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Z-Library Helps Students to Overcome Academic Poverty, Study Finds

(torrentfreak.com)
370 points hn_acker | 7 comments | 20 Nov 24 23:36 UTC | HN request time: 0.66s | source | bottom
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OsrsNeedsf2P ◴[21 Nov 24 03:04 UTC] No.42200689[source]▶
At my first company out of University, we found our app was being distributed on "piracy" versions of the Play Store, with all the IAPs bypassed and given for free. We spent months cracking down on it, and the end result was bugs in our detection system negatively affected our users, and I believe we also introduced a crash which hurt our Play Store ranking.

I still remember having a meeting about it with the CEO, as we all collectively realized that blocking the free version of our app made no positive impact whatsoever.

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anonym29 ◴[21 Nov 24 04:28 UTC] No.42201125[source]▶
The idea in industry that pirated copies represent "lost sales" is wishful thinking. The reality is, people who can afford to pay for media/apps/programs/books can and do; the people who pirate such digital goods overwhelmingly either cannot afford to purchase a legitimate copy, or simply wouldn't be interested in paying for it without knowing whether they'd like what they were getting, were a pirated copy not be available.

Additionally, not all pirates are the selfish monsters that MPAA, RIAA, and friends would have you believe: many pirates, including several I know personally, use pirated media as a preview, and go on to pay for the content they actually enjoyed, yet wouldn't have done so without the option to pirate to know whether or not the media is worth the asking price to begin with.

An MBA could be coaxed into admitting that in those cases, piracy actually creates sales that wouldn't have otherwise happened.

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1. doctorpangloss ◴[21 Nov 24 07:32 UTC] No.42201979[source]▶
Should Apple be the only ones allowed to make money? You can't pirate Apple News, iCloud Storage, all sorts of services and conventional media they provide. You can't pirate App Store IAP. You don't have to make a single value judgement to see that the status quo - the only permissible action to take against piracy is to make unassailable DRM - is really just conceding that the fully vertically integrated platforms ought to own anything. Surely it's not good that only Apple is allowed to make money.
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2. BrenBarn ◴[21 Nov 24 07:56 UTC] No.42202089[source]▶
That's certainly the status quo. One remedy that comes immediately to mind is to simply ban vertically integrated platforms like that and forcibly break them up.
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3. notpushkin ◴[21 Nov 24 08:05 UTC] No.42202127[source]▶
Those are services that depend on Apple servers. If you also make a service, others can’t pirate it (they’ll have to set up their own server, which means it’s not really your service now).

Of course, this only works if you secure your server side properly. I remember using cracked versions of Wolfram Alpha for Android back in high school and those worked like a charm. I don’t think they lose a lot of revenue though.

4. vinay_ys ◴[21 Nov 24 09:07 UTC] No.42202434[source]▶
It takes a lot of effort to build a system that is both user-friendly and does implement sophisticated mechanisms to prevent bypassing permissions controls. Apple has taken the pains to do that well and then to maintain it against an unending barrage of attacks. So they deserve to make money.
5. nug ◴[21 Nov 24 09:32 UTC] No.42202548[source]▶
You can definitely pirate IAP. Back in the day it was as easy as using a proxy. Nowadays you need to inject 3rd party software into the app.
6. Cumpiler69 ◴[21 Nov 24 10:06 UTC] No.42202717[source]▶
People here don't like to hear this, but that's the only realistic solution to the current big tech monopolies sucking all the air in the room and spawn-camping small players before they take off.
7. JSR_FDED ◴[21 Nov 24 10:42 UTC] No.42202944[source]▶
Wait, what? Apple is bad because they don’t provide a way for you to pirate content they sell?