Tag Archives: piracy

Chinese hackers launch pirate App Store, no jailbreak needed

Chinese hackers have launched a pirate app store that allows people to download pirated iOS apps with no jailbreaks needed. The online web store uses geolocation to determine a user's whereabouts. If the user is outside of China, he is not granted access to the store, instead being redirected to another page run by the hackers.

Out of respect for the hard work iOS developers do, we aren't linking to the store or revealing its name.

Piracy takes away from the development of apps on iOS. Many of the best apps today were created by a single developer or small development team that didn't initially have a lot of financial resources. If the apps being created are pirated and result in limited financial reward to the developers, why would they want to continue to come up with new and exciting apps? Some of the best apps in the App Store -- apps that are part of the reason your iPhone is so cool -- wouldn't exist.

So please, think before you pirate, because in the long run, you're hurting not just the developer, but the entire iOS ecosystem and yourself as well. And no, "I pirate an app to see if I'll like it and then buy it if I do" is not any kind of valid excuse.

Chinese hackers launch pirate App Store, no jailbreak needed originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Tweetbot for iOS outs pirate users

A lot of us at TUAW use Tapbots' wonderful Tweetbot iPhone app to feed our mobile Twitter habit. The US$2.99 price tag is apparently off-putting to some iPhone users who want the excellent features of Tweetbot, but would rather pirate the app than pay three measly bucks for it. Gizmodo UK has discovered that Tapbots now has a way to get revenge on those jailbreakers who are pirating the app -- those pirated copies automatically insert the following phrase into the compose field:

Tweetbot for iOS outs pirate users

A quick search on Twitter shows that the messages appeared to have peaked a couple of days ago and have since tailed off, so either the shamed pirates are now deleting the message and getting on with their evil ways, or someone has figured out how to remove the "offending" string from the pirated version of the app.

Many loyal Tweetbot users are publicly applauding Tapbots' response to piracy, especially since those pirates are chewing up the company's Twitter token allotment. This isn't the first time a developer has tried to shame pirates; Enfour had its plan backfire when it attempted to call out pirates on Twitter and accidentally burned a few valid users of its dictionary apps in the process.

Tweetbot for iOS outs pirate users originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 27 Feb 2013 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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New services allow app piracy without jailbreaking

With the fall of app piracy tool Installous and the seemingly difficult-to-jailbreak iOS 6 holding its own, it might appear that those who prefer to pirate apps rather than pay for them would be having a rough time. According to TNW, that's simply not the case. Thanks to a pair of services which have recently risen to prominence, users can pirate paid software without even worrying about jailbreaking.

Zeusmos and Kuaiyong are the two programs in question. Zeusmos charges users of jailbreak-free devices for the privilege of using its "cloud plan." The service provides free licenses and provisioning profiles for paid apps, allowing pirated versions of the software to run on just about any device.

Kuaiyong is a Chinese service which allows the install of paid apps via an online tool. As TNW notes, the service appears to be using bulk enterprise licenses for the apps, with the same set of credentials being used over and over again for many users.

Since posting the story, the creator of Zeusmos reached out to TNW to plead his case, insisting that Zeusmos is only intended to be used to code-sign apps for use in testing or outside the App Store. But whatever the claimed intent, it's clear that both of these services are keeping app piracy alive and well.

It probably goes without saying, but using either of these services not only cheats app developers out of their livelihood, but could also lead to malicious software being installed on your devices. Without any kind of security measures in place to police and verify the apps being distributed, you're playing a dangerous game of roulette by engaging in such activity.

New services allow app piracy without jailbreaking originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 02 Jan 2013 17:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Battle Dungeon goes offline due to piracy

Battle Dungeon is a tactical strategy multiplayer game for iOS that arrived on the App Store about a week ago, but it's no longer there. The developer announced on its website that it has pulled the game from the store due to piracy. The US$4.99 game (also supported by in-app purchases) experienced so many online players playing pirated copies that the developer, Hunted Cow, says that it couldn't keep the crowded servers running with the money coming in, and had to pull the plug.

They're offering refunds to anyone who bought the game outright, and money back for any in-app purchases. TUAW checked in with the developers directly about this, and they told us that the team is considering its options right now. They say that "hopefully we'll be back in business very soon." The original website post said the game would be down "for the foreseeable future," but the devs now say to expect an announcement on what's next as soon as possible.

We've heard about problems with app piracy before -- it's relatively easy for almost anyone to grab an app from the App Store, and then use widely available programs and exploits to share that app with people who haven't purchased it. That seems to be what's happened here. But fortunately for Hunted Cow, there are also a few ways to fight piracy (especially with a title that requires online play), so odds are that we'll see this game back up and running much more legitimately very soon.

[via Touch Arcade]

Battle Dungeon goes offline due to piracy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Enfour shares more details about app piracy

A few days ago, we wrote about the story of Enfour, an app developer that's specialized in a bunch of dictionary apps, who recently tried to shame pirates of their apps over Twitter, in a plan that caught too many legitimate users and didn't end up so great. Ars Technica went to chat to Enfour about the problem, and got a little more context on the issue and how Enfour is fighting it.

First of all, it turns out the problem wasn't merely that Enfour was targeting iPhone jailbreakers -- the company does realize that lots of "legitimate" iPhone users do jailbreak their devices. Instead, the company is trying to figure out a way to nail down pirates outside of the standard Objective-C code that apps are created with. They're trying to watch core system files and Apple's own verification files, to see when those are tampered with and the app is pirated.

Unfortunately, says Enfour, some old code that shouldn't have been run did get run, and that's what caused the false positives to appear in the Twitter shaming. Enfour has revised its anti-piracy policy completely, and while it will continue to fight pirates, Twitter shaming probably won't be part of the deal any more.

You can't really blame Enfour for fighting people who it believes have stolen its software. Piracy is certainly a problem on the App Store, and even a process that should be completely legit, in-app purchases, is riddled with less-than-legitimate users grabbing content and in-app currency that they have not paid for. Of course developers need to fight piracy, because it can directly attack the livelihoods that allow them to make apps for us in the first place. But it's an ongoing battle -- for every antipiracy measure that developers come up with and put in place, there's often a go-around method for pirates out there to circumvent it with.

Enfour shares more details about app piracy originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 23:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Dictionary apps try to shame supposed pirates, plan backfires

A series of Dictionary apps recently took an, um, "innovative" path to fighting software piracy, though it didn't quite work out as expected. Enfour is the developer of quite a few dictionary-style apps on the store, and it recently implemented an anti-piracy system that hijacked the pirate's Twitter account, and posted an anti-piracy message with the #softwarepirateconfession hashtag. That's a cute way to deal with piracy, you might think, except that the measure erroneously attacked quite a few non-pirates, not to mention invaded a user's public identity via Twitter. Oh, and auto-Tweeted on behalf of a certain Mr. Teller.

A representative from the company says on Twitter that the attacks on people who hadn't pirated the apps were the result of a bug, which has since been fixed. But the company is still unapologetic about trying to out pirates -- it says that only 25 percent of its apps in the wild are legitimate copies. It's also not elaborating on this "bug," although to call a purposely built shaming mechanism into your app a "bug" is a bit inaccurate.

Developers have tried to stop piracy in interesting ways before. Croteam, the makers of Serious Sam, recently added a huge, immortal monster to the games of any users they'd determined to be software pirates. But invading a user's Twitter feed (especially when there's a chance of accidentally calling out innocent people) isn't the right way to do it. The reviews and comments on the American Heritage Fourth Edition app are a good example of what happens when you make a mistake this big.

Dictionary apps try to shame supposed pirates, plan backfires originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 13 Nov 2012 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chinese authors suing Apple increase in number, target cash amount

In January of 2012, TUAW reported on a group of nine Chinese authors who were banding together to sue Apple for allegedly hosting pirated copies of their literary works through apps in the App Store. At that time, the nine authors were asking for total compensation in the range of US$1.88 million.

Now, Physorg.com is reporting that the group, which calls itself the Writers Rights Alliance, has increased in size to a dozen authors who have raised the stakes to 23 million yuan, or about $3.5 million.

When TUAW first covered the story, there were 37 works that were covered in the lawsuits. The authors alleged that Apple was hosting the pirated books on the App Store and when discovered, Apple refused to remove the books, saying that there was little or no evidence that the works were pirated.

The authors complained that in some cases, over a million copies of the pirated works were downloaded without the rightful copyright owners ever receiving any compensation. Once the pirated works were finally removed from the App Store, new bogus copies often popped up.

Apple spokeswoman Carolyn Wu responded to the latest lawsuit, saying that "As an IP holder ourselves, we understand the importance of protecting intellectual property and when we receive complaints we respond promptly and appropriately." TUAW will continue following this story as it develops.

[via M.I.C. Gadget]

Chinese authors suing Apple increase in number, target cash amount originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 21 Mar 2012 11:45:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Chinese authors want Apple to pay $1.88 million for allegedly hosting pirated ebooks

Last July, a group of Chinese authors petitioned Apple to stop distributing their books through multiple apps in the App Store. The group, called the Writers Rights Alliance, is now suing Apple for US$1.88 million for allegedly hosting pirated books.

The nine writers in the group say that 37 of their works have been sold as pirated copies on the App Store, with Apple of course taking a 30 percent cut from the proceeds. Apple refused to remove the books from the App Store after being asked in July of 2011, noting that there was not enough evidence to provide that the works were unlicensed.

Authors are frustrated with the slow pace at which Apple removes the pirated ebooks, with the executive for the Writers Rights Alliance noting that it sometimes takes two to three months before the pirated versions are canceled. Once that's done, new pirated versions often pop up.

According to the group, some of the pirated ebooks may have seen more than a million downloads without the authors receiving revenue from Apple. The company has told the group to contact the developers creating and selling the products, but the Alliance says that the contact information for developers is often bogus.

This won't be the last we hear of the Writers Rights Alliance. They're expected to file another lawsuit against Apple after January, seeking damages for alleged piracy on behalf of ten other authors.

Chinese authors want Apple to pay $1.88 million for allegedly hosting pirated ebooks originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 10 Jan 2012 11:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple reportedly cracking down on App Store pirates

According to a post this morning on Ars Technica, Apple is taking legal measures to make it more difficult for pirated copies of App Store apps to make their way to the hands of iOS device owners. The company is sending takedown notices to Apptrackr, a site that commonly directs users to cracked versions of popular apps.

The takedown notices are being sent under the auspices of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), which is the US implementation of two treaties of the World Intellectual Property Organization. Apptrackr developer "Dissident" says that Apple has scraped links from Apptrackr, and then sent takedown notices in an attempt to cut off access to the cracked apps. To combat Apple's anti-piracy efforts, Apptrackr has moved to servers outside of the US, and -- according to Ars -- is "using a form of redirection to avoid 'direct' links to infringing content."

Some developers have reported that piracy rates for their apps are as high as 80 percent, which would result in losses in the millions of dollars for individual developers and possibly billions of dollars to Apple. Apptrackr defends their activities by saying that their "service" is "for application trials, and nothing else." On the Apptracker site "About Us" page, Dissident claims that "pirates who do not choose to purchase the applications they install are not lost sales. They were very, very likely never potential customers in the first place. Piracy's conversion rate is absurdly low, and developers know that."

Regardless of how you personally feel about software piracy, it's fascinating to see that Apple is coming to the defense of App Store developers by attacking Apptrackr with takedown notices.

Apple reportedly cracking down on App Store pirates originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 04 Jan 2012 14:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Miramax CEO says Apple is a threat to the music industry

Miramax CEO Mike Lang told the audience at MIPCOM that Apple is a bigger threat to the music industry than piracy. Miramax was a Disney property (of which Steve Jobs is the largest shareholder) until it was sold last year. Lang told the packed audience that "Apple is the strongest company in the music industry because there was not enough competition, and still to this day there is not enough competition. As an industry it can't then influence packaging, merchandising -- all the things that are vital."

His words were one of warning to the movie industry, which he sees facing the same challenges now as the music industry did at the turn of the century. "As an industry -- the movie industry -- we have to be very cognizant of that [Apple's influence]. That's why we did our deal with Netflix, and why we also did our deal with Hulu. We want multiple players to be successful."

Though his reasoning is valid, perhaps Lang should give some credit where credit is due. Apple single-handedly saved the music industry in 2003 when it unveiled the iTunes Music store, a cheap, legal way to download music instantaneously. As much as Lang wishes other companies share power in the digital music distribution scene, none of those companies stepped up to the plate to save the ailing music industry before Apple.

[via TorrentFreak]

Miramax CEO says Apple is a threat to the music industry originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Wed, 05 Oct 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Former EMI boss says Limewire users were major iTunes customers

Douglas C. Merrill used to work for record label EMI, one of the biggest members of the RIAA. He was forced out just a year later, but now he's sharing information from inside the company. And some of that information points to an interesting conclusion about music pirates: they often end up being some of the music industry's best customers. Speaking at a conference in Sydney, Merrill said that a profile they'd conducted of users of the LimeWire music sharing service portrayed them as some of the biggest spenders on iTunes. "That's not theft, that's try-before-you-buy marketing and we weren't even paying for it," Merrill said at the show, "so it makes sense to sue them." That last part is sarcasm, we're pretty sure.

Of course, most record companies saw illegal downloading as purchases that just didn't happen, and thus lost revenue. But this conclusion hints that "pirates" aren't taking away from music sales -- they're just download music to fill out their already big purchased collections.

That's the kind of premise that the upcoming iTunes Match seems to be banking on, where users will be able to pay a subscription fee to verify any music downloaded outside of iTunes as official iTunes purchases. It would certainly end up being ironic if it turned out that the very same customers the RIAA attacked and sued back during those early days of filesharing were some of the same customers ringing in the digital music age that's now keeping record companies afloat.

[via Boing Boing]

Former EMI boss says Limewire users were major iTunes customers originally appeared on TUAW - The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 26 Jul 2011 14:15:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Mac App Store devs need careful code validation, otherwise downloads can be copied

John Gruber of Daring Fireball reports that Mac apps whose developers didn't follow Apple's advice on validating apps (link for registered Apple developers) can easily be copied by users. Gruber notes if Mac App Store developers are following Apple's advice, the technique for using a copied app won't work, but many apps aren't following that advice. He suggests Apple test for this in their review process and reject apps that are vulnerable.

Sean Christmann explains on his blog, CraftyMind, how developers can better protect themselves against copying apps. He recommends hard-coding receipt bundle identifier and version identifier strings into applications rather than depending on strings in an app's info.plist file, because that file is easy to find and duplicate. You may read that "the Mac App Store has been hacked," but the instructions floating around out there aren't how to "hack" the App Store; they're how to steal certain apps if a developer didn't follow the guidelines well.

Devs, check your code. Users, support developers. This is new for everyone. It's certainly a very interesting time for software delivery models -- putting indie developers on the same shelf space as Fortune 500 companies -- and there are bound to be hiccups along the way.

Mac App Store devs need careful code validation, otherwise downloads can be copied originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 22:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Lack of receipt checking could enable Mac App Store piracy


Not long after the Mac App Store opened, several warnings via Twitter began to surface. "You did implement receipt checking so that people can't pirate your app. Yes?" developer Nik Fletcher (also one of our former writers here at TUAW) asked his followers. Ged Maheux at the Iconfactory also pointed out that he was able to run a for-pay app purchased by another person, and run it on 10.5 and 10.6.5 Macs as well -- none of which should be happening, it would seem.

Receipt checking is the process that lets developers verify that the app is installed as a valid purchase by checking the embedded purchase receipt, which is included (in encrypted form) by Apple and contains the UUID of the Mac authorized to run the app. Apple did not force developers to implement a particular way of handing these receipts and as a result, some paid apps are not properly protected against piracy.

While the number of affected apps is not known -- and probably very small -- it's not clear there's anything Apple could have done to protect developers from themselves in this situation. According to veteran Mac developer Daniel Jalkut of Red Sweater Software, the burden of preventing the app from running in an unlicensed setup is on the app itself, not Apple's receipts.

"If developers think anything doesn't check out, at any time, they are obliged to exit the app," says Jalkut. "So nothing Apple does, short of breaking the exit system call itself, would cause an app to run when the developer's code discovers something is not right." Jalkut suspects that the apps in question may not have implemented a receipt check, or that the check they are using has flaws in its implementation. He also points out that Apple's testing process only looks for "false positives," meaning that if a valid license/receipt is present and the app fails to launch, that's grounds for rejection; if one is absent and the app launches anyway, that's not since receipt checking is optional. [Developer Alex Curlyo points to his open-sourced routines for validating store receipts, in case Mac app developers need some help.]

Fellow TUAW writer TJ Luoma was kind enough to share an app with me to test this. He archived an app purchased through the Mac App Store, dropped the app in Dropbox and sent me the link. I installed it, then restarted the Mac App Store. The store showed the app as being installed, and was able to use the app as if I had bought it myself. However, it did not show up in my purchased apps list. When I removed the app from the machine, the Mac App Store gave me the option of paying for a legal license instead of saying it had been purchased or previously installed in any manner.

To be clear: TUAW does not endorse app piracy, and I immediately uninstalled the app we tested. However, it's in developers' interest to double-check and make sure they have receipt support enabled for their products in the Mac App Store.

[And no, if you were wondering, Angry Birds is not the application we tested.]

Lack of receipt checking could enable Mac App Store piracy originally appeared on TUAW on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 12:06:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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