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Piracy prompts iPhone developer to put ads in game
When James Bossert saw he that his Whack 'em All iPhone game had 400 new users in one day last week he initially got excited. But that sentiment quickly changed when he saw that only 12 people had paid 99 cents for the game on Apple's iPhone App Store. Bossert e-mailed the person who claimed to have cracked and distributed it and posted the response on his blog.
"As many iPhone and iPod touch owners have discovered, Apple's iTunes App Store has many flaws which render it useless to the common user," the pirate, whose alias is "most_uniQue," wrote. "Apple has chosen to allow a multitude of ridiculous, worthless, poorly-represented applications through its 'strict' screening process, nearly all written by mediocre programmers with a dream of getting rich quick. Many of these programmers game the reviews system, misrepresent their application in the description, and generally try to swindle the honest buyer."
The pirate then suggested that Apple offer trial versions of the apps and that Bossert offer an ad-supported version of his game.
"Most_uniQue" said he used Crackulous, "one-tap" cracking software developed by Hackulous, to crack the app. After cracking 35 apps, he is retiring, he told Bossert in their surprisingly friendly e-mail exchange.
These pirated apps run only on iPhones that have been jailbroken, or opened up to third-party applications without Apple's authorization.
According to Bossert, this is not an isolated incident.
"Many developers are upset that the (Apple) digital rights management is broken and nobody has gotten a response from Apple, that I know of," Bossert, co-founder of Fairlady Media, told CNET News on Tuesday. "The pirates are so far ahead of Apple now that ... games are cracked the day or the day after they are released."
An Apple spokesperson said the company had no comment.
Bossert said he plans to release a free, ad-supported version of Whack 'em All within a few weeks as a result of the piracy. "I'll leave the 99 cent version out there and see what happens," he added.
Pirating of iPhone apps appears to have been going on since at least last July with the pirating of the Super Monkey Ball from SEGA.
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor. 
somebody will always do it just for grins, even.
No real reason anymore to Jailbreak one's iPhone (though I'm sure many will try to tell me otherwise here) other then to avoid paying for apps - even though are already a fair if not ridiculously cheep price.
It's mostly the sad Open Source community that feel the need to Jailbreak their iPhone who for some reason think it's their God given right to have software for free and how dare these Developers have the audacity to charge for such things.
Please view this Website to educate yourself:
http://www.opensource.org/
Take care.
Am I talking about you or the Open Source community as a whole. So you now have video streaming and recording on the iPhone gee I really need to Jailbreak my iPhone now, don't hole me back, please - like I said not much of a reason anymore to Jailbreak an iPhone other then to pirate.
@bmn_1213
Where have I stated that Open Source mean Free - please enlighten me. I am talking about the general feeling of the Open Source community.
@thelemurking
You do not need to Jailbreak your iPhone to 'Unlock' your iPhone - two different things. I have Unlocked iPhones for friends but non of them are Jailbroken.
My comments about developers charging for their apps was made with irony.
Open Source is great for innovation - hahahahhaha ROFL. Man you're one funny guy. Competition stimulates innovation not a 'brotherhood' of a bunch of tree hugging hippies. Linux? Great heap of innovation going on there I see - see how I did that, again with irony. Get it.
Now, logic dictates that as I'm a broke student and I donate for free software after I downloaded and used it, and Open Source software has been around for ages (long enough that it would have died out if people didn't donate)
Then, it only stands to reason that donating to developers who produce a quality product is a time honored tradition and thus a viable business model. (Like the Open Source producers of Linux)
www.geekcrash.blogspot.com
Wow I'm really hurting for you. Go to all the effort of building a device to torture children and some SOB with no sence of moral decency comes along and ruins your chance of getting rich off it
You sincerly disgust me
On the other hand, people who pirate a 99 cent application are just as wrong. No one is going to get rich on a 99 cent app and no one is going to go broke buying it. I might buy the crappy software argument if it was a $50 app, but 99 cents?
As for jailbreaking the iPhone.... it fosters competition and drives new application development. Apple has to lock the phone for support and financial reasons. However as long as people don't run to Apple for a bricked iPhone jailbreaking is good.
Well, the story said he had 400 new users out of which only 12 had paid. That leaves about 388 users who did not pay--388 X 0.99 = $384.12. While not supporting your retirement, I'd be made if someone stole my xxxx that was worth $384.12. Wouldn't you?
The issue isn't that the apps are worth it or whether people have to or should release demo software. People want "choice" and "options" but don't like the restrictions on the software.
Here is the tried and true method. If you don't like the license, don't use the software. Just because you like the software or think you might like the software does not mean you should get it at the price you want or how you want. Why is that so hard to understand?
Just as you don't own the movie on the DVD you bought at Wal_mart, you have acquired a license to enjoy content-music, movies, software. The license has significant restrictions, and you should be aware of those before you purchase the license...
So what is the solution?
Piracy is stealing.
I do believe the businesses have violated our fair use rights in an attempt to prevent theft of their applications. I am sympathetic to people who have their fair use rights violated or having this business association or that business association take them to court for thousands of dollars over something that is petty.
But when it comes to cracking a software app just because you don't want to pay for it? I have no sympathy, and these are the people that should be prosecuted.
It's time for the software community to grow up.
And it isn't petty to use a stolen application, or super-not-petty to crack something and post it on the net. It's the nature of justice that the penalty has to be well greater than the cost avoided times the probability of being caught. If you don't put a quarter in the parking meter, the ticket is going to be $25 or more, not 0.25.
And the people posting content----the losses to publishers from that are much much higher, with no b/s on "those people wont' pay anyway." It's the publisher's right to control distribution, not a pirate's.
I would counter that by saying that draconian measures only effect legit users of content. Pirates always find ways around whatever protection schemes are in place. Copy protection only hurts people who actually paid for the apps, games, music or whatever.
I hate EA for the fact that games I play that have been out for 2 and 3 years or longer STILL require me to put a disc in my dvd drive. WHY? There's been NO-CD cracks for those games for years, they are past their sale cycle, so why doesn't EA release a patch to allow the games to be played freely without the need to place the disc in the drive? The games were pirated 0 day, sometimes even before release day, so the CD check only effects the people who actually PAID for the game.
Spore sold a ton of copies, but it was also the most downloaded game of 2008. Many people bought the game and downloaded it because of EA's BS install limitations. I installed it on my PC and my laptop, then 2 months later I had a harddrive crash and had to reinstall it... UH OH! That's 3 installs so at that time, I could never install that game again. EA eventually changed that, but come on! *** already... this only hurts the people who bought the game as the pirates had already bypassed EA's copy protection.
Copyright violation and illicit copying is certainly not a lily white practice but it is hardly equivalent to stealing, it is equivalent to (the potential) loss of (some) income for the manufacturer of the software product. To make a somewhat convoluted but still analogy: I wouldn't steal a Ferrari from person X, but if I could use my handy-dandy alien replicator to make a copy and ride off in that, I would be highly tempted. Person X still has his Ferrari and I have a copy. Granted, the people in Maranello would probably not be entirely happy, however... but on the other hand, it's not like they lost income, as I'm not in a financial position to buy a Ferrari from them anyway.
In the vast majority of cases, I would suggest that the people who do copy would not have chosen to buy, in any event. I sincerely doubt most of the 300+ people who didn't pay, in this case, would have gotten the app if they weren't able to get an illicitly acquired copy.
The key to this issue is not draconian enforcement. That will only backfire, and even worse only affect the legitimate purchasers - the very people who should be feted and prized by the software industry. The key is no DRM, no going after individuals and above all, always always making sure the customer who pays has a painless, non-intrusive and positive experience, starting with a stable and finished application and continuing through peerless customer service.
Policing and prosecuting larger scale copyright violators who actually copy and sell and make money off other peoples work should be where the draconian enforcement takes place, and only there.
Great analogy... you never would have purchased a Ferrari, so it's not like they really experienced the loss of revenue, since they never would have gotten your money to begin with. So while they may be upset that you used your bad ass alien copy gizmo to replicate another Ferrari, Person X still has his, you never would have bought one to begin with, so there is no actual loss.
I'd never in my life buy a Britney Spears album... NEVER! But if I downloaded one of her songs, the record company is not out of anything because I would never buy her crap to begin with. Not that I would download it either, but say I did... I did not steal anything tangible and I was never going to purchase it to begin with, thus nothing has changed for the record company's revenue since they weren't going to get my money to begin with.
On the other side of it... when Radiohead did their pay what you want for In Rainbows... I did! I actually PAID for the download. At the time, I did $6.66 for the digital download, then when the CD came out, I bought the CD. Why? Because Radiohead is a fantastic band in my opinion and I love their music enough to pay for... twice in this case. I've bought apps for my iPod Touch... I haven't done any jailbreaks, even though I have seen iPhone/iPod Touch app / game packs on TBP with anywhere from 100-400 apps in them... I could easily download those and have a ton of apps. If something is worth buying, I will buy it.
I could never afford a Ferrari, but if I had one of those alien copy devices you speak of, you can bet your boots I would copy me a Ferrari, maybe a Tesla Roadster to go with it and a few other things I won't speak of ;)
"Software piracy" is really just another name for duplication of a commercial piece of code, without permission. This distinction is VERY important, because unlike STEALING, nothing tangible is removed from the possession of another person.
If I walk into a software store and shoplift a program on their shelf, that is clearly a case of theft. The shop-owner had to pay, up front, for that software title, and now he/she is unable to resell it and recoup his/her investment because I walked off with it.
People who crack software or download pirated copies of software are in a gray area. A developer may (falsely) reason that every time someone does this, it equates to a lost sale. But that would ONLY be true if it was proven that each of those individuals would really have paid for it, if they didn't have the option of pirating it.
I think reality is FAR different. Anyone who would put forth the effort involved in cracking a 99 cent iPhone app is doing it for other reasons. Most likely, they enjoy the challenge of doing it. Or alternately, they're doing it for the attention. (Good way to get one's voice heard, as happened here - where the cracker got published in the mainstream press with his plea for Apple to add functionality for time-limited trial downloads of apps.)
In cases involving more expensive products? People often resort to piracy because they have a desire to learn how to use the product, but simply can't cost-justify paying for it. (You might be surprised how many people working in the I.T. field as consultants, support staff, or even computer training are guilty of regularly pirating expensive business apps. It just comes with the territory. And they feel justified in the behavior because frankly, they're working every day to create new CUSTOMERS for those same programs. The people they assist or teach are the real "target markets" for the apps being sold.)
Don't judge Barry Bonds or Bernard Madoff or anybody else who pops up in the news. It doesn't matter on what level. You are a thief!
Yeah, Apple better get right on that.
You know what? A small portion of all cars are used as get away vehicles. The car companies really need to fix that.......
The deal is: if you want an iPhone you pay the proper price to Apple and buy one and they have a contract with AT&T as the sole carrier and you must use them. If you want an App for the legitimate iPhone then you can download any of the free Apps there or buy one that is fee based.
If you don't do any of the above, then you are nothing more than a common criminal.
The only thing the article's developer should be upset at is the criminals that created the program to hack the software, not only Apple's and violate the AT&T agreement but also they violated the developer who invested their time and money to legitimately develop and build software for a product.
The rest of you if you don't want to be a common criminal, then go elsewhere. Google has a solution for you.
There will always be a smarter person who will crack software and pirate it. If Mr. Bossert has received mails from the pirate, he has ample proof for the authorities to pursue the case. Piracy is a crime. Mr. Bossert and Apple are both at loss.
i jailbreak to use winterboard, cydia, and download FREE complete games from installer.
. and setgo is just a clown "if you believe in god it's all the same" your over righteous attitude is what turns people off religion.
As for the God comments, regardless of people's beliefs we ought to be smart enough to know right from wrong. Relative and interpretive morality are slippery slopes. It's all good and well until you're the one on the wrong end of it.
1st. the cracker/hacker has to BUY the app before he can pirate it.
2nd. how would u know its a bad app before, since u have to buy it to test it?
3rd. the way i see cracked apps are the only real way to test an app.
4th. lastly maybe some of us would like to spend our money wisely and make sure its what we want before we buy it. why do u think stores have display models?
5th. yes i know it may only be $0.99 but right now money is tight for alot of people!
It's unfortunate you're not 'getting paid', but too bad, that's life.
Copyright laws were created as a balance to reward artists and benefit society.
The problem is copyright law hasn't advanced with the planet changes, and people who have little money have access and the skills to pirate, and not the money to pay, but people still want to charge you. Also the apps in many countries require a credit card (example Canada cannot use the iTunes cards), not something the entire planet has, so starting with a non-advertising model means you automatically keep those people out, and they will seek other means if they have the desire.
Right or Wrong in something like this is ridiculous, this issue pales in comparison to things that are TRULY wrong (the term EVIL comes to mind). This is more of an inconvenience.
Personally, I don't give a FAQ and think that this 'news' space could;ve been better used than to whine about the ever shrinking minority of pirates on iphones/ipod compared to the days when everyone hacked them. I have both, and I support both, however the ironic thing is that the only music and videos that would NOT play on my hacked iPod were the ones I paid for through itunes, everything else (which they had no way of verifying) played fine. So what message does that send when the paid for stuff doesn't work due to DRM and then the other stuff plays fine? Stop paying for stuff.
After this (and many other articles on the topic) we at Fairlady Media decided to release a free version of the Whack 'em All game. Here's our press release:
Press release: Whack 'em all to offer free version of game
http://fairladymedia.com/node/17
We will continue to encourage comments and suggestions on this important issue.
Thanks!
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