You're not getting my MONEY! Buyer Beware!

[christinebur 0]

Would you then complain and throw a tantrum when your activation would need to get re-set with a 15 second e-mail?

no but will the email take 15 seccond or 1 day to get re-set like sunday

[CoolP 283]

Would you then complain and throw a tantrum when your activation would need to get re-set with a 15 second e-mail?

Nice try. His behaviour will mainly depend on the viewpoint. Since we're into some general one, he's not talking about this '15 second email' but the general need for it. A huge difference. :wink:Looking at the whole thing is a main condition to be fulfilled when talking about things in general, which we are obviously doing. But, of course, examples always help to understand some of them.What about that house by the way? You were asking me about it as far as I remember. I even answered.

[christinebur 0]

no but will the email take 15 seccond or 1 day to get re-set like sunday

Nice try. His behaviour will mainly depend on the viewpoint. Since we're into some general one, he's not talking about those '15 second email' but the general need for it. A huge difference. :(

sorry

[CoolP 283]

sorry

There's nothing to feel sorry about, don't worry.I found the mentality showing up because of your question interesting, so it actually helped. You're welcome. :(

[christinebur 0]

There's nothing to feel sorry about, don't worry.I found the mentality showing up because of your question interesting, so it actually helped. You're welcome. :(

thanks coolp

[JSkorna 137]

See Ed, different players but the same message, damned if we do and damed if we don't.

[CoolP 283]

damned if we do and damed if we don't.

This is not meant to sound offensive (it may though, from reading) but this is the first post from you in this thread I really can agree to, Jim.Now, before running into trouble as a dev with the mentioned spoiled valid customers and before devoting extra support and development time to fancy protective issues (it may be just a 15 second email for the customer, but 100 customers form up some support time then, not to mention the corresponding forum work), I'd rather choose the easy way and the guaranteed 100% happy customer.Isn't that an option?Meaning to follow the positive examples of e. g. A2A or FSUIPC and leave out all those activation limit thingies and other useless stuff since it proved to fail and only sets up your friendly customers. The pirate guys don't run into activations limits, only your honest customers do and get upset about it, more or less.So why not get rid of the known trouble makers (like those limits for legal customers) and enjoy a much happier user base while the piracy outcome remains the same?See A2A or Pete (these are examples, there are more companies of course) going down the drain of business because they don't run those highly overrated protective measures? No! They actually get their forums freed up of all protection/limit related issues and can devote time to other, more vital, parts of customer support and product development, don't they?

[dmaher 0]

CoolIP, I can’t tell if you’re arguing for “no protection” or “user-friendly protection”. :( Clearly everyone wants user-friendly protection...so I agree.The only barrier to this is expense.As a developer it’s costly and risky to make yourself…On the other hand licensing the best systems comes at a premium.When you are operating on a razor thin margin this isn’t an easy decision.The developer always gets paid last…after every expense is covered…including development.Developers do risk paying out of pocket instead of earning an income…unlike regular work.As for “no protection” - unless you’re speaking from experience these ideas are abstract and academic.So I wonder if you’d venture to test those ideas.I know from comments donation-ware doesn’t pay…these are volunteer operations.That’ll limit the complexity and depth of the project....to sparetime.Unless you’re independently wealthy I guess ;)FSUIPC protection wasn’t always automated…didn’t it even use email activation back in the day?I know I own a license, but it’s not activated. But that’s my responsibility…not Pete Dowson's.

[ubersu 78]

See Ed, different players but the same message, damned if we do and damed if we don't.

No big deal really - just the same old conversation. I doubt if anti-piracy schemes have hurt sales at all and the bottom line is that consumers vote with their wallets. Keep up the good work.DJ

[bsmfinegan 12]

All this talk of software protection assumes one thing....namely that the developer is going to lose money if they don't protect their product.Well of course if everybody who is downloading the product illegally would have purchased the product if they had no choice then fine, but I for one don't believe for one moment that is the case.There are certainly no stats to prove one way of the other, and as has been pointed out all this talk of activation limits just annoys honest customers and does nothing to prevent pirates from going about their nefarious activities.I personally have no problem with software activation as long as it does not inconvenience the customer, I certainly don't mind inputting a serial number and being connected to the internet whilst doing so.But when it comes to activation limits.....WHY?I personally like the Flight 1 method, also the system utilised by DCS (Starforce Proactive) which is far less intrusive and if you do run out of activations (which would be very careless indeed) then you only have to wait a period of time until your activations are added back again.Bryan.

[JSkorna 137]

"The pirate guys don't run into activations limits......."They are the very first to run into activation limits. Sorry, but I am not going to publicly post how I know this.Pete deals with protection issues just as much as anyone else does."So why not get rid of the known trouble makers (like those limits for legal customers) and enjoy a much happier user base while the piracy outcome remains the same?"Pirates, you win, here is everything for free, enjoy.Every business since the beginning of time has had to deal with theft. You can only limit it's impact, not get rid of it 100%. If everything was free and in an unlimited supply there would still be theft.This will be my last post in this thread because as we have seen before we just keep going around and around in circles and I have better things to do, like fly.Edit: I guess one more thing: A number of posters have brought up the Flight1 system. Are those posters also aware that there is an activation limit even with that system? Good thinking if you do!

[Chock 17,769]

A2A might not be going down the drain, but do a search on 'A2A torrent' on Google and you'll see that nearly all their stuff is on the pirate bay and other sites. I don't actually know if these torrented rip offs work properly because I've bought the things legitimately, so these torrents might have trojans in every byte for all I know, but I find it hard to believe that none of them would work, so I have to assume that despite A2A's strap line of 'We sell realism', clearly they also have realism stolen from them on a regular basis too.I do think it's doubtful that anyone who is really a fan of A2A's (or any other realistic flight sim stuff) would be so shortsighted to not be aware that buying their stuff ensures that they will keep on making more cool stuff, but clearly some people are stealing it if those torrents are anything to go by. That being the case, and since I want them to get their Phantom II out of the door, in all honesty I'd put up with an activation that might be a bit convoluted to ensure that this happens. Of course I'd prefer it to be completely hassle-free, but if that's a bar to them staying in the game, then I'll put up with a more complex activation.Pirates might be cool in movies when swinging from the rigging, but in reality I'd be happy to see them having a hard time, even if it means a minor hassle for me.Al

[dmaher 0]

"Well of course if everybody who is downloading the product illegally would have purchased the product if they had no choice then fine, but I for one don't believe for one moment that is the case.":( This is such a straw man...no one has ever said this....in the histroy of this debate :blush:And the opposite is a fallacy too. “If theft was not an option, pirates would quit flightsiming”Edit: lol-shame on me...this topic hasn't had a single new idea in seven years. I've made this post before :smile:BTW, on my forum about two weeks ago someone posted a link to a crack.He’s a frequent poster, and not a bad guy…but a little oblivious.It was a bit of enthusiastic but selective blindness. I believe he didn’t know.People that use cracks don’t hide in caves and actual crack houses ;)

[Andydigital 93]

Edit: I guess one more thing: A number of posters have brought up the Flight1 system. Are those posters also aware that there is an activation limit even with that system? Good thinking if you do!

Resetting the activation limit is done by the customer though, it doesn't require manual intervention by Flight1 employees, CoolP did mention this a fair few posts back.Linkback

[Chock 17,769]

Naturally there will be many who would never have even considered handing over cash for something if they couldn't get it illegally for free, and simply get things because they can, so it is almost certainly true that a lot of torrent acquisitions do not represent lost sales. But I've no doubt that some of these people would indeed hand over the cash if that was the only option.What therefore, we ought to make a point of doing, is to call a spade a spade and cease referring to such thieves as 'pirates' as though they are some lovable Jack Sparrow ner-do-well types getting one over on 'the man'. They are thieves, so that's what we should call them. All the time.Al