[Op-Ed] How the crafty have taken pirated apps to a new level of Profiteering

This one might touch on a lot of subjects that might upset some of you, irritate some of you or make some of you hate me. That is OK by me. It is more about the way things are going and about how things are then anything else. Much of this will be based solely on long-term use of Android, my history writing here on AndroidStory and the state of the ‘Nation’ as I like to refer to it as.

First and foremost, we don’t support nor condone piracy. We will share inverted and altered APK’s that were, and are, already free in the Play Store to begin with, but we will never share a pirated app that costs money. I, and we, as a site, believe you should pay for what you want and what you love. The developers work hard to create things and put them up for us and we should give them the few bucks they ask for their work.

With that being out-of-the-way, we all know there are pirates out there and plenty of places to pick up apps that are generally paid versions for absolutely nothing. It is stupid to think or pretend that you don’t know how or where to get them. You won’t hear any of it from us though. Whether you morally think it is right or acceptable is up to you. I could never persuade you otherwise.

I get a plethora of emails throughout the week asking various questions and providing various screenshots. Some are important to post, other are just directly responded too. One that I got this last week was a bit disturbing. In a very bad way. It showed a person that was looking for certain paid application, for free. Yes they exist, no we will never tell you how or where to get them. You should get them from the Play Store or Amazon App Store or sale or whatever. Anyways, the screenshots showed the name of a very popular paid application that the user downloaded. It was then followed by more screenshots of what was added and embedded into the application APK.

As you can see, somewhere along the way, there were some new homescreen icons and partner applications to make their way into the app. Not to mention some seriously scandalous sign ups and other features. I asked for a link just for further investigation and dug out around two hundred APKs that had the same sort of built-in situations from 4 main users sharing these APK files. Take a look at the screenshots below to see how far I made it comfortably before I had to clear things and uninstall everything.

      I cross referenced the app versus the pirated version and found that it was larger, but still the same app. I also tried to install various other apps from the link provided and found that they all installed this extra garbage and of course attempted to get more information from me so that the provider profited from others work.

This is where the piracy issue goes to a whole new level. Sure, stealing an app that might only be a few bucks is bad, but having people crafty enough to embed more inside the APK is even worse, in my opinion anyways. Not only are you taking money out of the developers pockets who spend countless days, weeks and months building great applications for our phones and tablets, you are also helping someone out there make money off their work that doesn’t deserve it.

So what is the lesson here. Well, don’t pirate apps. We know it will still happen across every platform across the globe. From music, to movies, to TV shows, to games, and various other apps. Is it easier for Android than some platforms? I don’t think so. If you can read and you want something, it is out there to download.

On to the second part of this piracy issue that I feel I must also bring up. There are plenty of measures available from Google and on a personal level that app developers and companies can do to help prevent or slow piracy. For instance, we were offered a copy of Devil’s Attorney to review so that we could talk about the game as a whole. That is our job, and a few free copies of a paid game to gain interest and get buyers is part of the business when it comes to marketing. It is the whole ‘return on investment’ (ROI) thing. In order to secure our copy they needed to know a few things to clear it through Google and their system. Not a big deal to us really, but for those trying to pirate a copy, makes it tough. We have seen a number of other steps implemented that thwart the average pirate. Why aren’t more company’s taking advantage of the systems set up that help detour piracy? That is question we do not have an answer for. To toss out claims that an app is getting over an 80% pirated rate is slightly disturbing in both senses of the matter. Why are they not implementing better security features and why are more people pirating apps. Some of that will be left for a completely different post. For now I just wanted to share something that doesn’t seem to be talked about a whole lot.

I am sure many of you that are current developers could shed some light on the piracy issues, the prevention methods available from Google and other options along with why some use them and why some don’t. Not being a developer leaves me in the dark. I want nothing more than for you guys to gain the money you are asking for your app or game. Leave me a comment and explain to not only me, but everyone else what really goes on behind the scenes. Inquiring minds really do want to know.

P.S. No, I won’t tell you where it was discovered or where you can find free apps. I will however be alerting various developers of the nefarious activities I have discovered looking into this particular issue. Stealing money out of their pockets is plenty wrong enough, but putting money to into your own is beyond ethical.