Software Sucks

[johnh2005]

It really sucks when, after your company spends OVER $15,000 on software, it is easier to illegally download and crack the software you bought than it is to do it "the right way". It just astonishes me the lengths companies go through to make a user's life so much harder.

 

[clarinetJWD]

What you mean to say is that DRM sucks

I've been saying this for years. The way to fight piracy is not to make it more difficult on your customers, it's to add real incentives to legitimately purchase the software. I know this isn't a 'games' issue for you, but look at Steam. Piracy on that platform is significantly lower than any other place on the PC. Why? Because the platform adds so many features it makes purchasing a lot more enticing.

As for $15k with awful DRM...This wouldn't be AutoCAD, would it

 

[analog.universe]

I remember 10 years ago when I worked in IT, what a pain it was to get legitimate copies running with serial port hardware locks and what have you. I can only imagine how much more complicated and troublesome it's become!

<3 open source

no good open source cad as good as autocad though :-/, if that is indeed what you're talking about

 

[spacefuzz]

yeah at CAD software is expensive, makes camera gear seem cheap!

 

[usayit]

Its always easier to do things illegally than it is to do the right thing...... $15,000? some are up there in the $100000

Its not that the intention was to make the user's life harder... but to make it harder to steal.


In a perfect world.... where no one steals... it would be easier of course.

 

[johnh2005]

Yeah spent the last 9 hours getting ONE copy of AutoCAD and Carlson Survey installed. Awesome fun. I almost borrowed my boss's gun and shot the damn server and my client computer. Finally got it working though. Of course during my "test trial" I got both illegal copies up and running in about an hour and a half...

 

[clarinetJWD]

I knew it.

 

[johnh2005]

Yeah, you would think that when investing as much as $50,000 for software (we are a small company) that they would try to make it a little easier on everyone. (the 50k was with Microstation which was just as bad.)

 

[JClishe]

I've been saying this for years. The way to fight piracy is not to make it more difficult on your customers, it's to add real incentives to legitimately purchase the software. I know this isn't a 'games' issue for you, but look at Steam. Piracy on that platform is significantly lower than any other place on the PC. Why? Because the platform adds so many features it makes purchasing a lot more enticing.

The problem with that, though, is that so many people simply don't care about the added incentives. Piracy is a tens of billions of dollar industry in China. People that buy Windows 7 for 5 bucks from a street vendor in China don't care about added incentives for genuine versions. For them, the concept of paying full price for software is simply ridiculous. Issues like this force software vendors into implementating tactics that end up "hurting" legit customers. Believe me, software vendors hate doing it, but they have to do something. Piracy is a big, painful problem for everyone.

 

[KmH]

Adobe research indicates 1/3 of their software is pirated.

 

[clarinetJWD]

I've been saying this for years. The way to fight piracy is not to make it more difficult on your customers, it's to add real incentives to legitimately purchase the software. I know this isn't a 'games' issue for you, but look at Steam. Piracy on that platform is significantly lower than any other place on the PC. Why? Because the platform adds so many features it makes purchasing a lot more enticing.

The problem with that, though, is that so many people simply don't care about the added incentives. Piracy is a tens of billions of dollar industry in China. People that buy Windows 7 for 5 bucks from a street vendor in China don't care about added incentives for genuine versions. For them, the concept of paying full price for software is simply ridiculous. Issues like this force software vendors into implementating tactics that end up "hurting" legit customers. Believe me, software vendors hate doing it, but they have to do something. Piracy is a big, painful problem for everyone.

True, but you know as well as I do, it doesn't matter what the developer does, those people will not buy a legitimate product. Therefore, any DRM scheme, which will be cracked, they are always cracked, hurts only the paying customers.

Also, I am a developer (I'm currently getting a MS in Computer Science, I've worked for a major game developer, and I do web-development and design in my free time), and, yes, we do have to do something, but it is in the best interest of the consumer and developer to do something positive. Basically there are 3 groups: One group will always pay for the software, one group will pay for what they perceive to be worth it, and one group will never pay. Forget about those who will never pay...they'll never pay. It's not lost money if they wouldn't have been your customers anyways. Focus on the other groups. One of them is going to buy your product, so it fells wrong to 'punish' them. The other will buy the product if they see value in it. That means 2 things: 1) your prices can't be insane and 2) there should be some added benefit to purchasing legitimately.

I mentioned Steam as a shining example of this, and I stand by it, but the App Stores on various mobile platforms and Mac OS (and Windows with the next release) are great examples as well. They offer a centralized location for getting reviews, and 1 click purchasing. The +1 they offer is easy updates from a central location and unlimited re-downloadability for anything you purchased. The other thing they've done is drive prices down to a reasonable level. I once paid $40 for a utility that offered only a few multi-monitor tweaks on Windows, but on an app store, it wouldn't stand a chance at that price, and for good reason.

EDIT: KmH: Really? Only 1/3? Adobe is another company that I put in the "needs to get a clue about pricing" category. At least they're attempting to make it more accessible through subscription licensing, but still, that seems very low for a company who sells a multi-thousand dollar suite. (Unless they're counting anyone who downloaded Flash, Reader, or Air as a legitimate customer)

 

[usayit]

The way to fight piracy is not to make it more difficult on your customers, it's to add real incentives to legitimately purchase the software. I know this isn't a 'games' issue for you, but look at Steam.

Didn't work for decades of shareware. People cracked the codes and what not to get the fully operational version.

Steam is a different business model... AND if it was worth the trouble to hack to get the incentives for free, i'm sure there is someone who did it or in the process of trying.


Piracy isn't driven by incentives.... its not even driven by cost. Its simply driven by the want to get something for nothing.

 

[clarinetJWD]

The way to fight piracy is not to make it more difficult on your customers, it's to add real incentives to legitimately purchase the software. I know this isn't a 'games' issue for you, but look at Steam.

Didn't work for decades of shareware. People cracked the codes and what not to get the fully operational version.

Steam is a different business model... AND if it was worth the trouble to hack to get the incentives for free, i'm sure there is someone who did it or in the process of trying.


Piracy isn't driven by incentives.... its not even driven by cost. Its simply driven by the want to get something for nothing.

See above.

 

[spacefuzz]

The annoying thing about the CAD programs is that they charge you $10k-$75k for the software itself, and the $2k-10k for licence support on a yearly basis! salt in the wound.....

 

[JClishe]

Forget about those who will never pay...they'll never pay. It's not lost money if they wouldn't have been your customers anyways. Focus on the other groups.

I don't agree with this at all. The Chinese government uses pirated software. They've blatantly told software vendors that they won't pay for their software. Obviously they need the software that they're using, but as usayit put it, if they can get something for nothing, they will. Sure, the indivdual consumers that use pirated software probably don't count as lost revenue, because as you put it, they were never going to pay anyway. But there are corporations all over the world that use pirated software to perform mission critical business activity. This represents tens of billions of dollars of lost revenue (read: opportunity) for software vendors. These corporations aren't in the "they'll never pay" camp. They're in the "we've learned how to get something for nothing, but our business would fail without software so we would be forced to pay if we had to become honest citizens" camp.

Do you honestly expect software vendors to just ignore a tens of billions of dollar market, and simply stand by and allow their intellectual property to be stolen? Of course not!! No business would do that! If they did their entire leadership team would be replaced on grounds of galactic stupidity. Corporations, software vendors in particular, have an obligation to their shareholders and employees to invoke measures to protect their intellectual property. And unfortunately, in the world we live in today, that means those measures may create a certain level of pain for honest, paying customers. But it's a business requirement for software vendors. It's a non-negotiable.