On one side, I should perhaps be flattered that Components4Developers products have been pirated lots and lots of times, thru various piracy sites, but on the other…. it actually hurts business!
It does not work the way, that some people think, that free pirate copies results in people gaining knowledge about the product resulting in more sale of non pirated software, for small developer houses.
In fact most of those arseholes that helps them make a business out of piracy (by buying access from them), will continue to be arseholes in the future.
Very few level up and starts to contribute back to the original developers hard work.
An interesting side note, is that the site actually do not condone nor like piracy according to this statement on their pricing page:
AGREEMENTS: 1. Do not share / resale any link to outside if you did this we block you immediate without any notice. 2. We do not provide any TECHNICAL SUPPORT. 3. Membership Rules & Norms can be changed anytime without prior notification. 4. If you spamming in our password request section, we block you immediate without any notice.
DO NOT BE AN ARSEHOLE OR A SCUMBAG THIEF BY SUPPORTING THOSE!
Agree.
1. Don’t do free advertisment of this site and don’t list it here.
2. You can use source or resource fingerprinting to trace back to the leaker, Devexpress doing this it helps to discurage license owners from leaking the product.
Anyway you can try to fight this, with variable success rate. Best option (in my opinion) is the closed support forum for the license owners….
Regards
How do you identify the “leaker”? I imagine you would need to pay such sites to check if there is a leaked product and what “fingerprints” (if you are using any) there are.
I don’t know why you are publicising them, they won’t care and you’ve just pointed all your legitimate customers at a way to get your software for less. Why tempt them with that?
Also providing a direct link to a pirate site is never a good idea. The site itself could be full of all sorts of malicious browser exploits that you’re potentially exposing your more curious readers to.
Thank you for the comments so far.
I have included the link to them because it is not an unknown site for people. Anyone searching for any of the known 3rdparty products will find that link as one of the search results. Google and Facebook have no problem in referring to the site.
I am pretty sure that the web site in it self, do not pose a threat, as I have numerous detectors running, who have not flagged it as dangerous.
Does it hurt my own business by pointing my customers to it?
If it does, then those customers would anyway be looking for a piracy site, and they would be arseholes from the outset, which I can’t do much about.
About tracking. Yes that is an option, one I have used several times. It does however not make sites as such go away. Being open about their affect on small developers is the only way forward I believe.
I have started the ball rolling, I hope others will pick it up and unite in an effort of informing our customers and specially potential customers (or would be arseholes) that it is just not worth it, using pirated software.
Dear Kim,
Maybe you don’t know, but at first I pirated your products.
I used it for 1 year in my own products. During this time, I saw that kbmmw worked very well and I was very satisfied.
After this satisfaction, I decided to buy. I have been your customer for about 10 years and I am satisfied with your products.
The reason why I am writing this; There may be a possibility that the pirated use will turn into a customer for a certain period of time.
Hi,
Agree.
1. Don’t do free advertisment of this site and don’t list it here.
2. You can use source or resource fingerprinting to trace back to the leaker, Devexpress doing this it helps to discurage license owners from leaking the product.
Anyway you can try to fight this, with variable success rate. Best option (in my opinion) is the closed support forum for the license owners….
Regards
How do you identify the “leaker”? I imagine you would need to pay such sites to check if there is a leaked product and what “fingerprints” (if you are using any) there are.
My software is also listed there.
I doubt, the “crack” really works.
So anyone paying them will only loose money.
And they deserve so.
There is non-zero chance that this is a pure scam. E.g. they don’t actually have any cracks / source code, just grabbing money.
What you can do…
File a complain about its Facebook group: https://www.facebook.com/Developer-Team-100594108617421
File a complain about web-site to abuse@namecheap.com (DNS) and abuse@privatelayer.com (hosting).
Don’t know if any of this will help, but it is worth trying.
They are criminals. Period. May be worth filing with the FBI. Justice may be slow but sweet!https://www.fbi.gov/investigate/white-collar-crime/piracy-ip-theft
I don’t know why you are publicising them, they won’t care and you’ve just pointed all your legitimate customers at a way to get your software for less. Why tempt them with that?
Also providing a direct link to a pirate site is never a good idea. The site itself could be full of all sorts of malicious browser exploits that you’re potentially exposing your more curious readers to.
Thank you for the comments so far.
I have included the link to them because it is not an unknown site for people. Anyone searching for any of the known 3rdparty products will find that link as one of the search results. Google and Facebook have no problem in referring to the site.
I am pretty sure that the web site in it self, do not pose a threat, as I have numerous detectors running, who have not flagged it as dangerous.
Does it hurt my own business by pointing my customers to it?
If it does, then those customers would anyway be looking for a piracy site, and they would be arseholes from the outset, which I can’t do much about.
About tracking. Yes that is an option, one I have used several times. It does however not make sites as such go away. Being open about their affect on small developers is the only way forward I believe.
I have started the ball rolling, I hope others will pick it up and unite in an effort of informing our customers and specially potential customers (or would be arseholes) that it is just not worth it, using pirated software.
Dear Kim,
Maybe you don’t know, but at first I pirated your products.
I used it for 1 year in my own products. During this time, I saw that kbmmw worked very well and I was very satisfied.
After this satisfaction, I decided to buy. I have been your customer for about 10 years and I am satisfied with your products.
The reason why I am writing this; There may be a possibility that the pirated use will turn into a customer for a certain period of time.
Gogole Translate