Let me give an example of what I'm talking about.
Here's the album "Third" from the kickass band "Portishead", look at it closely and you'll realise it's more than meets the eye, but what's so special about it?

• It deals with piracy
• It ensures Portishead (The Artist) gets a lot more money out of every sale than they would if it were a virtual download on iTunes or crap like that.

This is a modern Vinyl boxset, and what's special about it is that it's a perfect example of what I pointed out in my previous post:
"How do we get people to buy instead of pirating?"

It's as simple as is demonstrated here, cause people who download a pirated version won't get out of it what the people who bought the set get out of it.

• It sounds better.
• It looks better.
• You can read it and enjoy it physically as well as listen to it.
• Fans of the band are going to want the exclusive Portishead USB key.
• That USB key also happens to contain a digital version of the music for your convenience.
• People who where genuine enough to buy it, can now sell at a profit if they so wish (and it's likely a true fan will never want to sell it).

There's six reasons that the tangible version is superior in every respect to the virtual music download, and six reasons it could not be pirated.  Portishead don't need to worrry about this box set being pirated, because it's physical, and just as importantly, it was inventive enough to sell-out quite quickly to genuine paying customers.

Portishead would have to sell a lot of virtual downloads to earn the same money they earn from just a single boxset.  With stuff like physical Vinyl boxsets, the artist is much more, if not completely in control over their product, their pricing, and their distribution.

And how does this relate to software?
I'll tell you.

One way a software developer can sway a potential customer not to pirate, is by offering a complete physical user manual with their products, but sadly, this is something else that has seen a decline over the years, to the point where it's virtually impossible to even find one that has a complete manual these days.  Laziness and greed is why you no longer have a physically printed manual.  You can buy a physical version of some software, but even they don't come with a complete physical manual, so there's not much point in the physical version in that case, is there?

FAIL!

Which brings me back to what I said earlier, in order to make more sales and suffer less piracy, companies simply need to make a tangible version of the product that is enticing enough to persuade them to purchase it, instead of downloading an illegal copy - which is what Portishead have achieved with their boxset.

Piracy CANNOT be stopped, but more sales >>>CAN<<< be made by making TANGIBLE goods attracive enough to purchase!