[rkennedy01]

For those who have been complaining about RIMs recent efforts to crack down on Playbook App piracy, I point you to the following factoid:

*** Within 12 hours of its release to App World, the latest Angry Birds title was already ripped into BAR format and made available through one of the more infamous PB warez sites. Anyone can now freely download Rovio's hard work gratis and simply side load the full, working version of Angry Birds Space HD for the Playbook. ***

Now that's some impressive turnaround! Shades of eztv.it and its devoted community of content rippers that makes first-run TV shows available almost as soon as they've finished airing.

And people question why RIM is cracking down - it really is out of control...one reason why I refuse to code for the PB platform.

RCK

[DX9]

Apple App store apps are pirated all the time. Must jailbreak to access Installous but that's the way things are. Piracy is always going to be around.

[rkennedy01]

Yeah, but you need to *jailbreak* your iPad to use them. These warez sites are putting out native BAR images that can be side loaded by anyone with a stock PB - and they're doing it in record time.

And note that I'm not commenting on piracy per se, but rather why RIM in particular needs to crack down hard now - the barriers to piracy are simply way too low on their platform.

RCK

[pacoman03]

So now everyone who reads this post, but didn't know AB Space was available, knows now. Anyhow, thanks for the eztv.it link. That site looks pretty cool.

[reeneebob]

Apple App store apps are pirated all the time. Must jailbreak to access Installous but that's the way things are. Piracy is always going to be around.

True but as you said, they must be jailbroken.

If you have a 4S or are on 5.1 for phone you aren't (or not easily in the case of an iPhone 4 with 5.1).

Apple is cracking down too. I'll be glad when installous is gone totally. I loathe thieves.


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[sashlon]

Did you consider the fact that broadcasting this on the forums probably encourages people to go look for it? You might have contributed to the problem.

[nievz]

thanks to this post, a lot of potential ABS buyers will scour the internet to find this "warez" site who has it for download so they won't have to pay for it. I know which site you're referring to but never posted anything here about it since i don't want it to attract more users. out of 1 million PBs, probably 6K users knows about it. I wanted to keep it as low profile as possible and out of Crackberry for the masses not to see!

[SnoozerBold]

Hey may have pointed some to look for the warez but bringing this topic to light for discussion and to maybe show some ppl that are against rim blocking sideloading that something needs to be done.

[sashlon]

Well, I'm all for RIM blocking the ability to pirate BlackBerry apps. Stealing is wrong.

But, if they block my ability to sideload FREE android apps I will be very upset.

Ultimately, the arguments about the pros and cons of pirating intellectual property are generally circular and unproductive. It generally goes; corperations fleece their customers for as much as they can. Consumers look for ways to avoid being fleeced wherever possible. Both sides are bad, and there is no moral high ground. But, stealing is wrong in all of its forms.

[M.Rizk]

The only way for RIM to kill piracy is that, when an app gets installed on the PlayBook, the QNX Core should re-sign the .bar file from AppWorld with a unique signing code to your PlayBook PIN. so that when anyone leak this bar file there is no way it can be installed on any other PlayBook. That's the only way for RIM to kill piracy.

[Hgouck]

If talking about a problem is wrong and will lead people to do the wrong thing than why do we discuss the problems with the playbook or with any other device or issue in life? Talking about the problem brings light onto the situation and hopefully people who can do something will.

[bounce007]

Is piracy only endemic to the PlayBook? Look at Android; developers still develop for that platform. So why do you refuse to code for PlayBook? Do you refuse to code for the other platforms as well?

[BackDaws]

Piracy makes the world go round, make the app worth buying and it will sell.

Here's something to chew on. The people that pirate games have no intention of buying the original anyway so nobody has lost out.

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[sashlon]

If talking about a problem is wrong and will lead people to do the wrong thing than why do we discuss the problems with the playbook or with any other device or issue in life? Talking about the problem brings light onto the situation and hopefully people who can do something will.

Of course it's not wrong to talk about it. I was just pointing out that there may be unintended consequences from making such info widely known.

[lynxs_claw]

It's pretty pathetic when someone can't pay 2.99 for an app.

[sashlon]

Is piracy only endemic to the PlayBook? Look at Android; developers still develop for that platform. So why do you refuse to code for PlayBook? Do you refuse to code for the other platforms as well?

This.

The 'security' excuse is pretty lame. Android in particular is a very unsecure platform, but developers fall over themselves to make apps for it. Every platform has a piracy issue. It's just an excuse.

[torndownunit]

There is a lot of piracy on iOS, but there are also a ton of app sales. When there are a lot of app options, and for a very cheap price, buying it is the easiest option for most people. My iPhone is jailbroken, and I could get free apps if I wanted. But when some of the best apps I use cost $1.99 at the most, I have no desire to. I not only am presented with apps worth buying, I have choice for each type of app. Clearly with the ridiculous amount of app sales Apple has, what they are doing works.

The thing is, people who pirate were not going to buy the product in the first place (no matter what the product). A better game plan is to concentrate on the consumer base that DOES pay and give them what they want.

I agree with the other posters that posting info about these sites on here is the wrong approach. If you want to make someone aware of the site, report it to RIM. Don't give it more publicity.

[joshua_sx1]

OK, the Angry Birds Space HD has been ripped into BAR format and made available through one of the more infamous PB warez sites... and we already considered it as "Out of Control"?...

[polytope]

It's pretty pathetic when someone can't pay 2.99 for an app.

I know a few people who shelled out $800+ for an iPad but refuse to pay a single dollar for apps.

[BackDaws]

It works both ways, why should people pay £10 for lets say a gps app that uses google maps ?

1. googlemaps is free and available on every platform but playbook.

2.if you thought you really needed the app and paid £10 for it only for it to be a pile of buggy crap then how do you get a refund ?

3. Imagine hearing about a product that's is going to be awesome its advertised and press released as being able to do all this great stuff, imagine going out and buying this product and it not doing anything it was advertised to do, imagine being told constantly that these features are coming but 12months later you still can't even enjoy the simplist of tasks like twitter.

So please don't feel sorry for RIM.

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[joaosousa]

Shades of eztv.it and its devoted community of content rippers that makes first-run TV shows available almost as soon as they've finished airing.

This is something that as always made me laugh. Networks broadcast their shows for the for people to see (either as a paid or free service) and methods / devices to record said shows have been around for ages. Since the vcr that people have been recording and lending content they recorded from the TV (one could also mention the radio and the k7)... the main difference is that the internet makes sharing an easier and a worldwide phenomenon.

If they (and by they I mean the poor, defenseless and oh so consumer friendly industry conglomerate that would bring the likes of sopa /pipa into existence) want to stop people from sharing content they air either outlaw the devices that record them or broadcast them worldwide at the same time... but even so it'll be like trying to stop water from slipping through their fingers.



As for software the best way to avert piracy is to provide free alternatives. Second would be provide "lite" and "pro" versions. Third would be allow users an extended trial... Fourth would be to reasonably price software (and make prices similar to the across platforms). Compare this to the PB ecosystem and App World.

I would guess it's very easy to share PB content (which I figure is possible on rooted devices only... at least I have tried to peek inside the apps folder and I wasn't allowed to)... so long as you can copy and repack an installed app (since afaik there is no serial or device encryption system that would limit the app usage) it seems possible to use distribute for usage in any other device.



As for this being especially bad on the PB... Android and iOS have it way worse. I mean these platforms have dedicated app store / market apps running on the devices. And if you take a look at PCs... The PB situation is nothing compared to these... that is because the piracy problem seems proportional to a platform popularity / userbase and we are a very small community (the same happens with the security... the less popular a platform the more secure it may look: the Windows vs OSX differences are not explained by NT vs Unix alone).

[TBone4eva]

I thought with the latest update, all the App World apps were supposed to be encrypted so they couldn't be sideloaded. Is this still the case or has someone already figured out how to break the encryption?

Also, you can never stop piracy, you can only slow it down. You're always going to have the Robin Hood types who feel everything should be freely shared with the masses.

[berryaddict338]

For those who have been complaining about RIMs recent efforts to crack down on Playbook App piracy, I point you to the following factoid:

*** Within 12 hours of its release to App World, the latest Angry Birds title was already ripped into BAR format and made available through one of the more infamous PB warez sites. Anyone can now freely download Rovio's hard work gratis and simply side load the full, working version of Angry Birds Space HD for the Playbook. ***

Now that's some impressive turnaround! Shades of eztv.it and its devoted community of content rippers that makes first-run TV shows available almost as soon as they've finished airing.

And people question why RIM is cracking down - it really is out of control...one reason why I refuse to code for the PB platform.

RCK

If you don't wanna code for PlayBook just don't use this as an excuse... People can find apk, bar files and everything else for any other big platform to download for free, piracy exists every were, not just playbook

[BuzzStarField]

As for this being especially bad on the PB... Android and iOS have it way worse. I mean these platforms have dedicated app store / market apps running on the devices. And if you take a look at PCs... The PB situation is nothing compared to these... that is because the piracy problem seems proportional to a platform popularity / userbase and we are a very small community (the same happens with the security... the less popular a platform the more secure it may look: the Windows vs OSX differences are not explained by NT vs Unix alone).

I am comforted by your thoughts. Every so often, I do a Google search to see if my app is having an impact on the world at large. Before I read your post, I thought it was a big deal whenever I saw my app being offered for free download. I now realize that it's not really a problem because App World is a small market and my colleagues on Android and iOS have a comparatively larger problem. Thanks for your words of wisdom and in the future I will try not to be so full of myself.

[Kiddo2050]

What a BS post. This is like Louis V says in they refuse to sell bags in China... A now that would be a major error.

Most people that sideload apps that are actually in app world would likely never buy because they can't afford it (kids) or those that would say I'd not use it much so I don't buy. A download of a pirated piece of software does NOT equal a lost sale most of the time.