piracy - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Sep

Aliyun App Store Confirmed To Be Distributing Pirated Android Apps, Many From Another Pirate Site

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, Exclusives, News

A couple of days ago, we ran a story about a circulating rumor that Google had expressed strong concerns with the launch of an Acer phone powered by Chinese Internet firm Alibaba's Aliyun OS. As the post explained, Alibaba claimed that Google had warned Acer that releasing the CloudMobile A800 could result in the search giant "terminating its Android-related cooperation and other technology licensing with [Acer]." These rather strong words led to speculation over just what the issue could be with Aliyun, and whether Google had issued the warning at all. Google quickly confirmed its stance, indicating that Aliyun was an incompatible version of Android, and one that could "weaken the ecosystem."

Aliyun OS, for those wondering, is a Linux-based operating system built by Alibaba Group, China's largest Internet firm by transactions.

Aug

[Oh Snap] FBI And DoJ Seize Three Android App Pirate Sites, Including Applanet

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Apps/Games, News

One small and two major sites that have a long history of distributing pirated Android apps have been seized in a first of its kind operation conducted by the FBI, DoJ, and a variety of U.S. and foreign governments. These sites are:

applanet.net
snappzmarket.com
appbucket.net

^{Each of the taken down hosts is now displaying this FBI seizure notice}

According to PC World, FBI agents downloaded numerous copies of paid Android apps as part of the operation before seizing all three domains and executing nine search warrants on August 21st. It's a little unclear whether the FBI and the DoJ will be pursuing criminal action against the site operators or whether anyone was detained.

Aug

[Whoa!] Google Will Start Down-Ranking Search Results That Receive Too Many Takedown Requests

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Google, News

This may not be strictly Android-related news, but it's safe to say that what Google does to search results is relevant to our readers' interests, no? Today, Google announced via its Inside Search blog that the company will start including the volume of valid copyright removal notices as a factor in determining how high or low a site ranks in its search results. Translation: pirate sites won't be removed entirely, but they'll start ranking lower than legitimate sites.

^{Pretty soon, sites like the Pirate Bay won't be the #1 search result anymore.}

The net effect of this change will likely be very minimal to the more hardcore pirates.

Jul

[Editorial] Just How Bad Is App Piracy On Android Anyway? Hint: We're Asking The Wrong Question

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Applications, Editorials

When crowd-favorite zombie shooter Dead Trigger decided to drop its price from $0.99 to free, citing concerns over piracy, the tech world renewed its interest in an age-old debate: how bad is piracy for developers? Of course, any lost sale is money out of a developer's pocket (though it's important to distinguish between downloads and lost sales). However, the question should and needs to be answered: just how bad is the piracy problem on Android?

Zombies Vs. Knights

Dead Trigger provides an interesting starting point. The developer, Madfinger, notes that its previous game Shadowgun experienced a rather high level of piracy when priced at $8.

Jul

Madfinger Games Issues Statement Regarding Dead Trigger Price Drop: 'The Piracy Rate Was Unbelievably High'

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Games, News

Madfinger Games has taken to its Facebook page to make an official statement regarding the decision last Friday to remove the $0.99 price tag from Dead Trigger. The decision, which has angered many users who had only recently paid for the game, can be summed up in one word: piracy.

Regarding price drop. HERE is our statement. The main reason: piracy rate on Android devices, that was unbelievably high. At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible - that's why it was for as little as buck. - It was much less than 8$ for SHADOWGUN but on the other hand we didn't dare to provide it for free, since we hadn't got XP with free-to-play format so far.

Apr

Editorial: Does The Ability To Sideload Apps Create A Piracy Problem For Android? RIM Seems To Think So

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Editorials, News

Oh, RIM. You're hemorrhaging customers, executives, and share value. It's painfully obvious you're on track for a disaster of Palm-proportions. And still, your upper-level management fling zingers at the competition that would make anyone but the die-hardest of BlackBerry fans skip the facepalm and go straight to a facedesk. It's almost like watching a Shakespearean tragedy unfold.

If you've not been keeping up with the cutting edge of all things RIM, allow me to give you a quick run-down. RIM's Alec Saunders (VP of Developer Relations) announced recently that future BlackBerry PlayBook tablet updates would no longer allow the sideloading of apps (sideloading is the ability to install applications from outside of the official BlackBerry App World).

Jun

Transdroid Torrent Manager Removed From Android Market By Google

Posted by David Ruddock in Android OS, Apps/Games, News

I never know how to feel about torrent (in this case, management) applications. On the one hand, torrenting is a brilliant and efficient way to share information in a collective and low-cost (read: free) fashion. On the other, it's the single largest gateway to piracy in existence. And it could kill you.

But it's clear torrenting applications are very much legal. So why has Google removed a popular torrent management application, Transdroid, from the Android Market? There's a number of such apps on the Market, and Transdroid's competitors are still standing. TorrentFreak thinks they know what's up.

Transdroid's developer page featured a screenshot showing an obvious example of copyright infringement in action, seen below:

This could easily be seen as encouraging illegal behavior, which definitely violates the Android Market Developer Program Policies:

Illegal Activities: Keep it legal.

Mar

[Updated] Fake App Gets Uploaded To Pirate Android Markets, Megatrolls And Embarrasses Those Who Download It

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Applications, News

If there is one thing I despise in the world of Android, it is piracy and specifically Android sites that let you download paid apps, oftentimes for a monthly membership fee. Most Android developers are not large corporations, but rather independent, smalltime individuals to whom every download counts. Today's story, therefore, gives me added pleasure, because in it, pirates are implicated in one of the most embarrassing ways I can imagine.

An application, masking itself as a non-existent version of the paid app called Walk and Text, was uploaded to multiple pirate Android app markets across North America and Asia.

Mar

Gameloft Turns To Amazon To Distribute Games On Android

Posted by Brad Ganley in Games, News

In a recent interview with Reuters, Gameloft stated that they will be focusing their attention on the Amazon App Store to distribute their games on the Android platform. The company's games are already insanely popular on Android (and iOS, for that matter), despite being actively opposed to Google's Android Market. Their Android offerings have thus far only been available on their website, so their move to a Market isn't so surprising.

Their reasoning for choosing the Amazon App Store? Consumers are already comfortable making payments through Amazon, and it provides a better ecosystem for game distribution. More importantly, though is that Gameloft sees Google's DRM to be wildly inadequate.