were the product one that was marketed extensively in the chinese and russian markets and relying on those sources?
Marketing was not necessary. The value of the products was well established and the tens of thousands of downloads from .ru and .cn were each accompanied by the offer to sell the software for a dollar.
Its obvious that piracy has an effect on sales, whether software, movies or music. However, its not all that obvious what this effect is.
If people stealing it are guilty of bringing down businesses, how can things survive that are given away on a donation basis?
No comparison can be made and no knowledge gained from such a comparison if made can be worthwhile.
There's more than a few webcomics f.x. that create art on a daily basis.. and had enough donations come in to make it a living, despite not selling a single thing.
The humble indie bundle of games has made 1.2 million so far, and still counting.
Radioheads "pay what you want" album reached 3 million sales despite being basically given away for whatever people wanted to pay.
See above. All of these examples are independent and non-comparable.
Success or failure of one has no value as an indicator of success of another. Different products. Different markets. Different value propositions. In the details, none of these are alike.
All I can factually say is:
- Profound's products are well regarded and well reviewed.
- We know a large number of professionals around the world made their living using Profound's products which they did not pay for.
- Profound did not earn enough income to be viable.
I acknowledge that the causality cannot be conclusively drawn.
