Shareware the Pirates?

[Mychal]

In the early 90's I wrote a software game and distributed it as shareware. I had 100's of thousands of downloads that i kenw of... I had 200 people pay for the software. The game was good enough to be published twice, once in Japan and once stateside. So I have some experence about shareware as a business model.

Pirates took my shareware game and they would bundle it with other shareware software and sell the cd's. People who paid for the cd would think...'I own the software, cuz I already paid for it.' I as the shareware artist got squat..... Shareware is NOT a new idea, it has been around for decades and we still have software pirates of shareware products. Shareware doesn't stop pirates, not in the least bit.

If you sell a product for $15 , but also offer it as shareware.. pay what you want. you will almost never get the $15 retail price. Who would pay full price when you told them they don't have to. You will lose income but have more customers. More income is usually better a better choice for a business. You will have people who will also think... 'Shareware = freeware' Shareware by it's nature IS free, and the owner is asking you to pay for it, but not requiring you to. Rats won't pay a dime for it. So your honest customers will pay you less, and rats won't pay you anything for it.... loss of income. Take the $15 example... if I had 100 customers who paid me $15 i'd make $1500 simple. If it was shareware and pay what you wanted.. how much would you make... I'll pull a number out of my butt and say the avg. shareware fee I get is $7.50. I'd need to double my sales just to break even. Denny at WorldWorkGames estimates that he loses 60% of his possiable revenue to rats. So he would need to get almost 100% of the rats to pay for his product and maybe he'll increase revenue. Not going to happen.

Shareware won't solve the pirate problem or generate increased income. PERIOD.

 

[philreed]

In the early 90's I wrote a software game and distributed it as shareware.

And the name of the game was . . .

 

[JRRNeiklot]

If I downloaded something illegally, there's no way in hell I'd send somebody money attached to information claiming that I had broken the law, along with my bank account, adress, etc. Might as well turn yourself in at the local precinct.

 

[GlassJaw]

While I don't think it is that easy to download any product at any time, there do exist channels out there where you can get very nearly any RPG product

The question is though is how many people know of said "channels"? There isn't any actual data but my guess is not too many.

 

[Mychal]

And the name of the game was . . .

it was a bingo game for windows 3.x, it was called Bingo V3.5 not sure if I could find it now. Why do you have it

 

[Thanee]

I really wish there were some hard numbers on RPG product piracy. I really would like to know how prevalent and widespread it is.

Many people talk about "just" downloading a pirated copy but seriously, if you wanted to find something illegally, would you know where to look?

I've seen an interesting article recently... according to that, 30% of todays internet traffic is generated by p2p networks. And really, how much of that do you think is legal... certainly a good portion, but probably not even half of it (just a guess, of course).

Bye
Thanee

 

[The Sigil]

The question is though is how many people know of said "channels"? There isn't any actual data but my guess is not too many.

Which is one of the reasons I'm refraining from making mention of - or even hinting at where to find - the channel I'm thinking of in my posts. You know, "the knowledge of sin tempteth to commission" and all that.

--The Sigil

 

[afreed]

I think it's a nice idea in principle, but ultimately flawed for several reasons:

1) It's a tacit endorsement of the piracy mindset. Now, I empathize with some of what pirates say--but by setting up this system, you're not just risking your money; you're helping pirates justify what they do, and giving them further reason to pirate from other publishers. In other words, someone who downloads your product and donates to the, uh, pirate treasure, can then say to themselves, "If other publishers set up a system like XPR's, I'd donate a few dollars to them, but since they don't, I'm justified in pirating their books without paying."

Mind, I'm not looking to blame you for anything...just pointing out a potential unintended consequence.

2) Similarly, you're encouraging the notion that the customer should decide what to pay for a product, instead of the notion that a creator should decide what to sell a product for. That's an extremely creator-unfriendly position. I don't buy many RPG books these days, because I don't see them as worth what I'd have to pay. But I also don't complain about RPG prices, because I know they're based on the creators' and publishers' needs. If I pay WotC $20 for a hardcover instead of $0 for nothing, it's good for them...but if everyone else does the same thing, WotC goes out of business.

3) As other people have mentioned, you'll annoy existing honest customers. You may also drive existing customers to pirate your material, because they'll see you acknowledging it as acceptable.

Hope that makes sense. If you give it a shot anyway, best of luck with it!

 

[TheAuldGrump]

As I stated, my only problem is with offering a discounted price for the pirates, however something to bear in mind - in order to read the notice they must already have downloaded the file, the sale is lost already, any of this loss recouped is better than nothng.

As for it encouraging piracy... copyright does not seem to have done much to discourage piracy. There are many people for whom getting something free is the important issue, whether or not they have any right to that something. Much like shoplifting, piracy is a casual crime.

The Auld Grump

 

[Lonely Tylenol]

Which is one of the reasons I'm refraining from making mention of - or even hinting at where to find - the channel I'm thinking of in my posts. You know, "the knowledge of sin tempteth to commission" and all that.

--The Sigil

What, don't people know how to google anymore?