[Update 1: the author has responded with a public letter [1] to this issue and is planning to open the source code of his application]
[Update 2: my friend over at Yet Another Mac Dev Blog had a look behind the curtain with display eater [2] check it out, it’s a very interesting read.]
[Update 3: the developer of Display Eater replied [3] to this open letter [4] over at Yet Another Mac Dev Blog: […]Version 1.85 was released three times. Version 1 had no deletion, version 2 had home folder deletion, and version 3 had display eater preferences deletion.[…]]
Today I wanted to make a screen-cast about the inspector I was talking about in the previous post. I tried out Display Eater [1] and while I read about the features on the version-tracker site, I stepped over the comments [5] for this application. These comments really scared the hell out of me and I was truly in doubt of the developers sanity. To make it short: this application will remove your home folder if you try to register it with a pirated serial number.
I mean it’s not right to pirate software, it’s illegal. But there are people out there who do that. But these people are users, they’re using the software and if they like it they might purchase a license some day. Well I guess they wouldn’t anyway. But if they like the product they probably talk about it. And by talking about the app they will bring other users to the app. These others may pirate it as well, or if they’re more honest they may purchase it or continue the advertisement.
Removing the home folder of some users will probably do way more advertisement. But that kind of advertisement is not good. This blog post is such a kind of negative advertisement. I definitely do not support such software and I suggest you should not use Display Eater. If you need a tool to create screen-casts go for iShowU [6]. It’s just 3$ more expensive than Display Eater but seems to have a much better user experience.
Yesterday I saw a post from Wil Shipley [7] about pirating software and I fully agree with him! Pirates can’t be stopped. You can try to improve the copy protection of your application to the max, but this will only reduce the user experience of paying customers. You’re better off spending your precious time implementing new features than improving the copy protection. This will help both the developer and the users.
Karsten