33 replies to this topic

[bhavesh]

Sometimes back I had an opinion that all softwares illegal copy and there cracks are available in net, but this is not true. Recently, I was searching for Metastock (a stock Technical Analysis Software, and also very popular among stock analyst) in these illegal sites, but I did not find any of its version, not even the crack.

I think there is some method to stop software piracy, can anybody tell what these companies are doing so their software is not available.

I am suggesting some methods for stoping these menace:-

• Search Engines - Everyone starts from here to reach there desired pirated copy. Software firms should pressurize these search engines to stop crawling the sites which contain cracks, keyzens, etc.
  
  
• Trail Copy - If a full featured trial copy of any software is provided by its owner in the net, then it becomes very easy for the crackers to make a crack for it. So, I think rather giving full featured copy, they should cut down some features in trial copy.
  
  
• Software firms should check time-to-time to see whether any cracks or serials are available in the net.

Would anybody like to add anything more.

[heaven_master_ash]

Well Friend To Stop Piracy Government Should Take Strick Actions On That Which They dont.

Other Thing Its Not Possible That Any Search For Any Thing And They Wont Get So Its Very Difficult To Stop Piraited things Search.

After That I Can tell U More Then 25% Of The World Web Is Having things Of Piracy Which Cant be Stopped easily So Its Very very Difficult To Stop Piracy..

[Galahad]

Piracy can't be stopped, simply because people will always want free software, and there will always be people willing to provide it... The only reason that Metastock program wans't on that site, is because it's not generalized program...

Crackers tend to put up software that majority of people want to use, meaning Office-type software, different games, and rearly specialized software... I'm not saying it's not available, maybe it just wasn't paying off to crack that program...

What a man makes, a man breakes... There is no perfect protection, and there will never be (aside from distributing a bodyguard with software, and thus preventing people from making illegal copies, by hitting them in the head with a baseball bat, or some kind of a club )

[Gyad]

You can't stop piracy, where ever you go, online or offline, people will be distributing copies of things to others illegally. Some might not know that it's illegal to do so, some do but still defy the law.

Another thing, the companies don't always go against piracy. If anything, sometimes it helps them gain publicity. If someone likes the program, there's a chance that they will buy it or recommend someone to buy it.

[Dooga]

Although have you seen the recent Windows XP CDs? They have like 10 different messages in one single area thanks to their special CD effects that changes colors and words everytime you move the CD...

[icemarle]

I highly doubt it. People have been pirating since the early ages. Plus, no matter how advanced the "good guys" get, the "bad guys" are always one step ahead of them when it comes to covering up their crimes. I hear about some thing a huge software company did to prevent piracy of their programs... then, I start hearing about how some crackers already figured a way around it. And it didn't even take too long!

Besides, with the fact that it's even easier to pirate stuff now, I highly doubt it's gonna stop. Even some people beginning with computers know how to use cracks, etc... It's going to happen no matter how hard people try to stop it. You can't stop people from choosing to get the same software, file, etc. by paying for it when you can just get it somewhere in the undernet for free without paying a single cent.

[bhavesh]

Quote

The only reason that Metastock program wans't on that site, is because it's not generalized program...

I think you dont know about Metastock. Let me explain you, the two top ranked stocks Technical analysis softwares are Metastock (No. 1) and Amibroker (No. 2). These softwares are used world wide and they have high demand too, infact for searching free copy of Metastock I came to know about some people, who have bought it and now want to sell its illegal copy to recover the price. So, this s/w is in high demand.

As I have told in my first post

Quote

2. Trail Copy - If a full featured trial copy of any software is provided by its owner in the net, then it becomes very easy for the crackers to make a crack for it. So, I think rather giving full featured copy, they should cut down some features in trial copy.

Amibroker (No. 2) does this, they provide the trial copy which doesnt save the database, only these feature lacks from the licensed version. And you search for its crack in web and will find many.

So I dont think if crackers can provide cracks for No. 2 then why cant they provide for No. 1
Metastock must be doing something to save its software.

Quote

Other Thing Its Not Possible That Any Search For Any Thing And They Wont Get So Its Very Difficult To Stop Piraited things Search.

I think if search engine agree ban searching of some keywords then it is possible.

[no9t9]

the main reason why you can't stop piracy on the internet is because the internet is not localized anywhere. nobody really controls it. no one country has jurisdiction over the internet and there is not governing body that has been given the power to monitor the whole internet.

that means the laws only apply to the country the person downloading or uploading is in. if it is legal in your coutnry, you can upload or download whatever you want. If the person downloading from you is from a country that is not legal, then then can be prosecuted.

[3-me]

Piracy can't be stopped. Period.

Microsoft tried stopping piracy by making all their new programs, and updates for Genuine only. That didn't work out.

As soon as the Windows Genuine Validation tool came out, the very next day, people cracked it. No matter how much they updated it, it was still getting cracked.

Personally, I don't have a problem with Piracy. I mean, if someone goes through all that length, just to get a free copy of software, then shouldn't the companies be proud that they made something that works?

Maybe someone isn't the richest person in the world. Yes, Bill Gates, I know it's hard to believe for him, but not alot of people have that much money. So they refer to warez, or torrents, or even Kazaa and Limewire.

Most people don't get why others would go through the trouble of being caught for software that they could buy for $20-$50, but then again, most of those people haven't been in the other's shoes.

[ProtoMan]

Software piracy can't be stopped . Like Webroot , you can only download the uncrackable of their softwares because they will die after 15 days free trial but then , crackers upload the CRACKED full version of Webroot's products to some stupid Warez pages.Even if they make that you can only buy their software , not any trials first , their software will be still free on the Warez pages.Microsoft tried to make the Windows Validation Program but some computers still can use Window Internet Explorer 7 Beta 3 or Window Media Player 11 Beta or Window Defender Beta 2 and more. So I think Piracy software can't be stopped unless there is no crackers

[tdktank59]

its a plain fact dude...

IT CANT BE STOPED...

however i have found ways to make it harder...

with trial version disable some features
disable the register/unlock copy features so you have to buy it to get this feature
make it very hard to crack

either way it wont stop piracy...

because if just our government does it and a few others... theres still the rest that wont enforce it so it will still be avaliable all over the web unless they start to filiter our internet (against the law in the usa) then they cant stop it so

1. get over it
2. stfu
3. i dont pirate
4. lol 42
5. spam is fun...
6. pay for your products
7. have fun with your products that other can get for free...

[Sharn]

It's not possible to stop piracy. At all, and never will be. I dare them to try to shut down all the websites that offer that stuff. Bill Gates could use ALL of his money on Lawsuits and Lawyers and barely shut down half of them. =\

[bhavesh]

Quote

however i have found ways to make it harder...

with trial version disable some features
disable the register/unlock copy features so you have to buy it to get this feature
make it very hard to crack

I agree with you cracking can be made harder by adopting some measures, but software companies are not adopting this to a greater extend, this may be due to the fact that, they want to only target to sell there products to schools, colleges, institutions, where the licence demand is for more computers, for the whole lab or so, and they know that these institutes will never want to have a pirated copy.

[neuspadrin]

Basically, piracy will never be stopped because where there is a will, theres a way. The more popular a program, the more likely it will be easy to find a cracked current version of that software. I mean, its almost sad how fast some stuff gets cracked.. Like you can often see games appear cracked within hours of their actual release to the public.

So mainly, very popular games, movies, and office type software (photoshop, ms office, etc) will always be found cracked in so many different places.

People need to learn that odds are you can end up finding a free version of the same kinda software faster then you can find a crack for that software from that company (eg. photoshop is expensive.. so go try gimp .. though i do admit i like photoshop much better, but thats simply because i havnt played with gimp as much yet, and i have to work with photoshop all the time at work)

[shadowx]

I think theres a deeper question that needs to be asked. Why do people use and help distribute pirated software?

Well for a start i dont pirate software, let me get that clear! I just use freeware alternatives But i can see why people do pirate software. Old billy gates is sitting on millions yet his software cots about £90 for an operating system. Its a disk! and its not even that good! Yet it means that you're down by £90. For me thats a lot of money, im only a student but i have three computers in my house and that would cost me nearly £300 and my parents or me dont have that to just spend! Especially when its overpriced! If it only costs £20 - £30 pounds for a fully working and good operating system them im sure that almost no-one would pirate software.

I think that companies that overprice are the ones to blame. For example students like me on computer courses might need to by very expensive software, especially those on graphics or programming courses! Yet not many vendors cut students any slack for expenses. I appluade those companies that offer free home editions of software or even discounted home version.

Im guessing someone will say "but if people didnt pirate then the prices wouldnt be so high." possibly. But i bet if prices dropped so would piracy. Its the same case with films, a cinema charges 5 pounds to see a film once and thats a student discount rate! Where as a pirate dvd costs only 5 pounds for unlimited veiws!

Same principle just different subject!

And is it really that bad?

It doesnt bother me that people use pirated software because the victims of piracy are usually those big companies who overcharge anytway!

[garbage]

probably not since someone will alwys be trying to do it, and im sure there will always be a way of getting around things to be able to steal softwares and other things.

[bhavesh]

One more point to stop piracy.
Every software should have two licence:

• For personal use in a single Home PC - Distribute it free.
  
• For Institutions - Sell them your product.

neuspadrin, on Aug 27 2006, 01:06 AM, said:

People need to learn that odds are you can end up finding a free version of the same kinda software faster then you can find a crack for that software from that company

As free versions of popular softwares are available and with the same features, then thee is no need to buy the expensive version.

Software companies should understand if they can't stop people from making and using cracked versions, then they should start distributing it for free. The consequence wil be:

• Closing of sites with cracked softwares.
  
• Publicity of their product.

And if people like the software, they will recommend it to the institutes, they are working. Software companies should target these institutes, and should sell there products there.

[T100]

It doesn't work that way. Software privacy has been there for more than 20 years. Ever since the Internet was made, there are simply no ways to stop people from trading software online. The earliest scene was run on BBS boards on CompuServe, and people are trading cracked software on an early version email system at AOL. And then groups like Razor1911 began to surface. And they become so legendary that people from all around the world are taking part in cracking and reverse engineering. There are reverse engineers from Australia to Scandinavia, from America to China, and the tools they develop are getting more and more powerful. People are now using ollydbg and IDAPro to look at the codes directly and tools like softice are extremely user friendly to coders now. There are magazines and books teaching people the art in China and people are picking up the skill much quicker. On the other hand, boardband has become much more popular and it is not unusual to download an 8.5GB DVD-9 for about 3-4 hours. Software is much smaller compared to a DVD and so it gets transferred by BT easily. There are no ways that these two trends can be stopped easily. People are no longer checking for search engines for pirated software. They now tend to go more underground, by taking part in P2P forums which require log in and sharing for points before you can take part in downloading. The scene just becomes more accessible to non-elite users, as many people are setting up their FTP on the web easily. While it may help if those software companies check over nforce more frequently, the scene is just now so strong that it will continue to live with the Internet for the future to come. Just imagine, even software giants like Microsoft gets their codes reverse engineered and their ecliptic function encryption for keys cracked. The reverse engineers at the scene are just so talented.

[bhavesh]

T100 has explained the history, tools and about reverse engineers nicely. Great work.

Quote

The reverse engineers at the scene are just so talented.

I think these engineers work at office to make the software crack proof and at home they try to find out the cracks.

Quote

There are reverse engineers from Australia to Scandinavia, from America to China, and the tools they develop are getting more and more powerful. People are now using ollydbg and IDAPro to look at the codes directly and tools like softice are extremely user friendly to coders now. There are magazines and books teaching people the art in China and people are picking up the skill much quicker.

As explained by T100 why softwares can't be protected against cracks. I would say, if software companies adopt my methods suggest in last post then they might be able to do so, what do other members think.

[iGuest]

Everyone knows it canCan Software Piracy Be Stopped?

the thing is that, no matter how many procedures people use to ensure that something cannot get pirated. People will always be a step ahead. Because companies have a select ammount of people to make the code, while the population has 100x that ammount trying to crack it.

-reply by interesting

 

[aloKNsh]

noo...........
i dont think so because if it is stopped then one or other will download from p2p and stopping p2p is a little tricky.
Yes u can stop by destroying the internet lol
i know this is impossible now
but if the government is too strict then we can do so
for ex in china there the biggest piracy site (sorry but i dont the name of the site currently) for music and then warner bros., disney , universal, 20th century and many files a case against the site so it was forced to shutdown.....................

[iGuest]

Look man..

People will always look for what is better for them and their economy in this case

Maybe if prices drop from everywhere (DVDs, softwares and music) it could exist a little chance for piracy to be over. But as long as people get what they want for FREE there will always exist.

-reply by Sergie

[The Simpleton]

I too think it's virtually impossible for piracy to end anytime soon, and even if all the companies which churn out media (music, movies, games, etc) drastically reduce their prices (which isn't going to happen anytime soon! ), many people are gonna look for a quick way to get what they want. And unfortunately, in many cases, piracy is the only way through which people can fulfill their selfish demands

For example, you have watched the latest blockbuster movie just now. As you walk out of the movie hall, you can't stop thinking about the movie. You want to watch it again, but you cant get tickets for the next show. You go home, but still can't stop thinking about the movie. In desperation you turn to the internet and check if there's a pirated copy in there. It's no surprise when you find a copy with crystal clear quality print. What would you do now?

You would say that you wouldn't such a thing, but everyone's not like you! A majority of people would download the movie as soon as they come back from the theater. That's the hard truth. Same is the case for music. As soon as people hear a good song from somewhere, the first place they look for is not the local music store, but their favorite "warez" sites to download it.

And if you want to talk about software, please don't get me started! Agreed that the developers work hard on the software and they deserve to be paid, but we don't really know whether the exorbitant prices they charge for a small piece of software is worth it or not. A decent computer in India with 2GB RAM, 320GB hard-disk space and an LCD monitor can be bought at a price of Rs.20000 (~$415) but add the Windows Vista Home Basic and Microsoft Office Student and Home Edition software to the computer and the price reaches almost Rs.30000! Now why would someone like to get a deal like that? That's why software piracy is still ruling the roost.

So as of now, there is no real method to stop piracy; any form of piracy. And there's no saying if we'll ever find a reliable method to stop it. We may be able to catch the source and the people who download, but there are simply too many people like these! Wipe out one and another will come up.

[Andy93]

I don't think piracy will ever be stopped due to the ridiculously high fee for some applications unless the government start to crack down on it, but would that be cost effective hiring people to spy on your browsing habits and to pay the legal fees to shut down the offenders.

However one way that may work would be for the developers to allow ISP's to host many of the popular programs like Microsoft Office and Microsoft Windows that can be accessed for a small monthly fee say £5.99 ($10 approximate) which have a monthly license that as long as the fee is payed will be renewed. This would help users who only pirate programs because of the price use them for a fraction of the normal retail price this also would maybe help with minors that download illegally as the parents wouldn't get punished for something that they have done.

Another way that could help is raise the awareness of open source alternatives that can be just as good as the or better than paid equivalent.

My theory is that there is piracy due to the price of software. If it was cheaper more people would buy it. This would in the long run probably gain more revenue for the developers and with storage media getting cheaper every year it can't hurt to try it.

[inverse_bloom]

As most people seem to unanimously agree piracy without a doubt cannot be stopped. First of all cracking encrypted data has been been an age long battle for thousands of years where no encryption method has been found to be unbreakable (just much harder).

Governments putting more measures in place to try to stop piracy will only cause people to go underground. In this instance information and activities for reverse engineering will still be accessible, but will cause people to operate more covertly. Companies can try and make it harder, but crackers will automate their patches to keep it easy for the average person to use. Maybe the only way is by all companies to make software cracking difficult so crackers begin to give up (too much bother).

If governments were to try to monitor and enforce restrictions on P2P sharing this would work. But then we wouldn't have what makes the internet so good, which is the freedom to share or to use digital information as we desire.