[SailfishDevel] Jolla Harbour and Jolla Store (copy protection)

[Michal Jerz]

Hey Marcin,

> But I won't agree about $650 - not everyone can buy first-minute
> device. And take it in account that in some countries (like Poland)
> minimal pay is $400. New N900 is half of that in Poland. And if
> you'd like to expand to countries like Uzbekistan, Kazachstan, 
> Ukraine, Belarus, ... than $1 is a lot in these countries.

First of all, please let me stress that I FULLY AGREE that making 
applications as easy to buy/download as possible is the most important. No 
question about it! I'm voting with both my hands for all kinds of attractive 
pricing plans, special offers, bundles, happy hours, and all other things 
like that. For example, in the Nokia Store I've been so badly missing 
options like ability to quickly change the price (e.g. to offer a 
'quick&short' promo rather than wait 5 working days for QA to accept the 
change - in both directions) or to offer a special price for a bundle of 
applications, or quickly generate a discount/gift code...

It's just that IMO it doesn't contradict at all making use of illegal stuff 
more difficult at the same time. I'm quite sure that both can co-exist 
without affecting each other. I can't see why offering an OPTIONAL 
copy-protection would IN ANY WAY prevent the ability to offer discounts, 
sell bundles, or the store itself remaining easy and intuitive to use.  

I see *NO CONNECTION* between these things and I'm really puzzled seeing how 
everyone talks about it as if those things were mutually exclusive.

--- !!!!!!!! ---

ALSO, while everyone so eagerly compares Sailfish to Android or iOS, no one 
mentions one important difference between them: all the remaining systems 
being (at least 'by default') more or less *LOCKED* and Sailfish OS being 
(out-of-box) ENTIRELY 'UNLOCKED'. On Android, certain (quite many) cracks 
need a ROOTED device to work, on iOS they need a JAILBROKEN device, WP is 
also severely locked, and so on. Which itself somehow limits the use of 
'warez'. Rooting or jailbreaking is popular among more advanced users (i.e. 
probably less than 10%), but millions of 'average' users do NOT root or 
jailbreak their phones (don't even know about it or are too scared to modify 
their phones this way) and thus CANNOT use cracked applications, at least 
some of them. So these systems come with kind of 'factory' protection, 
unlike Sailfish OS which ships totally unlocked, and even if full root 
access requires enabling the developer mode then it's as easy as switching 
one menu option rather than tampering with device firmware.

Therefore, it's not really valid to compare Sailfish to iOS or Android when 
it comes to software protection, because BY DEFAULT Sailfish OS is MUCH more 
open to freely copy and install stuff. THAT'S WHY it needs some other 
protection to at least *SUBSTITUTE FOR* what other platforms restrict 
out-of-box unless rooted or jailbroken. Or else, in fact, we get a platform 
*MUCH MORE VULNERABLE* to piracy than (not rooted/jailbroken) iOS or Android,
 i.e. a platform on which piracy will be actually *EASIER* and thus 
(relatively) BIGGER, which along with (at least initially) much smaller user 
base might be really bad for its app ecosystem.

-------------

> And if
> you'd like to expand to countries like Uzbekistan, Kazachstan, 
> Ukraine, Belarus, ... than $1 is a lot in these countries.

That $1 was just an example. The Nokia store has different pricing for 
different countries. For example, in India they sell applications for about 
*TWENTY TIMES LESS* than in Western Europe (and, strangely, several times 
less than e.g. in Vietnam). An application costing 3 EUR in Germany or UK is 
being sold for.... 0.08 EUR (!) in India. For 100 copies of my app sold in 
India I get less than for THREE copies sold in Finland, which actually makes 
Indian sales pure charity.

Which.... doesn't seem to have absolutely *ANY* positive effect when it 
comes to restricting piracy in such countries as I've seen a multitude of 
Indian warez sites, each with tens of thousands of downloads of applications,
 including mine, and that ridiculously low price didn't make sales of my 
apps in India ANY higher than in other countries.

So it really isn't about "having no money" - people in such countries will 
ALWAYS use cracks if they only CAN. If I have just as many app purchases 
from poor Vietnam for 0.50 EUR as from India for 0.08 EUR (and I wouldn't 
say that people in India owning as expensive phones - even second hand - as 
the N9 can be poorer than Vietnamese) then it shows that app price has 
NOTHING to do with it and the only price they'd accept rather than piracy 
(as long as it is easy to do) would be.... no price at all.

P.S. Population of India is 1/6th of the world, so I guess it is a valid 
example.

Cheers,
Michal