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Samsung's Galaxy Store is distributing apps that could infect phones with malware
Potentially fake 'Showbox' movie piracy apps trigger a Play Protect warning, and an investigation indicates they could download malware
It's tough running your own app store. Microsoft decided to go with Amazon's when Windows 11 picked up support for Android apps rather than run its own, and even Samsung's been hedging its bets, running its own app store for its Galaxy devices alongside the Play Store for years. But, based on what we've dug up today, it could be doing a better job at it. Several Showbox movie piracy app clones that Samsung is distributing to customers on its Galaxy Store may be able to infect customer's devices with malware.
Back in 2012, the FBI, Department of Justice, and other domestic and foreign entities teamed up to seize three sites that pirated Android apps: Applanet, AppBucket, and SnappzMarket. The fallout for some of the operators of those sites was known within about 18 months of the unprecedented crackdown. For the then-teenager behind Applanet, the largest of the three offending sites, the consequences were not determined until this week: He'll avoid prison time but will be placed under probation with some special conditions.
Telegram is a service for sending messages while remaining anonymous. That's something with which Russia has taken issue, and it just banned the service over it. However, Telegram may also be gaining in popularity because it's an easy way to share pirated content. The Outline spoke with several Telegram channel admins who say Telegram seems uninterested in policing the files users upload.
'Spotify Dogfood' was released in July of last year as a set of patches to the Spotify APK that remove ads from the free Spotify subscription. The app previously offered more premium features, but the other functionality was removed about a month ago. It was fairly popular for a while, but Spotify caught wind of the project and has just taken down the GitHub repository and download links with DMCA claims.
Hey, game pirates: screw you. Seriously, you're part of the reason it's so hard to find a decent game that isn't packed with $100 in-app purchases. Of course, good old-fashioned greed on the part of game developers is a big part of that, but a demonstrable loss of revenue from relatively easy piracy (a problem on other platforms like Windows) is giving developers little incentive to release conventional premium games for a simple price. Prolific publisher Noodlecake recently looked at statistics for the excellent Wayward Souls action-RPG and found that only 11% of Android users (and possibly fewer) had actually paid for the app - the rest had pirated it from various Internet repositories.
Birds gonna fly, fish gonna swim, dogs gonna bark, and unscrupulous people are going to find ways to steal digital content. Video piracy is more or less unstoppable (though reasonable prices and more convenient streaming have taken it down a peg), but if you brazenly sell gadgets with the sole intention of stealing TV shows and movies, expect a visit from Johnny Law soon enough. Several shady retailers in the United Kingdom have reason to reflect on this today, after police raided multiple locations selling "Android TV" set-top boxes designed more or less as piracy machines.
OK, Amazon, I can sympathize with your plight. As both the legal operator of a massive software distribution service and a TV, movie, and music vendor beholden to various rights holders, you might be tempted to remove anything from your app store that even whiffs of piracy or copyright infringement. Hell, I could help you spot some examples if you want. But that really doesn't excuse booting legitimate, useful apps off of your store without a second thought, as appears to be the case with Kodi Media Center.AFTV reports that Amazon removed Kodi, a highly technical open-source media manager (formerly called XBMC), from the Amazon Appstore last week. The developers were given no warning or explanation. When they contacted Amazon directly, they were told that, "[Amazon] determined that it can be used to facilitate the piracy or illegal download of content," and asked not to resubmit the app again.
Piracy is a problem on any platform where installing software is easy, and that certainly includes Android. In a particularly egregious example, the developer of Today Calendar estimates that 85% of the users of the .99 premium version of his app have stolen it. What's a responsible Android developer to do? In this case, he's using a creative method to try and annoy illegal users into becoming paid customers.
If you've been following the Applanet/Appbucket criminal case, you know that the Department of Justice and the FBI have been working on bringing charges against a number of high-profile Android app pirates for the last eighteen months. Earlier this month the investigations and arrests paid off, as two of the men responsible for large-scale Android app piracy in the United States pled guilty to conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement. The DOJ reported the news on its official public affairs portal.
Software piracy sucks. Ask any developer: app piracy is a major problem on Android, and more so on Android than on other mobile platforms, thanks to the relative ease of installing applications outside of the Google Play Store. But the United States Department of Justice is not turning a blind eye to mobile piracy. The Department charged four men with conspiracy to commit criminal copyright infringement earlier this week in Georgia's northern federal district court.
Even casual observers of the Android ecosystem know that piracy is a big issue for developers. But if a report from mobile security company Arxan is to be believed, app piracy and "hacking" is incredibly prevalent, or at least prevalent enough that most of the popular apps are available in a pirated or cracked form. According to the company's "State of Security in the App Economy" report for 2013 (PDF link), the top 100 paid Android apps have been "hacked."
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."
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:
[Whoa!] Google Will Start Down-Ranking Search Results That Receive Too Many Takedown Requests
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?
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.
[Editorial] Just How Bad Is App Piracy On Android Anyway? Hint: We're Asking The Wrong Question
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
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?
Madfinger Games Issues Statement Regarding Dead Trigger Price Drop: 'The Piracy Rate Was Unbelievably High'
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
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.
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.
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.
If you are a fan of the music streaming service Grooveshark, life just got a little worse for you, because as of yesterday, you will no longer find it in the Android Market. While no specifics were mentioned, we know that Google was forced to pull the app due to a violation in the terms of service and possibly some pressure from record labels.
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.