If you can arrange things so that some (but not all) of the functionality in your app is unavailable in a pirated copy, then piracy becomes a form of trialware, and can be a huge marketing channel.
Way back in the day, I co-wrote an early networked multiplayer game on the Mac, Spectre. We didn't use copy protection, as it was too much hassle for legitimate users. However, there was a nontrivial-to-hack requirement that you have N serial numbers for an N-player game. This led to people pirating the game for the single-player mode, enjoying it, and buying a second or third copy for multiplayer. I don't have hard data, but we believe a lot of our sales originated this way.
There's probably some psychology at work here: if you let someone download a "trial version" for free, they may not value it as much as an app they had to "pirate".
Glad to hear it! I have not-quite-so-fond memories of debugging all that AppleTalk code. :) Still, writing Spectre was one of the most fun things I've done. It amazes me, after all these years, how often I still run into people who remember the game.
Count me in as one of those who loved the game. Also, I was one who only played a pirated copy, unfortunately. Not a good excuse, but at the time I was just a kid with no access to any kind of payment method. I'm happy to see Spectre has been released on iOS, and at last I can pay for a legit copy of the game! In fact, I just bought two licenses, one for myself and one for my friend who originally "shared" the game with me. Are you at all involved in the iOS port?
My only involvement in the iOS port was to give it my blessing, after the fact. The author got in touch with us (the original Spectre authors) at some point when he was pretty far along in development, asking us about a license, which we gave him for free -- we were happy to see Spectre live on.
Way back in the day, I co-wrote an early networked multiplayer game on the Mac, Spectre. We didn't use copy protection, as it was too much hassle for legitimate users. However, there was a nontrivial-to-hack requirement that you have N serial numbers for an N-player game. This led to people pirating the game for the single-player mode, enjoying it, and buying a second or third copy for multiplayer. I don't have hard data, but we believe a lot of our sales originated this way.
There's probably some psychology at work here: if you let someone download a "trial version" for free, they may not value it as much as an app they had to "pirate".