How can I prevent piracy of my Windows Phone 8.1 app?

3
votes

I'll be releasing a paid-for Windows Phone 8.1 app soon and I want to ensure that users can't simply share the app to other phones.

I've recently learned that it's easy to share my app on Android and iPhone, so now I have to implement copy protection into the app for each platform.

Is there anything build into Windows Phone 8.1 to prevent this? Do I need to build my own custom copy protection mechanism?

2
windows-phonewindows-phone-8.1piracypiracy-protection
No mode of protection is a 100% fool proof! That said you could try server-side authentication (though this would, at least, periodically require an internet connection), providing content as downloads (post-authentication). You could also try the freemium model, with a basic free app and a premium upgrade (unlock packaged content or download content) by way of in app purchases. In the end you may have to stick with the lesser evil. - Ed_Fernando

2 Answers

3
votes

Windows Phone 8.1 is, at the moment, 100% safe from this point of view, application assemblies are all encrypted and can't be reverse engineered. You could in wp7.x and in 8.0 prior to gdr3 update (but only with a Samsung Ativ S, because of a bug in a Samsung diagnostic utility)

2
votes

Have incentives to not copying it.

Your best option is to make it a better deal for the guy that buys your software, than it is for the people copying it.

Having said that, that option might not be possible or easily done, in which case you should avoid giving your paying customers too hard a time. For instance, if you add serial numbers with online activation and limited number of activations before they need to call you or sit waiting for you to answer an email, I can guarantee that this way will hurt more than just ignoring the people that copy your software in the first place.

The worst option you can go for is the one that will make some of your paying customers wish they hadn't.