iPhone Anti-Pirates Strike Back
Crackulous, while surrounded by some initial humor, wasn't funny for developers who work night and day to feed their families only to see their work ripped off. (Come on, how many of us would like it if developers walked off without paying for their ultra-sized combo meals at our work!). Well, now it looks like some of them are fighting back.
Christina Warren over at TUAW talked to the folks behind the new Kali Anti-Piracy service and liked what she saw:
Essentially, Ripdev has figured out how to put an extra wrapper around iPhone apps, which not only prevents the app from launching or functioning properly if it has been cracked, but also prevents the current cracking tools from working on the app at all. Even better, this process only uses documented and allowed calls, making it SDK compliant. Oh -- and if the app is legitimately purchased, it can run on a jailbroken iPhone without a problem.
Daring Fireball, for their part, argues that the best anti-piracy doesn't make itself immediately known, but also doesn't simply kill a pirated app from running: that might just spread rumors that the app is unstable instead of protected. He references one of my favorite anti-piracy stories of the recent age, involving developer Panic.
In general, however, the iPhone has a unique ID, knows who you are, and where you are, so we have to wonder if even the idea of "corroding the soul" isn't enough to stop piracy, the threat of angry developers pwning the pirates might constrain it slightly?
Editor-in-Chief of iMore, Executive Producer at Mobile Nations, co-host of Iterate and ZEN and TECH, cook, grappler, photon wrangler.
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No matter what they do, piracy will always exist. Nothing can stop it. Just ask the MPAA.
In due time, even this method will be cracked. It is unfortunate, but it is reality.
in my opinion piracy can be beaten. with 1 way... you just raise up the consequences... raise the bar...
right now if you Jailbreak your iPhone there's what? pretty much no risk involved...
if consequences were raised with ANYTHING really piracy related people would not do it..
and i'm talking about Risk of Jailtime etc etc.
with iPhones risk of going to jail or risk of your phone being Bricked for good no questions.
this is illegal right? so why not make it illegal... i mean that's what law is right? or am i confused...
it's like there is Law in place yet it's not being enforced.
It's a two edged problem. With Apps, developing software, especially premium software, is expensive and people should support it.
Likewise, I buy my music from iTunes Plus.
However, the record/movie industry created piracy via price gouging initially. They lied and said CDs would be initially more expensive than tapes, but then kept jacking up prices even as costs fell (and they robbed many artists blind while doing so, milking both ends).
I think most people will pay a fair price for fair content. The music/movie industry's greed tried to get oligopolistic prices out of a fixed market. Then, instead of grafting a subscription model onto Napster, they tried to kill it.
All that has led to a generation of people who don't think they should pay for content, and that's shifting over to Apps.
I'm not saying "volume" pricing at 25c a song and $1 a movie, but fair pricing and there'd be much much less piracy as culture. It just wouldn't be worth the effort.
The music/movie industry is to blame, they need to fix it. And it's unfortunate Apps and devs suffer as a result of the same broken system.
Greed has ruined so many things..... sigh.
Well if apple GAVE us what we wanted there would be no problem with JAILBREAKING! If you gave us the Support of the GPS we wouldnt have XGPS. If you gave us MMS we would not have SWIRLY MMS. If you listened to you users who paid 299 for your phone then we might not have a problem. I don't mind paying but if its not with apple we WILL FIND A WAY TO GET IT. Be smart about it APPLE!
@IphoneMilk Its not greed its wanting somthing that your phone company dosen't offer. Greed is like having Two I phones!
@Rene Richie...
Why buy the cow when I can get the milk for free? I am really confused on buying the Iphone for so much and not getting at least 30 dollars worth of songs a month. I think that our data plan being unlimited should unlimit the Itunes songs/videos a month. Lets rip em off!
I'd like to see Apple start being more hostile to the jailbreaking community if they are going to actively support piracy.
@Frog
The jailbreaking community does not support piracy. Specific people that jailbreak do. I personnally do not support piracy, and the majority of comments I've seen by jailbreakers also do not support it. I wish that the cracking apps had never happened, because I don't want Apple to focus on shutting jailbreaking down; I like being jailbroken.
I agree with Rene regarding the movie and music industry creating the initaial issue. You cna buty a movie via iTunes, which is the same price as you would buy it on DVD, but it is of lesser value? Fail.
Apps should be supported via paying for them. They aren't a major company that makes millions.