united-states software online-piracy
Is it legal to track users of pirated software?
<p>I'm making a piece of software right now, and I'm just doing it in my free time, so I'm not too serious about it. I want to make a version of the software and put a tracker in it that interfaces with Google Analytics. That will allow me to track things like country of origin, OS information, and hardware specs. I won't be able to see anything that is personally identifying or be able to single any one user out. </p>

<p>Anyways, I want to upload this modified version of the software to Pirate Bay, just to see what percentage of my users are pirating my software. I don't want to go after them, I don't really care that they're pirating it. I just want to see if there are any demographic differences between piraters and non-piraters. </p>

<p>This brings up privacy implications. Do I need to disclose that some sort of tracking is or may be happening in my software? If so, what do I need to disclose?</p>

<p>I live in the US, but since it's online software, people from other countries are bound to download it. Is there anything I need to do to account for that? </p>

<p>UPDATE:</p>

<p>I didn't realize that by uploading it myself that it would make this no longer piracy, but it doesn't really matter for my purposes. I have no intention of coming after these people. I just want to gather some data on piracy for my own curiosity (I know this seems weird but I'm fairly laid back about this piece of software)</p>

<p>Building off @DigitalFire's answer, I looked into the TOS related requirements that Google Analytics puts out and I found this on Google Analytic's TOS:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>You will have and abide by an appropriate privacy policy and will comply with all applicable laws relating to the collection of information from visitors to Your websites. You must post a privacy policy and that policy must provide notice of your use of a cookie that collects anonymous traffic data.</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Apparently, Google themselves also requires you to notify users when you are using their service to track people (That's pretty good of Google). <a href="http://www.davemulder.com/privacy-policy/" rel="noreferrer">Here</a> is a simple example of what a privacy policy would look like. There doesn't appear to be any issues with laws in other countries either. </p>

<p>For my purposes, I'll just implement an agreement that pops up during installation that users will have to accept. </p>

<p>In the UK there is the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Data_Protection_Act_1998" rel="noreferrer">Data Protection Act</a> which prohibits the accumulation and collection of personal data (within a predefined scope) without the consent of the user. </p>

<p>If you're unconcerned with personal data and merely want usage statistics, notification and consent gained through TOS is probably sufficient. </p>

<p>The answer is definitely not as easy as "you can do whatever you wish with your software". If that were true I guess I could create a software that steals credit card numbers and uploads them to a public website.</p>

<p>In the EU theres soon a new law governing personal information called the GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation) that governs what you can and can't do with personal information. Would you be in breach of it with your idea? Nobody can be sure until you have discussed it with a lawyer. What I can guarantee you is that no TOS in the world can help you with this.  </p>

<p>The risk of you being charged are of course somewhere between a snowball chance in hell and 0 but are you really willing to take that risk?</p>

<p>Just an FYI: If you are uploading it to The Pirate Bay, anyone using it is, by definition NOT pirating it. Even if you put a license or some other language saying otherwise, and later try to enforce your copyright.</p>

<p>People have tried doing that, and the court decided this point. The <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prenda_Law" rel="noreferrer" title="Prenda Law">Prenda Law</a> court cases was a situation where a criminal enterprise was uploading pornographic videos to file sharing sites, then attempted to sue the sharers of those videos. While the defendants in that case engaged in considerable other shady behavior, the court ruled their action of uploading to the file sharing sites constituted a voluntary release of copyrights to the public and ruled against the defendants copyright claims.</p>

<p>If you want to see what happens when people pirate your software, you'll have to wait until someone does it, and face the risk the pirate also removes your code for it to phone home in the process.</p>
