Illegal activation attempts
On occasion, when people illegally distribute our software, we end up having to revoke their licenses. I’m sure they feel that this is some sort of “revenge” measure, but it really isn’t about that; we do it for two main reasons:
- To stop others from activating copies of the files they distributed.
- To stop them from distributing future versions and updates.
As a result of one recent incident, we’ve been seeing a lot of attempts to activate illegal copies of iPartition 3. So many, in fact, that I’m quite tempted to publish the IP addresses of the people involved. Doubtless if we do that, people will whine about infringement of their privacy, but I’m not suggesting publishing their names, just their IP addresses and maybe their machine serial numbers.
I’d be interested to hear others’ thoughts on this idea.
Perhaps what we should do is give customers the choice: either leave their credit card details with us so that we can charge them later if we catch them illegally distributing the software, or let them pay extra now and not keep their details (kind of like an insurance premium).
Of course, I'm not really serious, but it would be good if there was a solution to the problem.
I know that other readers might be thinking: who cares? why not just let a few people pirate it? they might spread the word to honest people who then purchase the products. For other products, I'd agree, but I think that for our products it's different: we sell disk utilities that are used rarely. It's too easy to download a pirated version, use it and then forget that you never paid for it because you don't use it on a regular basis.