So, say you’re a company that intends to market a software product whose primary audience is the hacker set. You know that your product will be instantly reverse engineered, recoded and rereleased. But you’d still like to make a buck. How do you do it?

Generate huge buzz (and it doesn’t get much bigger than “software iPhone unlock!”), stall for 6 weeks, while leaking out more and more proof that you really did what you said you did, and then require prepayment before releasing the software. Churn out a few thousand presales at $50+ per copy. Release the software to much joy. Gather up the money for 24 hours.

Then the hackers release their version, and you go on an extended, well earned vacation.

Brilliant.