[ironliver316]

I'd have to agree with badutahboy. I haven't paid for any of the apps or games on my ppc, but if there weren't piracy and torrents or any other ways to get them for free, I still wouldn't buy them. It really wouldn't hurt me not to have them, and the devs still wouldn't have made any profit from me. And I'm sure most people who do it are the same. And like it's been mentioned plenty of times, there are free alternatives for most anyway.

In a perfect world, where everyone has plenty of extra cash, gas doesn't cost $4 plus a gallon, and the majority of the population isn't living paycheck to paycheck, then there wouldn't be a piracy issue. But it's not a perfect world. We live in a world where Keanu Reeves made $185 million off the last 2 Matrix films while the average visual effects person, who is just as responsible for the films' success, makes $53,000 a year. That's just the way it is.

So there's really only 3 things developers can do.

1. Just keep doing what there doing now.

2. Try lowering there prices. You drop a $35 program down to $5, I guarantee you'd get 10 times more sales. Do the math. Not only would most piraters see less reason to steal it, but it would also look a lot more appealing to the average joe who wouldn't give it a second look with the $35 price tag.

3. Invest more time and money into newer security technology, which will ALWAYS be defeated eventually. For every smart developer out there being paid to create new ways to stop piracy, there is a just as smart or even smarter pirate, cracking the security just for the passion of doing it.