A lot of talk about piracy in the webOS world has been taking place and I felt like commenting on it here.
First, let’s get this out of the way: piracy, by definition, is theft and theft is illegal. Piracy is in fact illegal, according to pretty much every country. This isn’t an opinion; it’s a fact.
The controversy over piracy isn’t whether it’s illegal or not; it’s over whether it’s moral or not. Before we can dive into that, we should cover some other points.
Effect on Developers
Piracy does affect the developers directly, especially smaller, indie developers like myself. Luckily for me, my apps are a side-job and not my main source of income. A little hit to my bottom line on app sales doesn’t keep food off my table, nor does it mean the bank will take my house. But that’s my situation. A lot of people do depend on their app sales for a significant portion of their household income.
Simple math would dictate that piracy does take money from developers. Let’s say that 1,000 people have downloaded your app that is priced at $1. That would mean your app made you $1,000 (not taking the App Store/Catalog/Marketplace cuts). However, 30 of those 1,000 users actually pirated your app, which means you lost $30. On the first glance, $30 isn’t a whole lot of money and it’s not much to worry about.
But that’s assuming those 30 pirates are the only people that will steal your app. Chances are, a link to download the app is posted somewhere, which means that others will download your app for free until that link is no longer available. That $30 steadily increases, especially if you have a popular app, and if you charge more than $1 for your app (as you probably should be).
Why Do People Pirate Apps?
There are a lot of reasons people pirate apps. The first reason is usually “I don’t want to pay for something I can get for free.” And let’s be honest, most of us are like that. I don’t mean we all steal, but, given the choice between paying for something, or it being given to you for free, most of us would take it for free. This is the type of pirate that I honestly despise and don’t want. They’re under the impression that because they can’t afford to purchase something, they don’t have to pay for it. This is a terrible rationalization.
Taking something because you can’t/don’t want to pay for it is not a valid excuse. I’d love to get a new car right now. My Corolla is showing its age and could really be replaced. But, I can’t afford to buy a new car right now. Does that mean I can just go to the Toyota dealership and just take one? Absolutely not! If you can’t afford something, you have to go without it.
But, in terms of app theft, there are a couple of other reasons people steal. One is georestrictions. In my experience, a lot of people have pirated my apps because they can’t purchase them through the App Catalog in their country. I make my apps available in every country HP allows me too, but for various reasons, that isn’t every country in the world. As a result, these users can’t use my app. It’s not their fault. So, they find a place to download them and use them. To mean, that’s a testament to how good my apps are. The fact that someone who can’t legally buy my app will seek it out elsewhere means my app is worth it to them.
Another reason people pirate apps is to try them out before buying them. On most platforms, unless the developer offers a separate free/trial version of their app, there is no way to try an app without having to buy it and hope for the best. The Android Marketplace lets users “return” an app within 15 minutes of purchasing it. While this isn’t an ideal amount of time to try out an app, it’s a step in the right direction. I get it, though. You can rent a movie or stream it on Netflix if you don’t want to buy it just yet. You can watch a trailer of the movie before seeing it in theatres. You can listen to 30 second samples of each song on an album before purchasing it, or listen to the whole thing in some brick-and-mortar stores. Heck, most restaurants give you a sample of the wine you order before paying for the whole bottle. A lot of bars will give you a sample of a beer before you buy a whole pint. I get it. We live in a world where, generally speaking, you can try something before you buy it and the app world hasn’t fully caught up to that.
I’m not just a developer. I’m a user, too. I experience all of these things myself, just as you do. I hope and hope that an app (especially one that’s $2 or $3) is worth it. But, instead of just biting the bullet and purchasing the app, I research it. I read reviews in the Catalog. I look at the screen shots or video to see if it does what I expect it to do. I look up reviews of the apps on the various mobile blogs. I search the name of the app on YouTube to see if there are any videos showing how the app works. I research apps the same way I’d research a TV or anything else I was considering buying. I don’t just buy the first TV I see in Best Buy; I look online and ask friends and research the TV myself first. When I walk into the store, I know exactly what I want.
So, What’s Legit?
Well, not a whole lot. Saying you pirated an app because you didn’t want to pay for it or can’t afford to pay for it is the least-valid excuse of all. This is absolutely no different than walking into a store, taking something off the shelves, and walking out without paying for it.
Pirating something as a try-before-you-buy method isn’t as bad, provided you actually make a purchase for the app if you like it, or if you don’t, you purchase some other app that does what you want it to. This is very seldom the outcome of pirating, by the way. Researching something before buying it — whether it’s a house or a TV or an app — is ALWAYS a good idea.
Pirating because you legally cannot buy the app in your country is a grey area. It’s a part of piracy that I sort of turn my eye from. However, if this is the case, it is your duty to contact the developer of the app (any decent developer has contact info in the app or in the app description) and offer to PayPal them for the app. This is not so crazy, mind you. I have received close to 20 PayPal donations for various amounts from people that stole neato! because they could not download the app in their country. Some donated less than the price of the app ($0.50) and some donated more than the cost of the app ($5.00).
Unfortunately, the norm is that people pirate because they don’t want to or don’t have the money to spend on the app. This is not a justification for piracy. “I didn’t have enough money!” “I’m only a teenager without a credit card!” “I don’t have a job!” These are not valid excuses for piracy. And, if that’s the case, then I’d have to question how you got a cellphone and pay the bill each month. If you only have enough money to pay your phone bill each month, then that means you don’t get apps. Either get a less-expensive monthly plan so you can afford apps, or, only download apps that are intentionally free. Those are your choices. There is no “But…”.
And if you’re a kid and your parents bought your cellphone and pay for your plan, then, guess what — that doesn’t mean you can pirate. If you parents won’t pay for apps, then, buddy, you don’t get apps. It doesn’t mean you can steal them. If they wouldn’t buy you that cellphone, would have stolen that, too?
Furthermore…
There’s this idea in the piracy circles that because it’s so easy to pirate something, it’s okay to do it. Stealing software is very easy. You download the file just like any other file on the web, so it feels no different than legally downloading something. Contrast that with stealing something from a physical store — buying something from a store and stealing something from a store are VERY different actions. This is how people feel that it’s wrong.
Which brings me to my next point: pirates feel that because apps are digital goods, that is, intangible objects, that it’s not a big deal to steal them. In fact, I’ve read arguments that it isn’t stealing at all because you’re not physically taking anything. Some argue that because the copies are produced for nothing, it’s justifiable. They argue that physical goods cost money to make each unit. This is true. The cost to make a TV is the same every single time. It costs the same to make 1 TV as it does to make 1000 TVs (excluding discounted rates for buying parts in bulk). So, taking one TV means taking the cost of making that TV out of the company’s pocket.
But digital goods, you can copy a file a million times and there’s really zero overhead. Technically, as a developer, you only make one app and then you have infinity copies of your app to sell. So, technically, yes, it doesn’t cost the same money to make each copy of your app as it did to make the first one.
Plus, people argue that since all you had to do was type out some code for a few hours and didn’t actually use any materials to make an app that all of your app sales are profits. In some ways, this is true. I won’t deny that. And yes, I would own a computer whether I was a developer or not. So, that cost doesn’t really factor in.
But let’s factor in some other costs. The software I sue to develop my apps, Coda, is $100. I bought that. Also consider the amount of tablets and phones I’ve had to get as test devices. Buying a cellphone off-contract is not $99. It’s usually closer to $500. Now, obviously, these are generally one-time purchases. Unless the hardware company makes a vast change in their device (like, iPad 1 vs iPad 2). Then you have to buy it all over again to test for compatibility, or new features (like a camera or gyroscope or something). Also consider that most mobile platforms require their developers to pay a yearly fee to be a registered developer and have your app in the official Store. This is usually another $100.
What about the costs of running a server if your app uses cloud storage in some way, like all of my apps do? To handle thousands and thousands of simultaneous users on multiple platforms using multiple apps you need a beefy server with a lot of bandwidth. Hell, you might even need multiple servers.
But never mind the things you actually have to buy. What about the time spent developing the app? Researching and learning the device’s ins and outs. Researching and learning the APIs for developing the app on that platform. The time spent in Photoshop (another expensive software…) making graphics and UI components?
Just because, when it comes to apps, I work for myself doesn’t mean I shouldn’t get paid for my time. And even if you consider my development a service and not making a product, should people who provide a service be paid? What a maid services that clean your home or business? They don’t actually give you anything. They provide a service. The same with real estate agents. You pay them to help you pay someone else for a house. (Ok, you don’t always pay them directly, but they still get paid for their time.)
Yes, I develop apps because I can make money from them. I’d be lying if I said otherwise. But that isn’t the only reason. I make apps because I see a void in the way people do things and I aim to fill that void by providing a product that they can use. I also have free apps that I made for that reason. I contribute code to open source. I help other developers and users on forums and Twitter and never expect any cash. Developers aren’t always doing everything for the money. We aren’t greedy (well, most of us. Like any group, there are always the ones that are in it for the wrong reasons and make the rest of us look bad.).
Do I care that people steal my apps? Absolutely. My apps are things I’m proud of. They’re things I’ve literally spend hundreds, if not, thousands of hours creating and marketing and supporting. If I charge for those apps, I expect to receive that money for them. There’s a reason apps are priced so low — we’re recouping the development costs a little on each app sale. A 99¢ app yields the developer a little under 70¢, after Apple or HP or whomever takes their 30% cut. That means, for a 99¢ app, we get 70¢. That’s not a lot. Sure, after several thousand downloads, that number increases, but it’s still not a lot, especially if that developer counts on app sales for a significant portion of their income.
I’ve seen comments along the lines of “It’s just a hobby you do on weekends.” As a customer, it’s not up to you to decide what is considered a hobby or a side job or to even worry how much time we spend making something. The point is that we’ve made something and if you want to use it, you’ll have to pay for it.
Sometimes I wish I could get the streaming AND disc movies from Netflix, but my budget only allows for the cheap streaming-only plan. Just because I want the discs and can’t afford it does not mean I can grab random red envelopes from my neighbors’ mail boxes. I’m sure if I just told the people at Netflix, the Post Office, and my neighbors that I really wanted the discs but can’t afford it, it’ll all be okay, right? I mean, surely Netflix has recouped the costs for that disc already? It’s not like they need my extra dollars each month to cover the cost, right?
But that’s life, man. If you want something that costs money and you don’t have that money or want to part with that money, then you can’t have it. It’s time to be damn adult and realize this.
Again, I get nervous buying apps, too. If it sucks, I’m out of that money. But, as a person who spent that money, that is a risk I’m taking. This isn’t a surprise. This isn’t some hidden fact about app stores. It is well-known that if you buy an app, you bought it for life. There’s no take-backs. No refunds. You know this going in, so, if you’re not willing to work under those rules, then you shouldn’t be using an app-capable device, or you should only use apps that are listed as free.
People say that piracy increases sales. In some media, that’s probably true, but that’s because alternate revenue streams exist. Some musicians say piracy has increased sales for them, which I definitely believe. But, that’s also because some people want to have the liner notes and other things that come with physical CDs. It’s because bands have T-shirts and stickers and concerts tickets to sell, where they actually make more money. It doesn’t work out for all musicians, but I can see how it helps those that it does.
Apps don’t really have those extra revenue streams though. If you steal an app, you have the entire app. There are no physical goodies that you’re missing out on. There are no public appearances that people pay for. There are no T-shirts or bumper stickers to buy (well, most of the time). So, the idea that piracy boosts app sales is really, quite frankly, bullshit.
Will I go after people that steal my apps? Nah, probably not. For me, personally, it’s not worth my time. And, in the end, it’s not in their best interest. They won’t know when newer versions are released. They won’t be guaranteed a fully functioning app. They won’t be guaranteed a safe app that someone hasn’t tampered with to mess up their phone or steal their data. There’s a greater risk to being a pirate, so, I feel they’ll get theirs in the end.
I commend others fighting piracy on the various platforms and I hope they’re successful. What’s happening is illegal and wrong, so, it should definitely be stopped.
