Pirated Android App Shames Freeloaders 519
MojoKid writes "A pirated version of an Android app is actually a Trojan that shames someone who installs it by sending an SMS message to all his/her contacts telling them of his/her piracy. The original app is called Walk and Text, and costs $2.10 in the Android Market. The app uses the camera on the back of a smartphone to show a user a visual of his upcoming surroundings, which will supposedly prevent the user from running into the street or across a set of train tracks. The pirated version is available from unofficial Android app markets, and once installed redirects the pirate to the legitimate app in the Android Market, while also sending the SMS message to the phone's entire contact list."
...hmm interesting... (Score:4, Interesting)
Although this is a novel and some what interesting approach to pirates, i think this approach itself depending on the implementation etc.. might effectively count as breaking the law, unless the user who install the pirated software agree to a Terms of Use Agreement that explicitly mentions such actions might be possible or as a consequence if software thinks its pirated.
Re:Inflammatory headline (Score:2, Interesting)
"Do it with terms that make me look like I'm not sidestepping the payment of someone, while still using the services that they [theoretically] worked hard to provide me."
"It's no different than eating someone's food and then skipping on the bill, but I really don't want to feel bad about it, so please come up with some term that hides the reality of the situation from me."
Read the comments? (Score:5, Interesting)
The CEO of the company that made this app sounds like a weird blend of troll and one of those king-of-nigeria scams.
* He keeps ranting about how he's going to sue avast
* He keeps shouting about how it's all a lie created by avast in order to slander his company
* He repeatedly claims that his calls to avast were blocked, even though the CEO admitted that one of his colleagues spoke to the dev.
* The only contact information for that company is found here [incorporateapps.com], which you can only get to through the avast article.
* avast lists a few other red flags from this company: "checked the registration of www.incorporateapps.com and see some red-flags: semi-anonymous, no email contact, possibly eastern-european but registered in Germany, and registered through Tucows"
But yeah, something here just doesn't feel right.
Re:Inflammatory headline (Score:2, Interesting)
Bullshit. Software development takes at a minimum, time. Developers such as this one weight the opportunity cost of the time they invest in developing the software against the money they expect to make from its sale. People who pirate the software, instead of paying, only encourage the developers to underestimate the potential value of their work, and therefore, less development will occur.
Has a cost been incurred? Absolutely. Just because it can't be measured as a physical good does not mean it was not a cost. The most valuable things in an economy are man-hours worked. And despite the software being a good that can be copied with no cost, it clearly has value, or it would not be pirated.
Your notion of morality, applied to the economy as a whole, would have chilling effects; it is by definition an economic free-loader problem. A classical economic study. There is no ambiguity as to whether or not piracy is accurately described as freeloading. A user gets a benefit from the toils of another, at no cost. Zero ambiguity.
Your notion of entitlement is as absurd as your psuedo-intellectual rambling and arrogant tone.
Re:Inflammatory headline (Score:4, Interesting)
Trespassing to shorten your way is also taking something that has value to you (you save time), but it wasn't free for you to take. Shall we call "trespassing" now "stealing way"?
Just because you find some similar aspects in two different things doesn't make them the same.
Re:The joke's on you... (Score:4, Interesting)
As with any quip, it is a bit overbroad. As with any good quip, it still manages to come close to the heart of the matter.
Re:And this is actually quite innocent (Score:4, Interesting)
90% of the cracks or keygens she downloads will also install a Trojan
I'd LOVE to see the source that supports this ridiculous claim.
Re:Inflammatory headline (Score:4, Interesting)
Because eating food and not paying for it is comparable to downloading software and not paying for it. Yeah.
Yes, they are comparable. In both cases, someone has offered to provide a service to you. One is providing food, the other providing software. In both cases the party offering the service has spend money in order to provide that service.
The restaurant paid rent on their building, they paid the kitchen staff. They paid the waiters. They paid for the ingredients that were used to make the meal.
The software company paid rent on their building, they paid their employees. They paid for equipment to develop the software.
In both cases you use the service without contributing to them making up those costs.