Author: Jonas Cohonas
Date: 13:53:35 09/26/05
Go up one level in this thread
>Hi, > >I would like to explain a little bit how we have come to the decision to require >a hardware-based activation of Fruit: > >As the commercial idea became more concrete we realized with fear that we have >to bother about protection. Fabien is totally unaware of windows-functionality >and I am totally unaware of any real programming (beside html) so we didn't know >how to protect that thing. However with Fruit being the strongest engine we >expected some piracy-attraction. With an engine being only a few hundred KBs we >feared that a distribution by simply emailing the engine with a valid serial is >very easy and might hurt sales. This imagination together with the sale >expectation of well-informed sources led to this (perhaps desperate) attempt to >prevent pirating Fruit and to increase the sales of Fruit. Whether this is a >wise decision or not I don't know. As someone wrote below you are probably going >to loose customers in both cases. > >I don't like activation either and can understand that people will abstain from >buying Fruit because of this. I just can explain that it is not an attempt to >make maximum profit and get rich quickly but an attempt to increase the chances >that Fabien can hope in future to live on developing Fruit. Perhaps there are >some illusions about the profitability of selling a chess engine today. In the >90ies a new title could sell very well but today it isn't enough to make your >living out of that. > >There are some serious drawbacks of hardware activation but ideally you will >install it on your computer and don't be bothered anymore. Only if you buy >another computer you need to contact us. I know that there is uncertainty for >the user especially since we are not a well-established company but a business >which can disappear any time. I can only promise you that in case we dicontinue >distribution of Fruit there will be a free update with a non-hardware-based >lifetime key. I promise also that we will handle key requests generous without a >n arbitrary hardlimit and only reject if we have substantiated believe of key >trading. In the end it is your decision of trust in us which should determine >your decision. > >I hope you understand. > >kind regards > >Joachim Like others have stated i can understand the decision made about the protection method you guys have opted to use, from a logical point of view. However from a business point of view i fail to see what the point is, the ones that pirate software are _very_ unlikely to buy software no matter what type of protection is used and those who will buy it does so because they want to support Fabien, get a super strong engine and because it is the right thing to do. There is nothing i would like more than to support Fabien by buying his engine, but when you mention trust, i think it should go both ways and i don't feel that is the case with this method of registration/protection. I say this because i was really looking forward to following the wonderful development of Fruit from the front seats at my own computer and to let you know what goes on in the mind of someone who would have bought Fruit and opted not to. Also, not representing the majority i think, i own more than 4 computers that i regularly use for chess. Needless to say i wish you guys reconsider the protection method, if not good luck and i wish you guys all the best. Credit card in hand regards Jonas
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