I am a lawyer as well and Pamx is on the right track. If you really want to nail this guy, use the DMCA (if he is in the US). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Digital_Millennium_Copyright_Act. The act is pretty broad but I think the relevant part that you could gain traction with is (as paraphrased on the site) "It also criminalizes the act of circumventing an access control, whether or not there is actual infringement of copyright itself." This will get you around the several problems with civil litigation: 1. damages being speculative 2. Equitable remedy (read an injunction) won't do you any good now that the cat is out of the bag. 3. it is criminal, not civil. So his age won't protect him. Full Disclaimer for CYA purposes: I don't represent you (or anybody else), nor am I giving you (or anybody else) legal advice. You should seek a competent lawyer for your specific needs.
Just went through my records and I have also sent a beta out to erique555... Class Action anyone? Now I'm going to search the web and see if my beta is leaked
Why doesn't someone start a Beta Testers group? It'd basically be the same as the list, only it'd be easier for potential (and trusted) testers and devs to communicate with each other. Make it invite only, devs get in for nothing, members can only be invited after referrals from developers.
The problem with that is, that if a group like that existed, the devs would only choose from people in it, so starting to beta test would be nearly impossible for people.
Another 2 T.A Members to beware of are kissrocknroll+Dexter420 as they have just cracked ZombieShock!! See here: http://forums.toucharcade.com/showthread.php?p=1078392&posted=1 :mad
aww, not cool. that'll be enough thank you very much! that would be correct, although most people dislike in app purchasing.
I agree with the beta tester group. No invite, but moderated would be better I think. Tell them why you are a good beta tester and who could verify it .
if its any consolation to the devs here.....i visit ************* daily and report the links to the sites that host them. then within a matter of hours the link is removed. its an uphill battle but i figure i would do my part and help out. and i totally agree with the beta testers group someone should start it immediately...and for those who haven't yet beta tested but want to, they can just recieve referrals from other beta testers, say like 3 testers (who are already in the group) referrals and your in or something like that.
so, the purpose of beta testing isn't to benefit the gamers, it's to benefit the devs. However, most beta testers now just join to get a free game. edit: Just found something. The main piracy website has over double the amount of views per day that toucharcade does! http://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/*********.org# Edit: Is it not allowed to post a link to a website that shows information about a website that cannot be mentioned here?
i am a noob at developing, but hopefully i have the inspiration to actually start and finish a little ipod game and post it to the app store for free! And i was and currently am thinking of giving out beta builds of my future products, but this topic kind of crushed my thought by 10%. So i checked out this site called Idwaneo.us, and the guy in this thread user was missing! But i notice they now call him Midnight, WonderCracker, and IDMaster. The original owner of the site is also now called Iphonelover. The site has there own little beta thread with loads up beta! Super Quick Hook, Pocket Creatures, 9 innings baseball 2011, YSlandia, and many more! This is probably none of my business but why haven't any major companies actually sued these types of sites? If you guys dont take action, it is just a waste of Ink/Space for those little Federal do not copy or pirate etc. messages! You already know who is doing it by a little ip check, so just arrest and sue them!
If it were that easy the big name game companies (and movies, software companies like Adobe) would be doing it. You can download ANYTHING online for free. Everything can be cracked, hacked, sliced and diced. For every site that is shut down, 50 more popup somewhere else. I think the stats on the number of jailbroken phones is small so I just ignore the whole thing. Not much else we can do.
SQH had an open beta with one feature and a family & friends beta with the entire game. EDIT: Thanks1
i saw on that idwaneo site in the chat box that they had trouble getting a few specific brand games( Adult Swim/Activision). The site had trouble patching the many games to work and most of them failed, leaving the game "Uncracked" which means they cant give it out to the public working. Wouldnt it be better for all game companies to use those 2 company's anti crack protection? Because if you look at it, all games by Adult Swim have tried to been cracked, but if you install it, it fails to load!
All good advice and suggestions, which reminds me why TA is such a valuable resource for devs and gamers-alike, and will long continue to be despite the efforts of a few rotten apples (hmm maybe Apples is a poor choice of words). In our experience an NDA won't do you one iota of good, given many pirates stongly feel the reward is far greater than the risk- and a similar number often believe it's their duty to set apps free :/ Such agreements are best used for the protection of ideas when working with other devs or contractors on a commercial basis. The best course of action is as already mentioned - don't accept rides from strangers Get to know who can be trusted by either references or back checking their contributions to the site. We use but a handful of external testers as by and large giving an app for free has a weird biasing effect to feedback, but those we found to be the best are those who without any priming or prompting offered carefully considered and well written posts with their thoughts, opinions and hopes for our games - well before we ever got to the point of needing testers. At the same time receiving out of the blue PM's offering assistance aren't a bad thing, flattering even, only why take the risk when there are better options in looking at those who've already demonstrated a capacity and willingness to help. Finally, conceding that 'some' (a lot) of piracy is going on we've decided to introduce a few choice - and extremely well hidden - lines of code in our next release that will thank unauthorised users for "trialling" our software and encourages them to purchase a copy if they enjoyed it - before promptly exiting them to the springboard Hope this helps and best wishes for your success!
My advice to devs looking for outstanding beta testers is to have a company in good standing so that the best applicants - highly experienced ones, with extensive resumes and a reputation to maintain - will have little or no apprehension about applying in the first place. Considering all the internet scammers in the world, it's understandable that a tester might be a little circumspect with unestablished developers. It doesn't matter whether it's a big company or an indie one, as long as the prospective tester gets the impression that the company is a clean outfit that, among other things, will take measures to safeguard beta tester privacy (I wouldn't send a resume to an app company that produces a fake-phone call app, for example).
