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Google Boots Transdroid From Android Market

Posted by timothy on from the some-transfer-protocols-are-eeeevil dept.

fysdt writes with a TorrentFreak story that starts: "Google has pulled one of the most popular torrent download managers from the Android Market because of policy violations. Before Google booted the application, Transdroid had been available for two years and amassed 400,000 users during that time. Thus far Google hasn't specified what the exact nature of Transdoid's violations are, but it's not unlikely that they relate to copyright infringement."

3 of 276 comments (clear)

  1. The grey line of theft by SuperKendall · · Score: 5, Insightful

    You know, I have always held out like many others that torrenting was not theft, that purely virtual copies harmed no one.

    But I have to admit feeling some kind of line is crossed with a system that can (as the article stated) scan a physical barcode of something in front of you and start fetching it in moments.

    It's still not really theft but frankly, from a moral standpoint it's so close to theft I have trouble distinguishing the difference.

    My own take on the matter has always been if I cannot buy something in some other way, I have no problems acquiring it; so the ability to do exactly the opposite, acquiring something when the physical presence of it exists right in front of you, just seems very wrong.

    It's obviously that anyone with technical knowledge could easily set up something similar but I have to say I don't really have a problem with any company saying they do not wish to implicitly support something like this and thus banning an application from a store. I doubt this app will be appearing in an Android store either.

    The really bad things about apps like this is that it appears rather like theft not just to me, but to the people that make laws, who will over time seek to make illegal that which should not be, using this as a basis.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
    1. Re:The grey line of theft by sqrt(2) · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I agree, but you then have to accept that there is an entire separate conversation society should be having; is copyright in its current form an ethical social contract? We're seeing three or four different bodies of laws rolled into one nebulous and overreaching concept called "intellectual property" which is in reality a power-play by big business to handcuff culture and make sure nothing ever enters public domain again.

      The current copyright system is broken, it's ethically bankrupt, so we no longer have an obligation to hold up our end of the social contract.

      --
      If you build it, nerds will come. Soylentnews.org
  2. Re:Pressure from the Telcos by WRX+SKy · · Score: 5, Informative

    Transdroid wasn't a BT client for phones, it allowed you to remotely manage a BT client.

    e.g. My home machine is d/l'ing torrents, and my phone can connect to my home machine (via Transdroid) to check status, start/stop torrents, etc.

    I would insert an obligatory RTFA comment... but it was in the summary ("the most popular torrent download manager") - so it's obvious you didn't even get past the subject.