'I'm a PIRATE' confessions spew from OED iPhone dictionary Users of iOS dictionary apps from Collins, Longman and the OED have found themselves outed as pirates on Twitter, as a name-and-shame tactic used by the apps' developer backfires. The company concerned, Enfour, apparently reckons that 75 per cent of its users are pirates, which is why it planted some code in its applications …
Dictionaries have always been expensive to compile, and a well compiled dictionary is a very valuable thing. And a good dictionary that's *installed* rather than "on the cloud" is a heck of a lot easier to use (and potentially cheaper in the long run, given mobile data price gauging....
You think that Apple would give a flying f*** what messages apps shove out over Tw@ter why exactly?
*****
The whole point of a walled garden approach from the consumers point of view is meant to be that the apps have been vetted to by experts so that they know apps can't do anything harmful to them.
Of course, that's not what is actually happening but that is still cited as one of the benefits of the system.
The only people that believe that the walled garden approach had anything to do with security/protecting customers are the blinked fanbois who will downvote this.
When the Mac was launched it used "1984" imagery to define a dystopian future, but Apple's intensions all along has been to become "big brother". How long before the next 'feature' of iOS is to limit what websites you can go to "protect" the user, or it starts altering content to promote products that have paid Apple for the privilege.
As I've said before, great engineering but s**t operating model and hence why I'll won't buy a Apple product.
That's because manager types will think that they are getting what they want, rather than what they ask for and then they will assume that everything will go according to plan and nothing will go wrong.
Shortly after this, reality kicks in. Everything goes arse over tit and everyone ends up with egg on their face.
AddyNuf - if you're going to go after someone for their spelling/grammar - you might wish to read and re-read what they have written. The only "of" in the OC is grammatically and logically sound. You should have aimed at the OC's use of an apostrophe in a possessive "its."
Don't iOS devices need to be jailbroken to install pirate stuff?
Was the phone jailbroken and the system detecting that?
However, wouldn't this be illegal apart from the Libel aspect?
Unauthorised access of a computer. (i.e the twitter host.)
Someone will get sued good and proper I suspect.
Yes, indeed. There is an app, only available via jailbreak, called "installous". Its only purpose is to validate stolen software. As I understand things, it's the presence of this app that is being detected and used to trigger the tweets. So, even if the OED app has been paid for, the phone has been actively configured for piracy.
Now bring on the down votes...
>Enfour's idea of shaming users into paying for their software is very Japanese,
That doesn't sound very Japanese... Airing dirty laundry in public is a big no no.
>but its hard to imagine many gaijin being bothered by such a tweet appearing in their stream,
Why does being "foreign" or not even matter here? Did you just want to drop the G bomb (which is nothing like the N bomb) to stir up some anti-Japanese feeling? Did you get turned down by a Japanese girl or something?
"Airing dirty laundry in public is a big no no."
And I imagine publicly accusing people of "stealing" when they've paid legitimately will be seen as being massively more offensive in Japan than in the west - the sort of thing that a few dollars won't necessarily fix.
There's no question that Enfour have royally fucked themselves here. Letting a few people get away with it if it means no innocent people are caught in the net is *much* better from a PR point of view than getting all the guilty ones plus a few innocents - surely rule #1 is make sure you know people are guilty before taking the law into your own hands? the libel lawsuits will be coming thick and fast I imagine. No doubt there will be protest piracy as a result as well.
So does this mean that the people loving all over the walled garden as being somehow immune to malware get a free cup of shut the fuck up?
Or is it not malware if the developers say it's not malware? I bet that argument went really well for Sony, and all that did was rootkit you in private, not try to out you for something you didn't do.
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There seem to be something commonly used definition of a "cybercrime" which goes along the lines
"Offences that are committed against individuals or groups of individuals with a criminal motive to intentionally harm the reputation of the victim"
.... although I was unable to find actual legalese. In any case there probably is a law which puts developers of such apps on the wrong side. I wonder who and when will sue them?
With a price tag like that, no wonder! Nobody's going to pay $50 for a mobile phone app, especially one that replaces free online services - unless they can charge it to an expense account or something.
So it's hardly surprising that the majority of users are pirates who wanted a dictionary app and snagged the most reputable looking dictionary app they could get their hands on (er, hooks on, these are pirates right?).
But that's the plan isn't it?
Charge rates that orders of magnitude beyond exorbitant
Watch as potential customers turn pirate to access it
Then scream and wail how "teh piratz" are killing your company
Send lawyers off in all directions
???
Instead of profit, lather, rinse, repeat.
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