You spend a year writing a book, and then another year editing it, copyrighting it, and getting it published. Your book is in bookstores.

One day, somebody goes in and buys a $5 copy of your book. He/she goes and makes a bunch of copies of your book, and then gives it out on the streets in front of bookstores selling your book.

You’re saying the person who made a bunch of copies is not at fault, and that the people who have no idea the photocopies were illegal are?

Most legal definitions of theft include the concept that once something is stolen from somebody, that person has been deprived the use of something that they had previously been able to use.

The second problem is that we are using the same logic as the music industry uses (and we hate those guys, right?) when they say that some student ‘stole’ 10,000 songs, and therefore they somehow lost the revenue from those 10,000 songs. Absolute hogwash. The student downloaded 10,000 songs BECAUSE it did not cost anything to download them – if he/she had not been able to download them for free, he/she would simply not have done it. So no measurable revenue was LOST. It was simply a lost sales opportunity – ask any online advertiser what the conversion rates are on online ads (another form of sales opportunity), and they will tell you that it’s around 0.3%.

But my real issue with the way this article has been pitched at us on here, is that the developer said that he had previously been getting in the order of 10 sales a day, pretty consistently – but then suddenly he noticed that he had had 400 downloads. Fantastic, he thinks, there’s 400 sales. But no there were in fact 12. To put it another way, he had LOST NO SALES. He used to get around 10 a day, and now he’s getting … around 10 a day.

As a person who has been a software developer for 22 years (is it really so long? Weep), I hate pirates and cannot in my own mind justify people who deprive developers of their living – but I also hate it when people try to rebadge piracy as theft.

You know that video clip they put at the front of a DVD when you HAVE ALREADY BOUGHT IT that says “you wouldn’t steal a car. You wouldn’t steal a handbag. You wouldn’t steal a mobile phone. You wouldn’t steal a DVD … (pause) … Downloading movies is theft.”

NO IT IS NOT.

However, it’s not big and it’s not clever.

If the movie and music industry had their own way, they would not allow me to lend my CDs or DVDs to my friends – that’s what the DRM on downloadable music actually does. ‘Selling’ (because you never actually BUY a movie – only the right to watch it) the physical medium which contains the movie is actually against their interests, because I can still lend it to my friends, or sell it on again later.

Anyway, to get back on topic: If the cracker is competent enough to crack other people’s apps, why the fsck is he not out there making a living from his skillz? And I mean legitimately! There are companies out there who are prepared to pay people on a monthly basis to program computers, you know. Or even better – why doesn’t he come up with his own idea for an application and try to make a living from selling it? Is it because he’s scared of pirates? Boo hoo.

Apple changed the way the rating system worked for the app store. Reviews were tied to purchases. The OS asks for a review when deleting an app from the iPhone. These are steps forward. Apple also made it possible for developers to give away licenses for trial versions, though the number is limited.

Jailbreak was a way of adding utility and value to the iPhone before Apple made it possible. The legality may be a little in the grey area, but nobody was harmed by it. Some developers emerged, creating fun and useful apps for the iPhone. Some found ways to make a little money with their creations. It was a way of seeing what was possible.

When Apple released the app store, the game changed. There was a legitimate way of getting this additional value from an iPhone. Some developers made the jump to the app store. Some still support jailbreak, presumably out of complacency with the old status quo, some due to Apples restrictions on functionality.

Many developers work hard for their apps. They put cash down on an idea, then they put it out, then they have to support the app if it makes it through Apple’s approval process. Regardless of whether they release to the app store or to the jailbreak community, they have a right to any revenue generated from the sales of the apps. It isn’t even a question.

If you don’t feel the app store’s policies are fair, don’t support it. If you don’t like an app, tell the developer. Tell Apple. Tell your friends. If you post that an app has little value, people will notice. Word of mouth is very powerful.

To justify cracking software by saying there are lousy apps out there is a shallow argument. Don’t crack the good stuff. Those are the developers you should support. If you must crack to try it, don’t then distribute it. How does that help your argument at all? If you like it, buy it. If you don’t, delete it. You’ll know the first time you try it if it feels worth the money. If it isn’t, get rid of it, then share your opinion.

How many app stores are there?
1.

I’m not saying he was right at all. I’m saying you have to understand the motivations behind the piracy and make them work to your advantage. The current system allows for no competition between stores, a rigid system, and takes a decent cut away from developers just for providing a unified download interface. It’s ridiculously dumb. If Apple had simply allowed people to distribute their own apps in their own manner with their own license plans, I feel like the app market would be much better. We would have trial periods and limited demos, and I would be willing to bet that open source iPhone apps would be in development. It’s simple speculation, though.

I hate to do this, but look at Radiohead. Better yet, look at Benn Jordan, aka The Flashbulb. He uploaded his own album to What.cd with a small HTML file that pointed people to his label’s site. He made thousands of dollars in donations in days. Look at the artists who upload their own music to torrent sites and even do interviews. Just like the music industry, the current system of distribution hurts the consumer.

I understand it’s wrong to crack and distribute the app, and as I said there will always be people who pirate no matter what. But I think that some of the people who pirated the app would have paid if there was a trial period or something.