Loud

The following are a few points on piracy as from somebody whose been in the software industry for a few years now(that’d be me). I also tweeted these notes and collected the tweets in a keepstream.

1. The only people who will pay for software are those who want to pay. You can’t stop the rest from pirating, just delay them.

2. Revenue loss from piracy is impossible to measure, but you can measure the ROI of countermeasures (like DRM). Do sales go up or down?

3. The ROI of DRM is generally so low that anything too complex will just cut into your margins. Choose simple and cheap over unbreakable

4. If your sales are front-loaded (most of the sales are in the first few weeks) then more complex DRM to delay piracy makes a lot of sense

5. Given point 1, you limit piracy by making more people want to pay (as opposed to having to): Lower prices, make them care, or both

6. Some of the best piracy countermeasures are on the business model level: Subscription-based services/updates. Web Apps.

7. You can develop a software product that is rampantly pirated by your target market and still make a profit (see point 1).

8. Some folks have a crazy sense of entitlement to piracy. Engaging with them is soul-sucking. They love the work and hate the creators

9. Piracy thrives on community, all major forms of it (torrents, websites, forums) can’t exist without it.

10. The best way to prevent piracy is to sap the community around piracy: Fix major grievances. Address price and availability concerns.

11. Anything that adds to that community’s list of grievances feeds it and promotes piracy. That’s why aggressive DRM increases piracy

12. Once a strong piracy community has developed around your product niche you’re sunk and your only customers will be the naturally honest

13. The effectiveness of lower pricing in countering piracy depends on the market. Works well for impulse buys, less so for niche products

14. Piracy isn’t marketing. Controlled free offerings are. The two are completely different, but free obviously diminishes the piracy drive

15. Piracy can and has destroyed a product’s viability. Products that aren’t viable at lower prices but have mostly casual users

16. People who claim that piracy isn’t an issue don’t have loans to pay or kids to feed. It is, however, a very misunderstood issue

17. Alienating pirates isn’t smart in the long-term. If you aren’t an arsehole about it some of them start to pay when they have money

18. If your work adds no value to the world when free & pirated, if its only meaning is to pay your bills then you’re as bad as the pirates

19. That doesn’t excuse piracy in general, just that some software cos are evil scum-suckers and piracy’s the least of what they deserve

20. The software market isn’t a single homogenous market. Different segments require different business models and tactics.

21. Talking as if the software (or ebook) market is homogenous is really stupid. It’s markets (plural) and they are all different