[LGP-copyprotect] Why a constant call-home copy protection system is a bad idea

[Wolter Hunter]

I just though I'd share some things about copy protection, since I believe
that LGP is taking this whole piracy thing the wrong way.

I spent the good part of my youth pirating games and all sorts of software.
Up until my first job, I think that in total I bought 5 pieces of software
(a programmer's text editor, a file manager, a compiler, and 2 games that I
REALLY liked).

I am now a professional software developer, building software for profit by
day, and building open source projects by night.



VIEWS ON SOFTWARE:

There are three roles at work in this area of your business model: The
publisher (you), the customer, and the pirate.
There are, of course, gray areas in between, but I'll stick to these
designations for the purposes of this letter.


The publisher's view (They dun took our stuff!):

You have worked hard, and have paid with time and money to build a quality
product for your customers.  When you see people use that software that cost
you to produce, and not pay one red cent for it, your reaction runs from
annoyance to wanting heads on stakes.
The conventional view is that every piece of software pirated is a sale
lost, and thus, money lost.  I'll explain the fault in this logic later.


The customer's view (I paid for it, now I wanna use it!):

He works hard for his money, and when he pays it to some company, he expects
a product that works without hassle.  The more annoying and intrusive a
product is, the less satisfied the customer will be.  For the publisher, the
consequences can be quite dire indeed should he fail to take care with his
paying customers.


The pirate's view (I ain't paying for this!):

The pirate is not interested in paying for the software.  He doesn't give a
rat's ass about how much it cost you to make it; he wants to grab a copy and
give it a go.  Some pirates may eventually buy the software if it meets
their strict standards, but most won't.
These people are out for freebies.  They're not interested in paying money
if they don't have to.  Usually, they're not even that interested in the
software; it's more of a passing curiosity.



THE MYTH OF SALES LOST:

You're running on the myth that every copy pirated is a sale lost.  This
simply is not true.  The majority of the people who are pirating your
software would NEVER buy it, even if you had an unbreakable copy protection.

What you're after are the drifters, who would buy the software, but it's
just more convenient to pirate it.  You do need SOME form of copy protection
if you want to convince this segment to fork over the money.



FORCES AFFECTING YOUR CUSTOMERS:

Monetary cost:  The price you set for your software will GREATLY affect how
many people will be willing to pay.  Set it too low, and you won't make
money.  Set it too high, and it will push paying customers into the pirate
camp.

Fun and useability factor:  Of course, the software has to be pleasurable to
work with.  If you have shoddy software, people will be turned off and will
stop buying, or might start pirating instead if it is still marginally
useful.  Make a good product, and you can snag the borderline pirates who
are just checking it out first.

Annoyance factor:  As you add more antifeatures (software features that
negatively affect the customer experience), you push a whole new population
segment away from the paying customer camp.  The more antifeatures your
software has, the more incentive there is for people to download the cracked
version.  They do this to get rid of the antifeatures.  The fact that they
get the software for free is just an added bonus.



WHY CALL HOME IS BAD:

"Call home" is an antifeature.  It means that the customer has to maintain
an internet connection.
While you may have a workaround so that people can play without a net
connection, it doesn't mean that they can ALWAYS play without a connection
(otherwise there'd be no point to having call home in the first place).  No
doubt you have some kind of system that allows a limitation on how long you
can run the software before it REQUIRES a net connection.  This is an
annoyance, and one that the cracked version won't have.  Care to guess what
some of your previously paying customers are going to do?



A BETTER SOLUTION:

Instead of having it call home every time, why not simply require a one-time
activation (one-time call home) upon installation?  Once activated on a PC,
it runs without any further hinderance, internet connection or not.  With
this setup, the annoyance factor goes way down.
And I'm not talking about Windows-style activation, where it requests
another activation every time you change your graphics card.  I mean
one-time activation such that it will then run forever on that machine, or
until you erase it from the drive.  This opens more potential for pirates to
pirate, but those particular pirates are the ones who wouldn't buy anyway.



THE PERFECT WORLD THAT WASN'T:

You need to get past your outrage over the theft, and focus more on what
your customers will do.  THEY are the ones who determine whether you make
money or not, and so they should be first and foremost in your mind.
Like it or not, your software WILL be pirated.  That is a 100% guarantee.
The trick is to get a segment of those pirates to become customers, while
avoiding turning your customers towards piracy.

It's all about balance.  The proposed "call home" solution tips the balance
too far and will hurt you financially in the end.
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