Ask HN: My iOS app got pirated, what to do now? Raging? Nothing? Partying?

You can't stop people from pirating your app. Not to mention, I'm sure most of us have pirated something, at some point, as well. I'd personally let them keep the files up. As it's been said, another user is another user. He'll show it to his friends who might buy it instead of pirating.<p>Another option to help fight people pirating would be to offer a free version. Maybe limit how many things they can add to their list, and have it ad supported. The full version you pay for and gets unlimited items in their list.<p>If you <i>do</i> find a way to detect someone using a pirated version, instead of disabling the application, why not do something fun like create a "pirate theme" that gets applied so they know they've been busted. (The only drawback is if the pirate theme is awesome you might get people pirating it just to see what it looks like).<p>There's no sense in fighting pirating, it's never worked. As far as I know, no industry has had any real success stopping it. I say embrace it and try to use it to your advantage.

I think one of my favorite approaches is reaching out to the individuals pirating the software. Post a comment on the page explaining that you are the developer of the program. Explain why you made the application and that, if people download and enjoy it, you would appreciate them supporting future development by purchasing the application through the AppStore.<p>You really can't stop people from pirating your application, but you might be able to convert a few would-be pirates just by reaching out to them with your story. It's easy to steal a piece of software from a nameless entity, but it's much harder when there is a human element involved.<p>Going into "legal mode" rarely solves these problems because it just puts people on the defensive (and this is coming from a lawyer).

I would say "party". It's one more user to add to your user base. One more user who (if your app doesn't suck) will end up showing it to someone who doesn't want to bother with the immense fuss of pirating and will just purchase it.

Celebrate! People like your app enough to pirate it.<p>Because the alternative was that they wouldn't like it enough. There is no 'wanted it but didn't pirate it' option for bored, unethical hackers.

If you want, you can try sending a DMCA notice to the file hosts to try and get the software taken down.<p>Here's the page for FileSonic: <a href="http://www.filesonic.com/report-abuse" rel="nofollow">http://www.filesonic.com/report-abuse</a><p>Wupload: <a href="http://www.wupload.com/dmca" rel="nofollow">http://www.wupload.com/dmca</a><p>BitShare: <a href="http://www.bitshare.com/abuse.html" rel="nofollow">http://www.bitshare.com/abuse.html</a><p>That won't stop the pirating, but it's something...

Whatever you do, don't try to limit your app just if it's running on a jailbroken device. There are many legitimate reasons for Jailbreaking an iOS device. I've done it countless times to my devices (fellow iOS developer here), and I've never done so to pirate apps.<p>In order to pirate apps, you must jailbreak. But in order to jailbreak, you needn't necessarily pirate apps.

You can't stop pirates and converting users of the piratery is not worth the effort. I hope this doesn't drain your revenue, but if you can just push forward and make paying customers happy and find new ones, that's where I'd spend my time.

Actually, if you have spare time, you should include those who pirate your apps in whatever usage measurements you already do.<p>With luck, you can probably discover why people pirate your apps. Maybe due to price, or that your nearest competitor has a better user experience, etc.<p>You can try to fight it, by making your most used features something which needs App Store authorization, but I suspect that will just piss off your customers who already paid for it and they will start putting 1-star ratings in the App Store.

Maybe some people just want to test your app. I heard of plenty of people who download a pirated copy first, to see if it's worth buying. You could release a test version of the app, so these people don't need to download it illegally. Otherwise, people who pirate software wouldn't buy it otherwise also. So, consider this as an indirect PR for your awesome app.

Make the app forever free and provide in-app transactions for some premium content/functionality.<p>Perhaps paid-for import/sync of bookmarks with some other movie bookmarking service -- with something comparable to MyAnimeList [0]. Or ability to exchange movie bookmarks and comments with friends over FB or G+; if you make it go through your central server, you can collect some fees for such service.<p>They say you can't beat free (`pirated'), but `pirates' can't beat your free version either.<p>Compete on quality.<p>----<p>[0] <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanimelist" rel="nofollow">http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Myanimelist</a>

My sympathies. I'm about to launch a PlayBook app and am fervently hoping that piracy is less of an issue with BlackBerry users.<p>Also - I came across <a href="http://getdenso.com/" rel="nofollow">http://getdenso.com/</a> a few days ago which appears to do roughly the same thing as your app - have you heard of them? I inquired with them for an API that I might utilize to bring a BlackBerry PlayBook app into existence, and I'd like to extend to you the same offer. If you've got an API I could use, I'd love to bring this functionality to my preferred tablet.

I would suggest get a free app account limitation for 10 videos or so. This way you would get more users too and also some good exposure too as many would download you app being free. :) Free user Conversion is your App magic ;) IMO, app is awesome ;)<p>Also check this, there might be an udpate on iOS5 and you might be lucky.<p><a href="http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/12/jailbreak-detection-api-mysteriously-disappears-in-ios-42.ars" rel="nofollow">http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2010/12/jailbreak-detectio...</a>

Party, mate!<p>We had our app pirated a few weeks ago, it didn't have any impact on the sales. People who pirate your app wouldn't buy it anyway I imagine. Unless it was really well-known and great - but then there's no chance of it not being pirated.<p>You can verify if the device is jailbroken, but as @wccrawford said couple of comments below - they might have paid for it. And I know many people using jailbroken devices and not pirating one thing.<p>Party! Your app was deemed worth pirating.

Apple introduced an API to check if the device is jailbroken, but after 6 months removed it without any explanation.<p>However you can still make some check, like to check if the path /private/var/lib/apt/ exists or not. Since many package managers for cracked apps are apt-based, you should be able to get most of jailbroken devices.<p>Sadly (afaik), no way to understand if your app on a device has been cracked or purchased.

I wouldn't worry about it. With iOS apps, it's much easier for people just to buy your app and have it installed and running on their device than it is to try and pirate it, so unless you're seriously overcharging for your app, most people will continue to just legitimately buy and use it.<p>You could also charge a small recurring service fee for accounts and then give the app away for free.

As you already have the link to one site spreading your pirated app, I'd contact them and ask them to remove the link. Sure, this won't stop the pirates (or other folks sharing the file on other platforms), but it's worth a try.<p>Of cause, it would be interesting to see how many people are using the pirated version of your app, if it can be achieved with little effort.

Probably worth a toast, but not worth worrying about. Your target market is and always has been the people who buy apps through the app store.<p>We have some free and some non-free apps in the store, and we've never given the piracy stuff a second thought. We were actually pretty stoked when we saw the first game pirated. It made us feel legit. ;-)

Don't sweat it. This happens to our app, BillMinder, every release. Typically pirates won't use your app long and probably wouldn't have paid for it anyway so there isn't much lost revenue. Annoying but not the end of the world.

In this case I wouldn't worry too much. The app itself is only really useful for registered users who have paid through in-App-Purchases.

Rage! Hunt 'em down. Consequences will never be the same...

OKay,<p>1 the pirate your app act tells you these things:<p><pre><code> -in their geographical area fro some reason they cannot but it or the price might be too high -they love your app</code></pre> 2. Easier to turn those into paid conversions if paid app gets free updates.<p>Most of us here can not tell you not take legal action. However, can you turn this into conversions? I think you can.<p>On the android side I run into when I sell apps through non Google android Market stores as those do not have infrastructure of me checking a license api like Google Android Market does..the things above is my thought process and steps I will be using..

damn.

open source it, which you should've done at the first place anyway.