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Download
Strategies
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| January 2002 - Downloading of Classroom
Jeopardy Begins |
| Many
of our customers desired to download and try Classroom Jeopardy (and our
other programs) to see if it suited their needs. We protected our software
(through an activation procedure) and posted Classroom Jeopardy for free
downloading. Customers were allowed to download the full version of the
program and try it our for 3 days. After that time period, the customer
would have to purchase the unlocking code, in order to activate the software. |
| This
was really cool, for customers AND for DEC Software! We had potential clients
from all over the world*, who could download our software, use it for 3
days, check out all of its features and then decide to purchase. Questions
about the features of Classroom Jeopardy dropped to almost zero. |
| * Canada, Singapore, Australia, England, France,
Germany, Mexico, Sweden, Norway and Brazil (just to name a few). |
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| Then
in May of 2004, pirates struck and we had to change our distribution policy: |
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Pirates
Strike
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May 2004 - Pirating of Software Causes Problems
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| Due
to pirating of software from our site, we've had to make a slight change
in the distribution of our software. Currently a prospective customer can
download a DEMO version of our software and check it out. The only limitation
is that the customer can only play the game that is included with the program.
All other functionality of the program is intact. |
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Once a customer is satisfied
that the program meets his/her needs, they return to purchase the unlock
code. We will e-mail you with information about activation of the full
version of our software.
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| Stuff you probably don't want to know: |
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Prior to this period of piracy, about 200 customers
per week were downloading and trying our software. |
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When the piracy began, about April 25 or so, over
500 'customers' were illegally downloading and using the software per
day. |
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During the piracy period, we were getting about
4000 hits per day to our site, but no sales. |
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It's hard to run a business with no sales (duh!). |
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The excessive downloading by 'customers' ('extremely
broad bandwidth' is the jargon) made downloading for true potential customers
almost impossible (or at least very frustrating, because of the slow download
speed). |
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We really aren't trying to make it more difficult
to download, install and activate our software! We're only trying to protect
thousands of hours of program development. |
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Pirates are also accused of using the proceeds
of their software sales to fund terrorist organizations and organized crime,
and of impairing their home countries' ability to participate in foreign
trade and investment markets. Site
of article |
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Microsoft spokeswoman on piracy issues, Julia Phillpot, has just stated
that $10 billion of revenue was lost to piracy last year. Site
of article
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65% of all people who use statistics, just make
them up.* |
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| *Sorry, just had to see if you were still awake. |
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Copyright
©2008 DEC Software
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