Comments on: Is shopping site selling pirated iTunes gift cards?

iTunes gift cards have been pirated, and China's biggest C2C online shopping site, Taobao, is the platform used to sell the cards.

[Perry_Clease]

I guess that it was only a matter of time until this happened.

[happyslappy13]

deffinately ^^^
i find this to be quite funny actually!

[kylehotchkiss]

What? How long is it going to take apple to fix this one? I'm willing to bet that they know this is going on.

[Pete Bardo]

I'm not sure these cards were "Pirated". Counterfeited would be a better word, but that's not as popular as "pirate" right now. When I think of pirates, I get images of swashbuckling sailors, skull and crossbones, Johnny Depp and Keira Knightly (excuse my spelling!). I sure don't think about Chinese hackers in a basement generating keycodes. If I printed money, it would be called counterfeit and I would be called a "counterfeiter". Why wouldn't you do the same for these crooks.

And a word for Taobao's owner--just 'cause you paid for it, it doesn't make it real and it doesn't make you innocent!

[make_or_break]

They're one in the same when it comes to retail goods. They have been for a long time. Whether gift cards or LP vinyl albums in their day or DVDs or Rolex watches or Gucci handbags, the term 'pirated' has always be synonymous with counterfeiting merchandise with the goal of making scads of money. Piracy has nothing to do with some romanticized notion out of the la la land of make believe.

I suggest that you refrain from using Hollywood and Disney to define what constitutes your definition of 'real life'...it's rather pathetic, actually.

[Renegade Knight]

You have a point. I'm not sure there is a better word yet though.

Piracy has been glommed onto digital copies of copyrighted material that falls outside of fair use.
Fake goods are counterfit.
Spoofed codes? We can all it an Apple. Since Apple got it's start spoofing the phone companies for long distance access.

[pithenumber]

fast forward 5 days: haxxors put the keygen on Bittorrent

[alexthecomie]

lol.....so true

[karpenterskids]

haha
Probably.

[SleekPantera]

doesn't anyone anywhere have any decency left in them???!!! and where are these chinese bums, anyway?!! Who's watching them? This too Made in China??!!

[sdf0013]

this is actually pretty concerning. consider that if they have such a key generator, it's probably not a stretch that it can produce key for other things, xbox points, game time cards (wow, eq, etc). It's one thing for to make knock-off items. you still have to pay for some resources to produce the item. but this is flat out stealing since their program makes the virtual item money, essentially at no cost. they could really do a lot of wide spread damage like this.

[Sam Papelbon]

the thing is, any gift card/code system that was developed with the help of a functional brain wouldn't use a formula to generate the codes. they are random strings that aren't even in the 'big gift card database' until they are activated at purchase. even if there was a formula used to create the numbers, you would have to be incredibly lucky to generate a code from a card that has been activated AND still has a balance on it.

of course any company worth its salt wouldn't use formula-derived codes for ready-to-use cards (like itunes, wii points, etc), they would instead use a random number generator to make the code, verify it's uniqueness, and then plop it into the database. but apparently itunes in japan suffered some kind of major malfunction in the brain department and created the numbers using a formula.

to Sam Papelbon...

Even random number generators use a mathematical code, albeit a probably incredibly complex and convoluted code that no one can understand because computers, unlike us cannot just think spontaneously, they require a "push" in the right direction. What the hackers have probably done is found out the number generating code and then used that. Because if you just used random numbers generated by hand you would have to enter each and every number into a database.... by hand. which you can probably tell is an extremely inefficient method of business.

The only thing that Apple could to do rectify this problem is if they use a new formula to generate codes, which would make thousands of already purchased codes invalid, and that would suck for the rest of the law-abiding world.

[molotov]

Who would want to buy MP3s anyway? They are so crappy sounding. Do they still sell majority of their MP3s in 128bit format? Last I heard they're gearing up to start selling 256, but even then... I wouldn't bother with these for free, not to mention pay some hacker to get credits. And those that pay real, full amount for the ghost copies? They need to get real. Get REAL.

[Perry_Clease]

They, if you mean Apple, never sold MP3s.

[Alpha___13]

All of Apple's music on iTunes is AAC. The DRM'd stuff (which is fading more quickly every day, thank God) is 128kbps and the unprotected stuff is 256kbps. I'm a lossless guy myself, but 256kbps AAC is pretty darn good to me.

[aelalfy1989]

I doubt apple will feel this pirating issue. they have a lot more to worry about. but 200 dollars? thats a lot of music and videos so I dont know. if it was 10 dollar gift cards then maybe if they sell 10000 thats 2 million dollars in sale.

>[CNET editor's note: Prohibited spam deleted.]

[urackon]

I checked out the site and i believe it it says that it only works for the Japanese Itunes Store, at least according to google translate.

[profdavidson]

I love when a piracy issue is "reported" in order to secretly say "nudge, nudge, wink, wink,....get on this before apple shuts them down!" Thanks Julia ; ) I'm already taking action. Thanks for including the link. I'm going strait there to verify this disturbing behavior.

Here's some help for those who don't read chinese: http://taobaofieldguide.com/taobao-in-english

[karpenterskids]

That's exactly what I thought, too!

"Better take advantage of this before it's too late..."
lol

[b_baggins]

Steve Jobs once famously said that stealing was a character issue. Guess you've told us what kind of character you have.

[profdavidson]

I once said that @$$-kissing Steve Jobs worship is a retardation issue. And unfortunately for us, you've got the whole subscription.

You have showed me just how wide the Jobs Reality Distortion Field really is. Now people are getting their moral soundbites from apple. Did he teach you that "famously said" is good English too?

Thankfully, faulty moral logic like that is going out of fashion. The iceman got pissed for awhile about the refrigerator. But about the time he started benefiting from it, his moral convictions went out the window.

[profdavidson]

better site step by step http://www.areoneoh.com/blog/how-to-get-itunes-gift-card.html

[Topspin14]

Went to check out that site. Looks like the press this has gotten has killed the Chinese seller's website/Apple has stepped in. Game over folks.

[d_headshot]

Lol it's about time something like this happened.

[maddog8888]

Check out this slightly different perspective on the issue at: http://www.askbeforeyouact.com/blog/

[Torley]

If it's a case of stolen credit cards rather than cracked, it's likely been happening for many months, as I noted here:
http://www.wisebread.com/inside-the-shady-world-of-cheap-itunes-gift-cards

[Manbot1]

You can buy USA iTunes , PSN , Xbox live , Warcraft Card / Code emailed to you from any place on the Globe in cheapest place on internet from http://www.4saleusa.com/ - reputable seller ! Codes always in stock!

[andrew012345]

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[andrew012345]

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<a href="http://www.pms4pms.com/menstrual-cramp-remedies">Menstrual Cramp Remedies</a>

[Rozalinbd]

I found this online store where I have bought several US iTunes cards. They can be used anywhere outside the US. Their service is quick and very efficient.
Here is the link. http://itunes-giftcards.com/FAQ.html