Developers suffering from piracy: A sad story we’ve heard before.
If something costs money, someone is going to want to get it for free. TechCrunch released an article recently about how far iOS app piracy can spread, if not dealt with properly. TechCrunch didn’t take a stand on where the blame lies, but hinted that Apple wasn’t protecting developers enough from this pandemic.
Let’s face it.
Cracking apps has been made super easy with tools like Crackulous, and the trend doesn’t show any signs of slowing down. Anyone with a jailbroken iPhone has access to thousands, upon thousands, of cracked App Store apps simply by installing a single repository in Cydia followed by an app to download them like Installous.
The story I reference focused on a development firm named GAMEized. It paints GAMEized as an independent development house who’s trying to get their legs down on solid ground, but that pirated iPhone apps could stand to ruin it all.**
GAMEized released a game titled FingerKicks, which is a pretty neat soccer game with full HD support. The app didn’t appear to be doing so well, as only $97 worth of sales were accrued in the first day. That number decreased with each passing day.
Confused with the lack of interest in their title, they decided to do some research. They didn’t need to look further than Apple’s own Game Center. They were shocked to see that more than 5,000 people were listed on the leader boards! Yet, Apple had only reported 160 purchases.
As it turns out, their game had been cracked, and featured on Hackulo.us ‘ main page.
Hackulo.us is one of the outfits that brought the tools necessary for cracking and distributing cracked AppS tore apps to the scene. Users of their software can pretty much get their hands on every title released for free.
TechCrunch quoted GAMEized as saying:
Apple apparently has no functional counter-piracy safeguards in place on their Game Center – essentially permitting users to play pirated software on their Game Center without any fear of reprisals or consequence.
Where I stand
My opinion on this matter is complex.
I believe small developers are already at a disadvantage competing with the larger houses, so taking advantage of them really is truly low. This company released a 99 cent app, a pretty damn good one, so I’d hope that most reasonable people wouldn’t mind paying them for the enjoyment they get from using it.
On the flip side, I find it rather confusing that they would point the finger at Apple for not having counter-piracy measures in place. The person developing the software should be the one implementing these features, and it’s not something that is impossible to do.
What to do
There have been numerous stories of developers planting easter eggs, or disabling pirated copies of iOS apps. It can be done, and it should be done. This is a situation where you need to stay on top of your game, just like dealing with piracy outside of iOS. The most efficient way, but probably not the best way, would be to cripple your app on jailbroken devices.
Something as simple as the below will deal with the majority of Jailbreakers out there:
NSString *filePath = @”/bin/bash”;if ([[NSFileManager defaultManager] fileExistsAtPath:filePath]){ //Break your app, use up the CPU, display FBI warnings.. }
The above simply looks for the bash executable, which is present on every jailbroken iPhone. If it’s there, you can do what you like. If you remember, Skype did something similar to its iPhone app.
I’ll never claim that I’m an expert developer, or that I can thwart every single cracker out there, but I think developers need to take responsibility for the software they are releasing and protect their interests. I doubt you’ll hear Adobe complaining about Apple not protecting their software from being pirated, even though it’s sold at Apple’s retail stores and the Apple Store online.
I know a lot of people are now claiming foul. Let me say that, yes, I know not all jailbreakers are stealing apps. I have been jailbreaking my iPhone since the day I got it. Heck, even my original iPod has linux on it, but I’m just pointing out that the issue can be managed by the developers.
It’s interesting to me that some of the same people that argue that Android’s open platform is superior to Apple’s iron curtain, also believe Apple isn’t protecting developers with anti-piracy measures.
Inspiration: TechCrunch
**One thing that possibly needs to be noted is that GAMEized actually develops iOS software for their customers using any one of their 12 game engines, or they can even develop an engine from the ground up. They definitely don’t give off the feeling that they are a garage startup, or the kid next door trying to become an app developer.
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James: You can! But... Keep in mind that not all jailbreakers are Cydia fans, and some uninstall it. Not the MASS herd, but it happens! bash though, is pretty much how everything gets done, it'd be difficult to live without it..
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LikeIt seems to be in Apple's best interest to clamp down on
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LikeI have a jailbroken iPhone & Installous; and I love it. I use the program to test out games and apps before I buy them. Apparently this means I "steal" the app, but that's not how I view it. Too many times I've plunked down some money on an app that I've ended up hating and deleting. I don't get a refund for that, and I had no way to try out the app before I bought it. That's where Installous comes in; it allows me to comprehensively test games before I buy them. As a techie college student with low dispensable income, I can't afford to wast money on apps I don't enjoy.
In the case of FingerKicks. I downloaded the game from Installous, tried it, did not like it, and deleted it. Yes, there is a GameCenter entry for me. No, I did not give the developers $1. No, I do not feel bad about demoing software before I try it.
tl;dr Installous is a great way to try-before-you-buy, not just steal from the poor.
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LikeSee.. You are assuming that it's within your rights, as an end user, to decide if a company should offer a trial or not.
That decision is up to the developer, not up to the users. If they don't have a trial, and you aren't comfortable trying it, don't use it.
When you want to try a new piece of hardware, you don't walk out of the store with it under your coat, then come back and pay for it if you like it, and just throw it in the trash if you don't.
These are all opinions obviously, and everyone is entitled to theirs, so hope no one thinks I'm criticizing them. I'm actually pretty impartial, which is odd for someone who's had a paid app in the AppStore lol..
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LikeYou do have an option to return the hardware within an allotted time though.
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LikeYou can return AppStore purchases as well, using the report a problem link in the confirmation email.
As far as harming another person, that's close minded and naive. Stores have shrinkage and defective allowances built in, so they will just get replacement goods, it doesn't make it OK.
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LikeLike Matt said, there is a return policy in place for hardware. If I could buy an app and return it, within say an hour of first opening it, I would do that instead of using Installous.
Also, lets make the distinction between software and a physical product. If I were to walk out of the store with a physical product under my coat, then I'm doing real damage because someone else who wanted to purchase that product may not be able to -- that's not how it works with apps.
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LikeRob, you may be right that there should be a trial. I have been burned on bad apps before too. However, let's be clear, this post is not talking about the use of Installous for trials, it's talking about using it for piracy. The distinction lies in whether or not you purchase the app after trying it. The author here is talking about a specific scenario and the effect it has on developers. The scenario is stealing apps, not trying apps. If you download the apps, like them and buy them, then you are not the type of person being talked about in this article.
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Likeso when a person goes into a sports store, and pockets a few baseballs, to "try them out" before they buy, are they still in the mind set that this isn't stealing? 99.9999% of these low lifes who are "trying out" software never intended to purchase that software... most likely including you. and yes you can "report a problem" to Apple and get your money back, if the "baseball" didn't work right....
it is stealing plain and simple... about 10% of people will steal, and steal software, right now it is not a big problem (even the developer mentioned would not have 5000 downloads if it was impossible to steal, they would have the 200) those 5000 people never intended to pay, and never will, (all of them of course use the excuse, "try before i buy" yet not a single one will buy the app... not a one..... and wouldn't have bought it in the first place, so the developer actually didn't lose any money. A simple experiment has proven this fact.....
the problem will be even less than 10% when iOS 5.0 comes out... even now, the jailbreakers have to rely on tethering with latest updates... iOS 5.0 will make this tethering even hard to do...
so that 10% will drop to 5%...
and to you people who can't bring yourself to part with .99cents and chose to steal instead... you will get in life what you put into it. and a lot of people who steal don't get much out of the rest of their endeavors in life... most of them are still living in their mom's basement... have fun with that..... "try before you buy'ers"
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