Ask HN: How to detect if app is pirated?

Re:Ask HN: How to detect if app is pirated? by HalcyonMuse on Friday May 08, 2009 @05:53PM (#600294)

Er, isn't this a valid concern? I don't own an iPhone, so I don't REALLY know what I'm talking about here, but as a college student, I know quite a few people with iPhones who pirate ALL of their applications. I get the impression that they have pretty much the same applications as people paying for them.

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Re:Ask HN: How to detect if app is pirated? by mcav on Friday May 08, 2009 @06:04PM (#600317)

Piracy exists, sure. But I would suggest that iPhone developers not worry about it. Anti-piracy measures for iPhone applications would require time and energy invested that would arguably be better spent improving the software.

Users who pirate applications aren't necessarily lost customers; they might not have purchased it legally even if they couldn't pirate it.

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Re:Ask HN: How to detect if app is pirated? by alex_c on Friday May 08, 2009 @06:20PM (#600339)

For an MMORPG, that IS a valid concern though. Pirated copies take up server resources and increase costs. Piracy also makes it more difficult to enforce rules - if everyone has to pay, closing a misbehaving account is feasible, but if a significant percentage of the userbase pirates it, then they can just make any number of free accounts, and degrade the experience for paying users.

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