Alex Kac's Pocket Informant has been a big hit for many years in the Pocket PC market and WebIS is like family to Aximsite and Mobilitysite. I want to show my support for Alex by reposting his "Open Letter to Warez Sites" that he put online yesterday. I welcome discussion of his letter either here or jump over to the WebIS forums to discuss it or show your support. I couldn't agree with his stance more. I would love to see Alex's company get paid for all those copies that are stolen each day... Anyhow, make sure to read on after the jump for the entire text.
"Piracy is a huge issue for the software industry, but to be quite honest its nowhere near as huge as what the RIAA and MPAA and SBA make it out to be. 50% or more of the software pirated would never have been purchased in the first place. But lets talk a bit more personally here.
Myself and a band of software devs here have found a *very* large pirate warez site which I will not link to. They have cracks for almost everything imaginable. They have our software on there with download ratios in the TENS of THOUSANDS. In many cases I find more downloads of our software on the warez site than I see on our own download servers. I've calculated that even if we only lost 10% of those downloads that could have been sales its a pretty major hit.
The fact is that companies like ours and most other WinMobile devs operate on a shoestring budget. Most of our software sells at a break-even point, some at a loss until it breaks even 2-4 years after introduction. For the amount of money I've "lost" I could have *easily* created a Pocket Informant for Desktop or BlackBerry or heck other major applications or improvements. I could have hired an extremely high paid developer for a year or two averagely paid ones. For a company that has only 3 full time developers that's a fairly major loss.
The fact is that piracy hurts those who pirate. They want our software obviously. Some just use it for a "test", but we offer a two week trial and with a bit of work you can probably get 2-3 months free usage of our products a year. And we don't sell for a large amount of money. Just wait and you can usually get our software for a steal - without actually stealing. I don't think paying $9.95 is such a huge issue if you need an app like VoiceMinder. Its barely a lunch and drink. But the reason piracy hurts those who pirate is because they are like vampires slowly killing the company that they are sucking the applications off of.
Who here would care if there was never a VoiceMinder, FlexWallet, FlexMail, or Pocket Informant upgrade again? I have personally had fleeting thoughts of selling WebIS or just closing it down because even as this market has grown the software market has not and while I'm not naive enough to think its *all* about piracy, I know that it just makes me depressed. And no, we're not closing down and yes there will be major upgrades of everything. And yes, piracy has been part of the software business from the very beginning but that doesn't mean I can't ask you to stop.
And therein lies my plea to you. If you actually use our software please pay for it. When you don't you personally are contributing to the financial downfall of a bunch of people who are working hard to make good quality software for you. If you don't want to think of piracy as theft, think of it as stiffing us. Would you stiff the waiter of a tip? How about the guy who built your house? How about the plumber or the electrician? Or the Taxi cab driver? And yes, software does cost money to make. I pay electric bills, Microsoft dues, travel expenses to meet with MS devs, trade shows, advertising, not to mention salaries. So if you wouldn't stiff the waiter at your favorite restaurant his 15% (or 10% if you're money concious) tip, why stiff us the few bucks we ask?
WebIS has always been extremely liberal in our licensing as well. We don't use activation (we've thought about it), we don't lock our license to your username, we don't do anything to make licensing hard. We let you run our software on as many devices that you personally use and we use the honor system. Heck, we even make 2-3 versions of our software in most cases and let you pay for one and get them all.
So that's all. Hope you guys have a great day! Alex Kac, WebIS
I have to agree with this, it's horrible really. The software is cheap, I know some can't afford, but still... it's cheap. Cheaper than an Xbox 360 game.
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Last edited by Chris Leckness; 06-19-07 at 05:08 PM.
I think its right for people to buy from people who try to make a living off there software that they created them selfs but for microsoft to rip off everyone with Vista being £120 and more for the top editions it just makes me think well why should i work to buy software that is way overpriced and then to not have a guarantee that it will work correctly and efficiently without problems. Microsoft make something like $500 an hour the last i heard but its bound to be alot more than that, So why do they overprice Vista i will not buy Vista untill it is less than £60 and it probably wont even be priced at that so i will not buy it. When you use software that is created by a small company or one person it is pure robbery to download it illegally.
I agree about vista, certainly I'm not going to pay twice as much for the using it because i live in the UK. (if you can find the top edition in a retail box for 120gbp then let me know). XP works fine for me.
And if i really 'need' a new OS then linux looks like a good move for me.
Companies like webis, sbsh, spb, ilium etc... are the good guys. They play fair with consumers, so their cannot be any justification for not playing fair with them.
I want them to carry on making great software that makes my life better... so support the good guys... so they can support you.
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I've used pocket Informant for years and it's worth so much more than the penny a day use I get from it. Any software worth using is worth paying for. I wrote my own calclator program and I won't say how long it took and the amount of debugging I had to do (too embarassed). I can't imagine what it would take for me to write a progam half as good as PI. People have to realize that if you don't support the guys with talent you're going to end up with the half rate junk you could write yourself. The Axim is NOTHING without the great aplcations to run on it.
I think Alex is taking a healthy approach to the problem. They, WebIS, deserve to be treated as well as you would want to be treated for any service you produced yourself. What would you do if you're boss decided to just cut 10% out of your salary? PIRACY!
I don't like to use the word Karma but I do believe you reap what you sew. Those warez downloaders are paying 3x the price of the software in parking tickets, fines, and other cosmic balancers. Unfortunately, Alex is not getting his cut for those fines.
I think as a mobile comunity we have the responsibility of putting pressure on our peers to pay for what we use and encourage others to do the same and to flame those that don't or try to get others not too.
Alex, my best advice to you though is too keep making the best products you can because in the end, that is the only thing you can do. Software can't enforce honesty, only the group can.
I use many of the mentioned products on 4 pdas & everyone was bought for each. These products are fantastic & does the job. I hope that individuals will try these great products' trial versions & BUY them; not steal.
I totally agree, there are great software for PPC that is cheap and very usable and of great quality. I'm proud of having paid for all my software and I'm very glad with the functionality received.
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Please don't stop Alex!!
I agree with you and I wish people were more honest
I have had paid copies of PI versions since 2002 or 2003 I can't remember, I can't do without it
Sadly, this speaks of the integrity of people. If you were to break into thier house and steal thier personal items, thier car, spouse, children, or thier million-dollar ideal, they would be beside themselves. These same 'moral' and 'honest' people think nothing about using software they didn't buy.
This isn't really about those that can't afford to buy the software. If you are that hard up for money then maybe having a $200 plus pda wasn't the best decision you ever made in your life. I agree with Alex whole-heartedly. It is theft. Those that do use pirated software will justify it any way they can, but it is still theft.
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Great letter Alex. Your analogies are great and put the situation into perspective. For the cost of a few DVD rentals or a few burgers, a person can legally own your software. Take a look at MyPDA. Every piece of software on the list, with the exception of a few freeware titles, was purchased. The list is a bit old and needs updating. So, you can see the money I've invested in keeping my software library legal...and I upgrade frequently.
I love WebIS products. They have really bridged the gap between barely functional PDA apps and fully functional desktop apps. WebIS codes efficiently, showing that software can be feature rich without being bloated.
I'm with you 100% Alex. Keep up the great work...and please don't close your business!
Sadly, this speaks of the integrity of people. If you were to break into thier house and steal thier personal items, thier car, spouse, children, or thier million-dollar ideal, they would be beside themselves. These same 'moral' and 'honest' people think nothing about using software they didn't buy.
Yes, the real problem is the integrity of people. It's not Micorosoft charging too much, it's not software that doesn't work perfectly and it's not the RIAA and their issues. The problem is that too many people are not honest when it's only themselves (and God) to be accountable to. Stealing is wrong no matter who you steal from, no matter what the cost of the item, no matter what you think of the company. :approve:
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