for your PSS addons it is perfectly legitimate for you to download them from a P2P network. This will make you a pirate in the eyes of many, and more importantly it will expose you to the viruses and other nasty things that find their way around the P2P networks. Also, should you be "seeding" the file as you are downloading it you WILL become a software pirate in the eyes of the law

You also risk your internet connection these days as lots of ISPs are monitoring things like eMule channels etc. and will send you an e-mail telling you what you shared and when and threatening to cancel your acount if you don't stop. So the risks are just too high these days

Glyn

Techy111 wrote:Anyone has any problems....then phone me at home and i will always give you the answer you want....... ;-)

Hmmmmmm...... :think: I wonder if the Samiritans are recruiting.....?

:roll:

Maybe they should send their lines to India and we could get 24 hour Cap'n Singh support....?

Tis a joke.....

Tony

LOL very good i think India could run circles round captain flimflam