I work for a software company, and naturally we’re concerned about piracy. Our internal research indicates that whenever the most recent version of our product is successfully cracked we end up losing roughly up to 10% of our revenue until we thwart the crack or release a new version.
So I have a small dilemma when I see someone Tweet a link to a stolen version of our product online – I want to stop piracy of our product, but I also want to avoid the Streisand Effect. What’s a marketer to do?
The last time I had a question about Twitter etiquette, I made a poll about it. Well, given that I got some decent feedback last time, I’m inclined to ask again:
Loading ...Please ReTweet this poll (if you feel like being awesome.)
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Comments 7
Oh man, I can’t believe I put “privacy” instead of “piracy” in the opening line. My bad :\
Posted 17 Apr 2009 at 3:20 pm ¶Hi Aaron.
I voted for doing nothing. Twitter is largely ephemeral it will probably mostly float by in the current. If it makes it into more permanent online pages then it’s there for a while. I don’t know what your software is but knowing that it’s regularly hackable is a new level of information that you don’t want to get out there either or marginal pirates might get tempted.
I don’t think it’s a time to make a point. When I was younger, I was more idealistic.
Tom
Posted 17 Apr 2009 at 4:41 pm ¶Hey Tom,
Our software isn’t hacked very regularly – it does happen every few years and creates some trouble when it happens. As our company has grown it’s become a bit of a bigger target, but we’re fortunate in that most people who pirate software aren’t in our target market to begin with so the damage is often minimal. Turbulent economic conditions like these however exacerbate piracy and can create problems for us.
My personal vote is also to do nothing. My voice as a member of the corporation is louder than any hacker’s is, and I would be loath use it to notify people that a version of our product has been hacked.
Posted 17 Apr 2009 at 5:33 pm ¶Being that this is against the TOS of Twitter – your well within your rights to notify them and have the account closed… no reason to publicly say why – Twitter should silently kill the account and move on.
Publishing hacked/pirated content should fall within one or both of these categories – http://twitter.com/tos – #5 and #10
Posted 21 Apr 2009 at 12:12 pm ¶@EmailKarma
If it’s a public account like The Pirate Bay’s account or mini-novas you don’t think it’ll cause a stink?
And thanks for reiterating that point about the TOS.
Posted 21 Apr 2009 at 1:07 pm ¶It’s an a really interesting question. You do run the real risk of the Streisand effect as you call it but doing nothing doesn’t seem to be a great option either. I voted for other.
May a better solution is just to have their account shut down as @emailkarma suggested. If they pirate multiple products it would be tough to say you’re the one shutting them down.
Or maybe (and i’m just thinking aloud) there are other things you can do with social media that don’t directly attack the hacking. Perhaps the better approach is getting the message out to people looking for the pirated version about the value of your product and why the pirated version isn’t comparable (no customer service, no updates, etc).
Those may be awful suggestion since i don’t know the product or customer well enough. However the broader idea i think is use the tools to create relationships with potential customers and to attack piracy more indirectly than directly.
just my $.02
Posted 21 Apr 2009 at 8:24 pm ¶stuck between a rock in a hard spot. I voted for contacting twitter like more of your readers.
Posted 06 May 2009 at 5:31 pm ¶Post a Comment