Alternative Android Market To House Banned Apps

sl4shd0rk writes "In contrast to the Apple's iron-fisted control over their App store, the Android Market is much more open. Google does, on occasion, remove apps it deems inappropriate, such as emulators, legally-questionable music services, tethering apps and one-click root apps. But if Koushik Dutta of CyanogenMod fame has his way, these heretic apps may have a home after all. Dutta plans an 'underground' Android Market complete with an approval process to weed out malicious applications; something Google doesn't do. Ideally, this will give Android users a more trustable source from which to get applications without having to resort to dictatorial software control."

Comments

trust is the key element

[Cederic]

I'd happily use this, maybe even pay for apps if they meet a need well enough.

But only if I can trust it. There has to be a general belief and continued lack of proof to the contrary that the apps can be trusted.

The Google controlled Market ironically lacks this element of trust - but Google have the track record of resolving any issues as soon as they spot them. So on balance, you tend to have a reasonable level of comfort, particularly if an app's been downloaded 5 million times.

However, I'm all for it. Lets get it up and running - after all, this is the very openness that drew me to Android ahead of its rivals.

Re:trust is the key element

[wbr1]

particularly if an app's been downloaded 5 million times.

Really.. that is not a good judgement. What if the app is a popular one, you decide to trust it, use it for 6 months, then get alerted to an update. You download the update, through the market, only to realize that your precious mission critical (to you) app, no is either ham-strung or personal info reporting malware. Basing an apps security off of it's popularity is not wise my friend. Hell, Melissa and ILOVEYOU got downloaded millions of times!

Re:trust is the key element

[BasilBrush]

I'd happily use this, maybe even pay for apps if they meet a need well enough.

Steady now. Don't be rash. 99c is a lot of money to an Android user.

Google only removed the emulators...

[JackAxe]

That were breaking the license agreement of the code they based their app on; so SNesoid and Gensoid as an example. One can still download a ton of different emulators from Google's market; some are free, some cost a tid-bit.

Non-infringing use must be substantial

[tepples]

I'm a bit confused to why Google has taken down all the emulators since they are used for legal purposes (see homebrew).

I asked about this on Fedora's legal mailing list once, and let me paraphrase the answer I got: The Betamax defense to contributory infringement of copyright requires a substantial non-infringing use. Two dozen homebrew games compared to a thousand infringing ROMs is not clearly substantial to the point where Red Hat would have an open-and-shut defense against Nintendo.

Re:What's he going to call it?

[ozmanjusri]

I propose that the next version be called "Creampie."

It'll be called "Jelly Bean".
http://www.androidzene.com/the-key-features-of-android-5-0-jelly-bean/