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>But above all, make sure not to confuse a "pirated copy" with a "lost sale". In 99% of cases, the Venn diagram of those has very little overlapping area. Very

>But above all, make sure not to confuse a "pirated copy" with a "lost sale". In 99% of cases, the Venn diagram of those has very little overlapping area. Very true. If they were never going to pay anyway, you haven't lost anything if they use a crack. It still irks though!

horsawlarway 4y ago
Consider it free training, education, and marketing rather than a lost sale. It's literally the same reason most companies give students essentially fire sale discounts (often just free) versions of their software. They're probably pirating it because they aren't deriving much if any revenue from using it yet (it's either for personal use, they're learning a new tool, or they have no money). But having that person familiar with your software and trained on it means that if they reach a spot where they're using it profitably for business - it's basically a guaranteed sale.
- lb1lf 4y ago
  This was how I got a licence for the Protel (Now Altium) PCB design software when back in university; the cracked version doing the rounds on campus was rather prone to crashing, so eventually I figured I had nothing to lose, called up the distributor and asked them if they did student discounts, as buying a full licence was definitely out of the question, but so was using the, uh, evaluation version with its stability issues. "Sure thing, how many do you need?" When I hesitantly reminded him we hadn't discussed prices yet, I was told it was free as they really wanted to snare us in as users before we wound up in paid work where we'd need to be productive employees fast. I have since had three employers buy full licenses and support deals. Good call by Protel back then.
Enginerrrd 4y ago
Yeah basically. Not only that, but, for all of the most expensive software I use, I used a pirated version first for months to ~ 1 year first. Once I really got a feel for it, if it provided value to me, I have pretty much paid for it everytime. And no, a 30-day trial doesn't cut it for evaluation. If I used the software enough to where a 30-day trial would have been enough to test it properly, the value proposition would have already been there to just buy it. Software trials should be based on hours used or something, and the eval periods are almost always too stingy. Instead, the value proposition to switching to paid became once it had established value to me, and I could benefit from the reduced exposure risk of running malware in the cracked version, and possibly get updates if they affected major things like stability, or new tool-sets or access to online data that was useful.

horsawlarway 4y ago

Consider it free training, education, and marketing rather than a lost sale. It's literally the same reason most companies give students essentially fire sale discounts (often just free) versions of their software. They're probably pirating it because they aren't deriving much if any revenue from using it yet (it's either for personal use, they're learning a new tool, or they have no money). But having that person familiar with your software and trained on it means that if they reach a spot where they're using it profitably for business - it's basically a guaranteed sale.

lb1lf 4y ago
This was how I got a licence for the Protel (Now Altium) PCB design software when back in university; the cracked version doing the rounds on campus was rather prone to crashing, so eventually I figured I had nothing to lose, called up the distributor and asked them if they did student discounts, as buying a full licence was definitely out of the question, but so was using the, uh, evaluation version with its stability issues. "Sure thing, how many do you need?" When I hesitantly reminded him we hadn't discussed prices yet, I was told it was free as they really wanted to snare us in as users before we wound up in paid work where we'd need to be productive employees fast. I have since had three employers buy full licenses and support deals. Good call by Protel back then.

Enginerrrd 4y ago

Yeah basically. Not only that, but, for all of the most expensive software I use, I used a pirated version first for months to ~ 1 year first. Once I really got a feel for it, if it provided value to me, I have pretty much paid for it everytime. And no, a 30-day trial doesn't cut it for evaluation. If I used the software enough to where a 30-day trial would have been enough to test it properly, the value proposition would have already been there to just buy it. Software trials should be based on hours used or something, and the eval periods are almost always too stingy. Instead, the value proposition to switching to paid became once it had established value to me, and I could benefit from the reduced exposure risk of running malware in the cracked version, and possibly get updates if they affected major things like stability, or new tool-sets or access to online data that was useful.