Written by Brandon on Thursday, February 8, 2007

Gear Diary: Handango Download Protection…Legalized Extortion?


I just got an email from Doug about a post over at Gear Diary that he thought I would like to maybe toss up here, and he was right I would … seems I have a little bit of a reputation for going on rants about various topics and he thought this one would light my fire. Sure enough it did … but that was a few months ago when Handango pulled a nasty move on OmniSoft … I’m over them now.

I have said it repeatedly … and I’ll say it again – HANDANGO I WILL NOT BUY FROM YOU. (Of course if I have no other option then I will… but that’s only if I have NO other option). Handango used to be the only place I would buy software. They had an excellent system for purchases, they had every piece of software you could imagine and they allowed me to re-download my stuff when I inevitably lost it…. but that was then. That’s really the problem with capitalism – Greed. And this really is nothing more than greed.

Anyway, I could rant all night long on this topic, but the post by Chris Spera over at Gear Diary is perfect – and a very insightful read into the current practices by Handango, both from a buyer and a seller perspective. Definitely worth the read !!! (Not to mention the Better Business Bureau complaint that’s been filed)

Check it out HERE

For other options on where to buy – Obviously the Jamm store powered by MobiHand , PocketGear and PocketLand come to mind, however in many cases you can buy directly from the software developer and have the vast majority of the money hit the pockets of the people who really deserve it.

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dgoldring
Feb 8, 2007

Nicely done, Brandon. Personally, if I can’t find something at the JAMM store then I am going to go straight to the vendor and buy it there. If I am spending money on a program it is because I like what the developer built, not the way Handango posted it on their web site. Of course, many of their stores are powered by Handango, which is frustrating. :)

Doug


spmwinkel
Feb 24, 2007

Even though I really agree that they’re not doing things right here, there is one thing that needs to be considered: Would you expect Handango to keep EVERY version of EVERY program on their system? For example, if you purchased version 1.1.03 of a certain program 4 years ago, and need to redownload that now. Can we really expect them to still offer that download, even though there might have been 20 updates to the software?

Something to keep in mind, I think…
(I don’t have a credit card, so I can’t purchase through Handango anyway. Mobihand is the way to go!)

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