Hi, Does anyone here have an idea how to perhaps go about detecting if an application being run on the touch devices is pirated or not. I have read some disturbing articles recently on the state of piracy with touch device apps and it concerns me.
I dont want to give anyone who has not bought the app any access to any of the bonus material or online highscore tables etc.
It amazes me that they use the excuse "it gives the player the ability to try before they buy" That excuse was perhaps legitimate in the days of $50 games but when your talking about 99cents or $2 there is no excuse.
Any ideas thoughts?
Cheers
Mike R
Hi mykyl66,
I am currently looking some info about it.
I think same as you, that piracy on iphone is not a excuse on try before you buy; you always can get free or lite app for trying purposes.
Apple say that worldwide iPhone jailbreaker is about 7%, so it's not very worried about it, but i think they might 'update' his drm methods.
My game was on piracy web, applous, 2 days after my release.
This was my 2 cents.
King Regards, fjsantos.
As with any platform, people will pirate anything and they will find a way around any protection you put in place. Nothing a small developer can do is likely to make it any harder for them.
There are things you could do to make your data less accessible (i.e. make it harder for someone to rip your graphics) but as far as stopping people copying your game goes, you've already lost the war.
My suggestion is to put on your website in big letters that you're keeping the price cheap so everyone can afford it and won't need to copy it. The best you can hope is that people who would otherwise copy it will buy it as it's cheap.
I HATE people that steal software. The laws should be MUCH stricter and authorities should prosecute offenders MORE often. :rtfm:
In the next update there will be a hidden function you can call to chack if someone fiddled with the info.plist. That's a pretty good start.
Then, if the program is cracked display a message "You must not steal software", but after a few minutes of gameplay.
Thanks for the replies folks. I fully understand that piracy is the norm now. If it happens and they play the game then so be it. The only thing I want to be able to control really is the ability to join the legitimate users in the highscore tables.
Thanks again.
Mike
The anti-piracy method mentioned will be a great start!
There is a interesting article about piracy nowadays here: http://smellslikedonkey.com/wordpress/?page_id=274
King Regards, fjsantos.
It isn't a major issue on the iPhone. If only 7% are jailbroken, then the number in that 7% that are interested in your software is going to be pretty minimal.
Quote from: fjsantosb on 2009-Oct-27
The anti-piracy method mentioned will be a great start!
There is a interesting article about piracy nowadays here: http://smellslikedonkey.com/wordpress/?page_id=274
King Regards, fjsantos.
I saw that exact page and it is what made me think about ways around it.
Thanks
Mike R
there is a lib for detecting 4 types of cracks and the crackolous method. Cant find th elink, will post it if i found it.