Rampant Asset Piracy and no Security, Where is the incentive?

If you want people to get hooked on your product maybe rather think about releasing a "lite" version with restrictions for free so that people don't need to pirate it but can try and see if it works for them.
I think it's easier for someone to just pirate something and then never buy it if it's already in their full posession. The most problematic thing on the Asset Store - at least for Plugins - is that there is no way to try before you buy and see if it works properly and is performant. Which is one of the main arguments for people pirating.

Another benefit of the approach - you will also reach more people who would not pirate but still aren't sure whether to buy or not. I think it was NGUI and Pro Builder which had feature reduced versions. I knew immediately after trying ProBuilder that it was absolutely worth the money. Before that I thought it would be worth it after trying I was so convinced that I bought it without hesitation.

You cannot stop piracy. If it was this easy then there would be a protection in place everywhere. I know that it's not an easy situation, either and that it sucks. Of course it does but complaining and being negative and shifting the complete blame over to someone else probably isn't the right approach, either. If you have a revolutionary idea to protect Asset Store assets easy and hassle free for legal buyers Unity would surely love to hear it. Until then maybe try thinking more creatively or other things that can be done on your part. Complaining alone solves nothing. It just wastes time.

 

Lesson: Don't try to stop piracy, but embrace it, use it at your advantage (its free publicity) and learn from it. You will feel better and you will make more!

 

Rather than the security, think of what's the incentive of buying and supporting said assets from a customer's point of view. Yes, there's piracy. Anything digital can be pirated. Be it games, assets, art, etc. Is it really a bad thing? That's another topic for another day.
Anyways, I'm gonna quote a couple of Gabe's sentences throughout what I'll say. Let's start with this:

"Most DRM solutions diminish the value of the product by either directly restricting a customer's use or by creating uncertainty." - Gabe Newell

I know you have to protect your works but if you gonna treat your customers like criminals or something, they will likely leave and won't glance at you and what you're offering for a second again. The last thing any businesses would want.

"Piracy is almost always a service problem and not a pricing problem." - Gabe Newell

Piracy starts with torrents and all. How annoying it is to use torrent programs to get what you want? You have to wait for speeds and all kinds of problems. Compared to Asset Store, I can download assets fast and convenient. This bolded text is the thing where lots of services succeed. Look at the popular services like Steam, Netflix, Playstation Network, Spotify, iTunes and they all solves that one customer complaint in common: 'There's this content and I want it now!'.

"Our success comes from making sure that both customers and partners feel like they get a lot of value from those services. They can trust us not to take advantage of the relationship that we have with them" - Gabe Newell

That's what the Asset Store is and does, sort of. It provides convenience to both customers and publishers to access a list of purchased assets through Unity and sell content without having to set up publisher's own storefront respectively.

How to stop piracy?
Answer: No one can. It's how things are. That said, look into how your services are worth more than what pirates can offer. For example: good customer support, regular updates and most importantly, offer something what people wants.

It's how some assets like PlayMaker and Probuilder got its recognition. I would gladly give my money to those guys since they offer what I want as a customer and always looking forward to anything they'll bring, whether it's updates or new assets.

Sure, rack on the Asset Store all you want. You're not forced to put your content on it. Hell, open your own store and sell your content like some asset sellers here if you want.

 

... just make sure not to go overboard with piracy protection so that people will find it a hassle to buy your product. I know I took business to a competitor more than once because of that. It's also why I still don't think the AssetStore is bad. After all it is accessible and updates are integrated into Unity for you automatically.

 

I doubt any serious project would use pirated assets, so sales are guaranteed.

Who would risk lawsuits, especially if they have a successfull product.

I have a feeling that pirated assets sell a lot better too, since they may get pirated to boot and then when they get really usesfull noone would really risk using the asset in the final product without buying it.

I am now close to $4000 worth of bought assets myself

 

To avoid piracy keep updating your asset frequently, and give support with invoice ids,
it can also convert pirates to customers. (I believe even pirates don't want buggy codes)

anyone who is half serious about using your asset will want to buy it, for this reasons.

 

It's far better than what the old standard for stores used to be, which was reversed (i.e., 70% or more in favor of the publisher, and you'd be lucky to get 30%). People have short memories and forget what a revolution it was when Apple announced 70% in favor of developers. They were able to do this because their business is selling hardware, so the app store could essentially be a loss leader. Although it ended up becoming popular enough that they earn some money from it, but still not much compared to the hardware side.

Likewise, from statements made by Unity, they don't make much from the asset store and earn most of their money from licenses, so if they reduced their take, they could start losing money. Naturally as a seller I'd be happy to get a higher percentage, but it's not realistic to expect it to go much higher than 70%.

--Eric

 

Dont understand the dilema.. piracy or not... they cant use your product in their game without a purchase or you could sue them. Serious developers will buy a copy of your asset legit if its any value. I sold a bunch of copies of my beast model thats in my icon on this forum. I didn't think id sell 1. So whatever. Usually people will spend the money on a quality asset.

This entire conversation is like being mad at google because a picture you made and are selling appears on google image search.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/111

 

That is one way to see it. The other is that the store adds a tremendous value to Unity as software and thus especially since they dont earn much from it, could support this big advantage by letting developers earn a bit more and make more sense to put out amazing software to use with it. This would only increase Pro sales, which is their main income.

 

why necro bump this thread? It was dead for a year and a half and the original poster never made a valid point to begin with.