2

I've been looking up this thread on how software piracy can be prevented. It's got a number of interesting suggestions ranging from using copy protection to providing free versions, and not surprisingly, none of them will satisfy you 100%.

It will perhaps be apt to experiment with each of the popular anti-piracy measures to gauge success.

Are there reliable surveys that point to the success or failure of such measures? Furthermore, surveys are often biased because of countless factors, and perhaps the software product developer himself should attempt to gauge success or failure of a particular measure.

If I decide to resort to the second option, what would you suggest to obtain hard data about software piracy patterns for my specific product?

Community
  • 1
Naweed Chougle
  • 552

2 Answers2

6

If crackers can remove your protection code, they can remove your tracking code too.

IMHO there is not effective way to determine how much your are cracked. I think the only ones that know is very large vendors like Microsoft that can use panel based studies.

2

If you can, provide your product with some sort of benefit for phoning home. Track the number of legitimate sales and/or license activations and the number of people picking up that benefit. (Also, track the "phone home"s you can link to legitimate purchases. Don't assume that every legitimate purchaser will phone home. The numbers won't match.

This won't tell you whether the piracy is helping (making more people aware of your product) or hurting you (a few of the pirates might have paid, how many you don't know), or whether any particular protection measure will be useful, but you'll at least have an idea of how many pirates.

David Thornley
  • 20,310