I agree with @FichteFoll: people who are ready to crack software weren’t interested to buy it in the first place.
Anyone who seriously intends to use a software would never consider cracking it (even if it was a matter of just pasting a text serial into the original software downloaded from the website).
There’s more to a license than going beyond the 30 days trial, or unlocking advanced features (or whatever the licensed version differs from a trail version). Owning a license means being able to openly contact the developers, interact with the online community, and much more.
It will never cease to puzzle me the lengths some software developers go to in order to protect their products from cracking, key-gens, etc. Usually, the only ones who pay the price of these anti-piracy protection systems are the legitimate users. Crackers will always find a way to circumvent these protections, but when a OS update compromises these protection systems it’s only the legit users who are left with an unusable product.
I have bought some expensive software licenses which have given me lot’s of problems because of either the Anti Virus, or Windows updates, etc., which in some cases made the software unusable (especially for products which are no longer updated).
Recently I purchased a license (costed more than $100) for a tool which regularly says that my license is either expired or not legitimate — it seems that major Win 10 updates, or registry cleaning operations interfere with the anti-piracy protection of this particular software. So, every now and then I have to go through the whole registration process again, which is really bothersome because it requires logging into the website, and a number of tedious steps. This is supposed to be a tool for professionals, so I carry it on my laptop when I work at customer’s sites, and guess what … it happended that when I launched it in front of a customer I got a popup saying that my license isn’t legitimate, the tool blocked, and the software I had paid for failed me in the moment of need, in front of my customers. Needless to say, I’ve regreted having bought this tool for, no matter how good it is, it failed me in the moment of need. And it’s not a regret about the money spent, it’s about all the time I’ve invested learning to work with it, and the fact that now I’ll have to start from scratch with another tool — because I’ll have to buy another tool, which will not fail me at work, and even worst make me look like a software pirate in front of my customers!
Of course, this wouldn’t have happened in a cracked version! What I’m trying to say is that anti-piracy protections should never be implemented in ways that could damage legit customers — which, when you come to think about it, it’s almost unobtainable, since such protections deal with areas of the OS that are always critically watched by anti-virus and anti-malware tools (often leading to problems in registration of the license).
Also, I don’t believe that the proliferation of crack tools and serial numbers subtracts customers to a company — very few of those who use cracks and serials would have bought the product if they couldn’t crack the software. On the other hand, chances are that its exactly the proliferation of such cracks and serials that make a niche software become famous, because the number of effective users (legit or otherwise) is what drives users toward a tool (customers or crackers alike).
I have often wondered about how strongly it might have contributed to Sublime Text’s wide diffusion the fact that it can be used beyond the trial period (if I’m not wrong, all you get is a nagging reminder at startup, correct?).
If, as @luckman212 has mentioned, there are so many videos on how to crack to ST, it means that there is also a huge demand for the product (which, in a way, could be seen as “spontaneous advertising”, as it indicates how much a product is being sought). Of course, the higher the demand, the higher the chances that there will always be someone who creates a crack or a keygen (anti-piracy is mostly a battle lost before waging it, especially when the product is a tool for programmers).
As mentioned, I had lot’s of bad experiences with tool which had strong anti-piracy protection. Some of them are now unusable, due to changes in the OS, which is not fair because I’ve paid a license and I should be able to use it even if the product is no longer being updated (for example, in a virtual machine).
IMO, the best approach is to provide a license key that can show that the product is legitimately registered to the user. And, usually the best protection is no protection at all — meaning, that if unregistered users could use the product with all features, no one would even bother creating cracks, publishing serials, etc., and probably all registered products would be via legit registration keys (ie: each registered product = a legit customer). All other solutions tend to be overtly complicated, require internet connection (which can’t be for granted in every working environment), often create problems to legit users, and ultimately will always be cracked by someone — effectively serving only to complicate the life of legit customers.
