The music industry sells music on Apple’s iTunes Store with zero DRM†. I can send it to anyone and they can just play it. Just like with apps, I can also log in on a friend’s PC and re-download my music. Using the music industry as a counter-example in this article is hilariously misguided.
Of all the digital stuff Apple sells, music is by far the easiest to pirate.
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† No watermarks either. The tracks contain the Apple ID of the purchaser as well as purchase date and time as metadata that is easy enough to strip away.
Two people could register accounts, using their own names, addresses and credit cards, from different computers and Internet connections, with different ISPs from some geographical locations sufficiently far apart (e.g. different countries). Then, they would buy the same stuff and strip the meta-data from the files. Next, they hash their files and compare the hashes, by only telling each other half of the hash.
E.g., person 1 would tell person 2 that the first 32 characters of the sha-256 hash (represented as a hexadecimal string) was "47905a1f67a826d1ca5321e3473266d9". Person 2 tells person 1 that the remaining 32 characters are "7616ac096cb069098bcd2e12b2ed0c0d".
In our scenario, these two people have no interest in tricking each other - so they use the files that they bought and tell the truth when stating their part of the hash. The company from which the files were bought are assumed to not know that these two people are working together, since they might otherwise serve the same watermark to the two people.
Edit: In fact, these "two people" could even be just one guy who traveled to a foreign country, purchased a brand new computer, a pre-payed card, went to a library and registered with bogus details, bought some files. Then, s/he traveled to another country where s/he did the same thing (new computer, pre-payed card, went to some Internet café and used other, bogus, details to buy the same files) and compared the hashes as described above.
Edit 2: Or, s/he could order the pre-payed cards online, bought from two separate resellers using bitcoins, and use two separate VPN-s (also paid for with bitcoins) from a computer that was assumed to not leak any sensitive information (because the computer was bought for this purpose, and therefore never used for anything that could be tied to him/her, s/he used an Open Source Operating System, and s/he switched out the NIC and the USB-stick used to boot the computer between each time), with each VPN session being made from different places sufficiently away from your home, and at times sufficiently far apart (3-6 months, maybe).
Correct me if I'm wrong, but wouldn't this be blocked by device authorization limitations (5 per account)?
For instance, I have a PC, a Macbook Air, iPad, and iPhone; those take up four of the five authorizations. I could theoretically then spend this last one on the friend, sure -- but I'm fairly confident that devices can only be linked with one account at a time.
Furthermore, I'd argue that this issue would only be relevant with relatively expensive Apps. Frankly, I pirate music because most of the stuff I'm looking for is either otherwise unavailable or exorbitantly expensive -- conversely, the amount of effort it takes to pirate a .99c app isn't work the headache and coordination.
I'd argue that this has been Steam's biggest success, as well -- reducing piracy because it's comparatively too much effort.
For personal use, you can install apps on all Macs you own or control. There is no limitation in the number of Macs. Presumably installing an app for a friend could also be a legal use – since you control that Mac as demonstrated by logging in.
Even when there was a number limit, it never crossed the PC–iPod barrier. When music still had DRM you could play it on five PCs/Macs and an unlimited number of iPods.
As a developer, what's more important to you: more revenue or noone pirating your software?
I'd say it's possible (and I'd guess, probable) that for the vast majority of App developers, they get more net revenue from the increased exposure and ease of payment that the App store provides than they would get from trying to sell the software through their own channels.
> It’s fairly trivial for me to buy an application and simply stroll over to my friend’s computer, login using my credentials and download the application without much issue.
Sure, but you're not most App Store users. It's absolutely not trivial for most people to do this, but a huge pain in the ass.
I don't know if it would even be possible to make piracy completely impossible without having some hardware lock on the device to make sure it only runs signed software, I'm going to assume that there is a pirate version of just about every game on Steam available on a torrent site somewhere.
I'm also not sure I like the idea of having an always-on internet based DRM built into every bit of software I use. Not being able to play a game because my internet connection is down is one thing, having it completely cripple my ability to get any work done is another thing altogether. In fact that may drive legit users towards piracy, since you would only need to be stung by that once.
It's really not that simple though. If you use your account to download the app on your friend's device, the download is still associated with your account, not your friend's. Any subsequent attempts to update, restore, etc. that app will require entering your account credentials.
I can't imagine there are enough people dealing with that hassle to material effect sales.
The whole updating/upgrading argument can be made for all software. Many pirated versions of operating systems and major software suites can't be updated, but this doesn't stop a huge number of people from pirating it (Windows, Office, and Photoshop to name a few).
There are plenty of apps on the app store where all you have to do is zip up the application's directory and send it to a friend. This means that you don't even need to log into your account on their Mac. All you have to do is install the update, zip it, and toss it in dropbox or send it in an e-mail.
This is a gaping hole in Apple's infrastructure. While circumventing piracy completely is impossible, it really shouldn't be this simple either.
The apps where you can just zip them up and send them to a friend work that way because the authors neglected to put in any checks. That's not Apple's fault or doing in any way, and I think it's a red herring to even bring it up.
The ability to log in to a friend's computer and install your software on their system without limits may well be a "gaping hole", but is unrelated to apps that don't opt in to Apple's DRM.
This actually boosted Minecraft's sales, I think.
I know that I've shown the game to a friend, and just left it there in the non-updating state and they ended up buying the game.
It's how I had the game before I bought it.
Some may argue the fact that it is limited to the act of authorizing and installing which prevents the simple distribution of the application (if copying *.app doesn't work). But, this is even worse in a "re-distribution" kind of way - people who bought the software, can now leverage their account to resell the applications at a lower cost - the customer just needs to temporarily provide the computer for distribution of the apps/games.
I personally know of this KIND of thing happening, and their customers are delighted at their service.
There's an app on the iOS cydia store that allows you to have any app from the App Store for free. I have it on my phone and use it very very rarely (when I'm not sure if a £9 app will do what I need it to) - I still buy most of my apps and honour the system.
Of all the digital stuff Apple sells, music is by far the easiest to pirate.
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† No watermarks either. The tracks contain the Apple ID of the purchaser as well as purchase date and time as metadata that is easy enough to strip away.