8 ms·

I'm tired of the TnT Russian team cracking my macOS apps. Both Lunar (https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi) and rcmd (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd https://lowtec

by alin23 5y ago

I'm tired of the TnT Russian team cracking my macOS apps. Both Lunar (https://lunar.fyi https://lunar.fyi) and rcmd (https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd https://lowtechguys.com/rcmd) are now available for free on macOS piracy websites. I made many attempts at discouraging this through anti-piracy measures I learned while working as a malware researcher a few years ago. But if I want my apps to also be available on offline devices, there's really no way to combat this. The apps are also targetted more toward power users which are more likely to know about cracked apps. This is really hurting indie devs.

kemitchell 5y ago
We need a much stronger indie dev scene. Drop me an e-mail anytime if I might be of help.
jpalawaga 5y ago
Not that you asked my opinion, but $23/year for screendimming software--its no wonder people crack this. The only realistic scenario that I'd pay that is if my employer was fronting the cost. Then again, maybe for some people it really is delivering that much value. Lunar lite and rcmd seem priced fairly. If it makes you feel any better (probably not), the people pirating your software probably wouldn't have paid for it anyhow. Or if they did pay for it, would pay for it with things like stolen app store giftcards. In another life, I was quite money-limited, and so I downloaded basically every game, movie, song, and app. I didn't feel badly about it either. I was never going to buy the media. I couldn't. Once I got old enough and had enough disposable income to not have to pirate things, I stopped. But quashing my piracy would have never equated in more sales. Anyone who sees a pirate download and assume that's a lost sale is deluded--its not happening. I think the best methods are trying to get people to pay (who haven't already) are probably guilt or a productive-spirited suggestion. If you can detect that someone is cracking your software or doesn't have a valid license, put a donation link in the shape of a coffee cup in the corner of your software. At least people have the option to support you. Otherwise--you'll never best the crackers.
- alin23 5y ago
  It’s not screen dimming. It is an app to fully control the monitor without using its physical buttons. Lunar can change the hardware brightness, the same one that you can change using the monitor OSD. That in itself required a lot of reverse engineering and research about the DDC protocol. Adaptive brightness, ambient light sensor integration and other automatic features also needed months of non-stop work. Plus, the app is open source, trying to give something back to the community which gave me the inspiration to create this: https://github.com/alin23/Lunar https://github.com/alin23/Lunar Even with $23 per license, after taxes I barely make half of what I made at my previous job where I worked less hours. I don’t understand how you can dismiss this so simply. the people pirating your software probably wouldn't have paid for it anyhow I heard this argument so many times.. it's like saying to someone who just got their bike stolen while they were trying to sell it | the thief would have probably never bought it If you don't need the Pro features, don't pay for them and don't use them. Simple as that. Why does it feel okay to steal them in the software world, but it's clearly a crime in the real world?
  - axg11 5y ago
    You're describing the complexity of achieving the outcome. That is a great achievement - you spent months of work to achieve something technically complex. Congratulations, sincerely. However, to the end user, Lunar is a utility that controls screen brightness. I too am not surprised that many people are reluctant to pay a yearly subscription to control the brightness of their display.
    - alin23 5y ago
      The screen brightness changing is free forever. The license is unlimited (not yearly subscription) and only for the Pro features (automatic adaptive brightness, sensor integration etc.)
    - unityByFreedom 5y ago
      It doesn't matter. He created it and can price it at $1,000 if he wants. The point is nobody should expect him to continue working for free after people crack the software. Thus, cracking hurts indie devs and innovation because there's less recoupable reward for such work.
latexr 5y ago
> I'm tired of the TnT Russian team cracking my macOS apps. Another HN poster has a relevant suggestion[1]: > In the 90s I used to make money off shareware, and every time I release a new version hackers would release "cracks" for the license key. Eventually I figured out that these cracks are coming from Russia. > > In the next version of my program, I added a check for system language, and if I detect Russian then I bypass the license key checks, and the program is free to use. This stopped hackers from releasing cracks. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27184692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27184692
- jotm 5y ago
  It's a neat trick, but pretty much everyone knows it nowadays. Could try detecting something else, not sure what though. On a related funny note, the first Metal Gear Solid V crack only worked on Chinese timezone or language setting, I forgot which.
  - latexr 5y ago
    > pretty much everyone knows it nowadays. Didn’t think I’d be relinking to this XKCD so soon: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ Maybe this is common knowledge in your circles, but otherwise it’s far from widespread. I learned about it from the linked comment (as did other people) and no one I told it to had heard of it before. That includes software developers of popular apps.
netr0ute 5y ago
> This is really hurting indie devs. The fix? FOSS.

by alin23 5y ago

kemitchell 5y ago

We need a much stronger indie dev scene. Drop me an e-mail anytime if I might be of help.

jpalawaga 5y ago

Not that you asked my opinion, but $23/year for screendimming software--its no wonder people crack this. The only realistic scenario that I'd pay that is if my employer was fronting the cost. Then again, maybe for some people it really is delivering that much value. Lunar lite and rcmd seem priced fairly. If it makes you feel any better (probably not), the people pirating your software probably wouldn't have paid for it anyhow. Or if they did pay for it, would pay for it with things like stolen app store giftcards. In another life, I was quite money-limited, and so I downloaded basically every game, movie, song, and app. I didn't feel badly about it either. I was never going to buy the media. I couldn't. Once I got old enough and had enough disposable income to not have to pirate things, I stopped. But quashing my piracy would have never equated in more sales. Anyone who sees a pirate download and assume that's a lost sale is deluded--its not happening. I think the best methods are trying to get people to pay (who haven't already) are probably guilt or a productive-spirited suggestion. If you can detect that someone is cracking your software or doesn't have a valid license, put a donation link in the shape of a coffee cup in the corner of your software. At least people have the option to support you. Otherwise--you'll never best the crackers.

alin23 5y ago
It’s not screen dimming. It is an app to fully control the monitor without using its physical buttons. Lunar can change the hardware brightness, the same one that you can change using the monitor OSD. That in itself required a lot of reverse engineering and research about the DDC protocol. Adaptive brightness, ambient light sensor integration and other automatic features also needed months of non-stop work. Plus, the app is open source, trying to give something back to the community which gave me the inspiration to create this: https://github.com/alin23/Lunar https://github.com/alin23/Lunar Even with $23 per license, after taxes I barely make half of what I made at my previous job where I worked less hours. I don’t understand how you can dismiss this so simply. the people pirating your software probably wouldn't have paid for it anyhow I heard this argument so many times.. it's like saying to someone who just got their bike stolen while they were trying to sell it | the thief would have probably never bought it If you don't need the Pro features, don't pay for them and don't use them. Simple as that. Why does it feel okay to steal them in the software world, but it's clearly a crime in the real world?
- axg11 5y ago
  You're describing the complexity of achieving the outcome. That is a great achievement - you spent months of work to achieve something technically complex. Congratulations, sincerely. However, to the end user, Lunar is a utility that controls screen brightness. I too am not surprised that many people are reluctant to pay a yearly subscription to control the brightness of their display.
  - alin23 5y ago
    The screen brightness changing is free forever. The license is unlimited (not yearly subscription) and only for the Pro features (automatic adaptive brightness, sensor integration etc.)
  - unityByFreedom 5y ago
    It doesn't matter. He created it and can price it at $1,000 if he wants. The point is nobody should expect him to continue working for free after people crack the software. Thus, cracking hurts indie devs and innovation because there's less recoupable reward for such work.

latexr 5y ago

> I'm tired of the TnT Russian team cracking my macOS apps. Another HN poster has a relevant suggestion[1]: > In the 90s I used to make money off shareware, and every time I release a new version hackers would release "cracks" for the license key. Eventually I figured out that these cracks are coming from Russia. > > In the next version of my program, I added a check for system language, and if I detect Russian then I bypass the license key checks, and the program is free to use. This stopped hackers from releasing cracks. [1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27184692 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27184692

jotm 5y ago
It's a neat trick, but pretty much everyone knows it nowadays. Could try detecting something else, not sure what though. On a related funny note, the first Metal Gear Solid V crack only worked on Chinese timezone or language setting, I forgot which.
- latexr 5y ago
  > pretty much everyone knows it nowadays. Didn’t think I’d be relinking to this XKCD so soon: https://xkcd.com/1053/ https://xkcd.com/1053/ Maybe this is common knowledge in your circles, but otherwise it’s far from widespread. I learned about it from the linked comment (as did other people) and no one I told it to had heard of it before. That includes software developers of popular apps.

netr0ute 5y ago

> This is really hurting indie devs. The fix? FOSS.