People who use pirated versions of Today Calendar Pro can expect frequent reminders to walk the plank. (via imgur)
There are countless ways that software developers and media companies have tried to prevent pirates from illegally copying and distributing their products, but even if those roadblocks work right now, they won’t be effective for long. So one developer of an oft-pirated Android app decided the only way to deal with pirates is to acknowledge their existence.
Today Calendar is, as the name implies, a calendar app and the Pro version of the software will cost you $5.99 to buy from the Android store. We have no idea if it’s any good or not, but Google says it’s been downloaded between 10,000 to 50,000 times so there are some folks out there who like it enough to pay for it.
What’s of real concern for the developer is that around 85% of the people actually using the Pro version of Today Calendar didn’t pay for it and obtained it through piracy.
He recently mentioned this fact on the Android subreddit, while also admitting that he doesn’t really have a problem with piracy.
However, the developer says he expected the piracy rate to be around 50%, significantly lower than his current reality.
Reddit users suggested various ways to prevent piracy or punish pirates, but one particular idea from user emrikol caught his attention.
“Instead of adding piracy prevention, you should just randomly add pirate themed events to their schedule,” wrote emrikol. “And rename Thursday to Tharrsday.”
This inspired the developer, who has already begun remotely adding pirate-themed calendar events for users he has reason to believe didn’t pay for the app.
As you can see above, he’s already alerted alleged pirates that they should “walk the plank… fer piratin’.”
“Fighting piracy in a traditional way is a waste of time in my eyes,” the developer tells TorrentFreak, “software will get cracked anyway. The majority of people who pirate my apps wouldn’t have bought them anyway, so it’s not as if I’m losing 85% of my revenue. In any event, I’d rather spend that time making Today more awesome.”
While the pirate-themed events might seem like a bonus for some users, the dev is hoping that the frequency with which they will appear will be enough to convince some folks to ante up for the software.
“These events wont start occurring instantly, but when they do they’ll happen a lot,” he explains, “so the cracker (at first) won’t see the event coming, but once they start, they might get annoying quite quickly… The plan is that people will get so bored of being invited to ‘pirate parties’ and being told to walk the plank that they’ll give up and just buy the thing.”
by Chris Morran via Consumerist
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