I honestly feel that donationware might be the way to go for some developers who are battling piracy. … I feel that if one makes a great product then they will generally get reimbursed what they deserve.

Unfortunately, I don’t think this is true. I say this as the developer of a small piece of donationware. 50,000 active users, donations total to date: £250 (or, half a penny per download). I’m not bitter, because I don’t depend on this income at all, and I don’t push the donation angle. But it demonstrates that you’re unlikely to get what you feel your time might be worth!

I think Wil Shipley has a very enlightened attitude towards piracy:

It doesn’t hurt you to have something “stolen” that (a) is virtual and (b) wasn’t going to be purchased.

I’ve sometimes not paid for software in the past, I must admit. It’s not a matter of education – I’ve always known it’s wrong – simply, a matter of money. I’ve always tried to apply a similar principle to Wil’s, just from the other side: I’d only pirate something if there was no chance I’d buy it; ie., given a choice between buying and not using it, I’d take not using it every time.

It’s tremendously difficult to justify paying that $15 for an app you’re only going to use this once, or simply impossible to pay the $400+ for that massive commercial app that would simply make your life slightly easier. On the other hand, I’ve bought a handful of really useful apps, and donated money to those who give away tools which make my life easier. So my unofficial policy may seem to breed contradictions, but I honestly believe that no-one gets hurt by it, in the same way as I’m not hurt if no-one sends me money for my stuff. I call that fair play.

Wow, this became an epic. I’d just like to finish with a thought about Dave Watanabe. Whatever you think of his software and his attitude, surely anyone who charges money for software which enables piracy is on dodgy moral ground? How can you possibly defend that?

To use the taxi analogy from way-way up there. If I have 0 dollars in my pocket I can’t take a taxi ride. If I try to take a free taxi ride the driver will kill me because it costs him gas, he clearly will suffer a net loss if I get a free ride.

Software is not the same situation. If my friend gives me a copy of Textmate (an app so fantastic I would pay double what Allan charges) does Allan really lose anything? He lost one hypothetical license fee, but he doesn’t know that. All he knows is that he didn’t make 5 sales today, only 4.

It induces eye-rolls but there is such a thing as “I wouldn’t have (or couldn’t have) bought it anyway.”. Either way a sale is ‘not made’, whether I am using the app or not is irrelevant.

This also applies to overpriced software. If I think that Microsoft is charging an arm and a leg for windows (which they do, and which I cannot afford) then why wont I pirate it? They didn’t have to pay to ship it to me, they didn’t have to pay for the bandwidth for me to download or burn it, they didn’t have to package it. The only person that loses is ME if I don’t pirate it! (ok bad example, I lose if I do pirate it in windows case…. but you get the point).

If BMW’s were cloneable (ie, i can make an exact replica for a friend at 0 cost) what would be wrong with me doing that? I can’t afford 80,000$ so BMW has gained and lost nothing.

To clarify, I buy all the software I enjoy using, I’ve even donated and bought t-shirts and so on from certain vendors, but at the same time I don’t really see what the big deal is. I’m a programmer (corporate) too but if I had a killer app and was making a living I wouldn’t care in the least if a few hundred people got free copies. Maybe they’ll even send me e-mails telling me how much they enjoy using the product… I’ll be none the wiser, but it wont matter, because it costs me an inconceivably small amount to ‘clone’ more exact replicas of my product. I can afford to lose a few to pirates.

Firstly, the psychology and ethics of software theft – is it ever justified, why do people do it when they know it hurts developers and so on. This has been done many times before, and I don’t see as being very productive overall.

Secondly, the best response by developers – how do you insist on payment when so many people expect to get a copy for free? This is the practical survival discussion that I think needs some deep thought: there are a lot of different methods, some of which work better than others, FOR SPECIFIC AUDIENCES.

(An aside on that: I used Isadora – a VJing/live video app – from troikatronix.com for a couple of months before purchasing a licence. The demo works in full, but you can’t save. I had a directory full of screenshots which I could use to remake patches every gig. Other programs had restrictions that meant I couldn’t really use them for real gigs: I could only really play with them at home. The app that got me hooked was the one that let me test it out in practice… the others would have had a better chance of my purchasing them if I could have found a pirated copy to use for performances!)

The two discussions intertwine: as an indie, you have a much more leverage on the conscience of a customer because they feel like they are robbing a person rather than a faceless organization.

Piracy won’t stop due to *any* argument you make, it’s more about economics and opportunity.

Personally, I know that any app I’m after will turn up on the torrent sites within days or hours of release: there’s a really industrious scene out there supporting this! But I still buy my apps (even if I have a period of testing beforehand) because I am subscribing to the continued existence of indie mac developers. The pirates that are your future customers are the ones who understand this ecology. The troubling part is communicating this in a compelling manner.

Just to flesh out this discussion a bit more, I’ve posted a brief article on this subject on the Big Robot blog, here:

http://www.bigrobotsoftware.com/blog/2007/04/avast_pirates.html

As fellow indie Mac software developers, we don’t think software piracy is ok, but we think that protecting our software from piracy needs to take a back seat to the user experience.

In fact, I’m hoping that some pirate of my products will stumble upon this post, see that I view them as a not entirely evil part of this equation, and choose to convert to a legitimate user.

 
Back in the OS9 days, Digidesign used to give away a free version of ProTools. It was fully functional and would run off the built-in hardware, but was limited to 8 tracks (or maybe it was 4). I used that version for years. It was plenty for me. But by the time they stopped offering it I was so addicted to ProTools I went out and forked over $450 clams to have it again. And I’ve certainly recommended the purchase of software I’ve stolen. So to some extent I think you’re right. Free users are better than no users.

On the flip side, from a systems administrative perspective, there are a lot of licensing schemes that just do not lend themselves to large installations. Hell, there are some that don’t lend themselves to installation at all. We have been completely unable to get Combustion working on our educational lab systems despite numerous emails to the manufacturer. We will NOT be buying it again for just this reason. That’s about 5 sales they just lost, but untold future users. So I’d caution developers to not make their licenses too restrictive. Don’t punish your legitimate users. They will abandon you.

-systemsboy

It’s the exact same for big developers.

Do you think Microsoft and Adobe want users in China to be pirating their software or to be using free/cheaper competing software? They obviously see advantages in gaining market share from users who aren’t prepared to currently pay for their software.

This is why nonrival goods are fundamentally different from something like BMW’s. A car manufacturer could never adopt the strategy of Microsoft and Adobe.

“I just think the whole development ecosystem would be in better shape if developers made their keys stronger (ala Dave Wantabe”

Then I don’t think you’re paying very close attention to the discussion at hand.

I’ll reiterate that using Watanabe as a case study is crucial to understanding the issue.

It’s interesting to note that Watanabe is now forced to develop and promote a piece of freeware to recoup the bad PR he’s gotten through his anti-piracy strategy.

Why? Well – in contrast to the BMW – the software has been written. If you steal it, it will not cost the developer anything more (if we do not count support, etc.).

It has been written, but it was written on credit. The investment is to be made back by selling the software.

That’s like saying when you steal the BMW, BMW is only out the cost of the parts for the car that you stole, because after all they have already paid the people who assembled designed and assembled the car, the plant it was built in (i.e. software engineer’s office), etc.

This is just wrong. Look at a company like Panic. I believe they are in the neighborhood of 12-15 employees. Having a stable of talent like that isn’t cheap. Steve and Cabel have to pay these guys, remember. Talented people don’t like to work for free. So every copy of their software that is in use and isn’t licensed is a theft. We can rationalize it six ways to sunday (and many of the rationalizations are made by the developers themselves), but it is what it is. Now, swap out Panic for a larger company like Adobe or Microsoft. At these sizes, people tend to start the super-rationalization machine and say things like “well they’re a large company, my pirated copy of their app isn’t hurting anybody”. But the economics of software development are pretty much the same whether it’s a one man shop or a 800 lb gorilla like Microsoft. Software costs money to produce even when there is no physical product shipped. Every copy that is in use, but not paid for, is a theft. Companies like Microsoft have large enough margins in their products to accomodate piracy. Smaller companies like Panic probably have margins too, albeit smaller. The indie developers have less margins, and obviously feel the sting more.

Still, as a small developer, I can understand to some degree using piracy as a psuedo viral marketing campaign. Some of those pirating could possibly convert to a sale. I just think the whole development ecosystem would be in better shape if developers made their keys stronger (ala Dave Wantabe and Ambrosia SW), and pirates were forced to pay for the tools that they use.