Tag: Piracy

Mac App Store Cracked Already


So it didn’t take long, the new Mac App Store was cracked within hours of it’s release. At current there are two weaknesses in the
 anti-piracy system that has been deployed on the Mac App Store.

The first is down to developers mistakes, if they had followed Apple’s guidelines then this one wouldn’t of worked. Some applications just require you to copy the code signature and some other files from a free app, and paste those into a paid app to enable it to run. If the developers had of followed the guidelines then a check would occur where it checks the code signature ID to see if they match the app’s bundle ID.

The second exploit is the removal of the DRM, similar to what happened on the iPhone App Store. It uses an application known as ‘Kickback’, currently the application is unavailable but as soon as the Mac App Store becomes more populated I’m sure we will see the application surface.

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Developers Continue To Fight Piracy

As the iPhone user-base increases, so does the piracy user-base of iDevices. Many developers have been or are now implementing features to stop piracy of their apps. You will have read how BeejiveIM stopped working for pirated copies, now Spokko, the makers of Light Wars have also implemented a feature that stops pirated copies from working.

Spokko Pirate Version

This has only been implemented into the new update but from what I know the original 1.0 release will not stop pirates using it, it’s interesting to see how developers are taking different methods to stop piracy.

BeejiveIM Fighting Piracy

Beejive IM is arguably one of the best IM clients for the iPhone and iPod Touch, however as a lot of users I prefer to try app’s before I buy and so I had the ‘cracked’ version of the Beejive IM running on my iPhone. It worked like a dream and I will be purchasing it however when I tried it out today something different happened.

I got this appear after trying to login:

Beejive IM Screen

The words PC Load Letter kept flashing so I tapped the screen, it closed Beejive IM and launched YouTube and loaded the video Office Space – I Stole Something.

Now this never came up before and so must be done server-side, but it goes to show how that App Developers are beginning to fight back against piracy.

Update – Beejive have come out with this statement:

We have recently implemented new anti-piracy measures in BeejiveIM for iPhone. We have tried to keep our approach fun with an error message and a video. But we hope our message is clear: please respect the work of developers.