Pirated iOS App Store Site Shuts Down

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Pirated iOS App Store Site Shuts Down

Posted by timothy on Tuesday January 1, 2013 @02:08AM from the another-reason-to-stick-with-free-software dept.

SternisheFan writes with this excerpt from CNET: "Installous, a major portal for pirated paid apps from Apple's App Store, won't be around anymore. Development team Hackulous today announced the closure of Installous on their official Web site. As of today, the pirated app store no longer works, and only shows these errors: 'Outdated version. Installous will now terminate' or 'API Error. API unavailable.' For many years, Installous offered complete access to thousands of paid iOS apps for free for anyone with a jailbroken iPhone, iPad, and iPod Touch. Think of it as being able to walk into a fancy department store, steal anything you want, and never get caught."

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Piracy = Theft Analogy by Sam+H · 2013-01-01 02:24 · Score: 5, Insightful

Think of it as being able to walk into a fancy department store, steal anything you want, and never get caught.

Oh wow, the piracy / physical theft analogy. Looks like the first Slashdot troll of the year!

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1. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by Microlith · 2013-01-01 02:49 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Someone had to do the work to get that particular combination of ones and zeroes to line up. Our laws give them copyright governing how they are distributed and they choose to ask for money in exchange.
2. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by Runaway1956 · 2013-01-01 03:04 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  If/when we fix copyright laws, then I might respect them more. You want copyrights for software? Five years. You want copyrights for music, books, and movies? Fifteen years. That's it, no more. Software is all but useless from an economic point of view after five years. Works of fiction never lose value, but still, fifteen years. Original research in a scientific field, I might go to 30 years. Genuine R&D, that takes dump truck loads of money? I might go thirty years on that as well.
  In today's world, I have zero respect for copyright law.
  
  --
  "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
3. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by spottedkangaroo · 2013-01-01 03:06 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Presumably because the arrangement of ones and zeros took hours of someone's life... they should really get paid for that. Aside from the lotto winners (angry birds, etc) the vast majority of developers make less than minimum wage off the apps. I have one that's sold close to a thousand copies and I'm still only at about $5.50/hour. So while stealing is clearly the wrong word (since you didn't deprive me of anything); copyright infringement applies and you should really feel pretty guilty -- particularly if you find my app useful.
  
  --
  Imagine if you weren't allowed to use roads because a bus company complained about your driving 3 times. --skunkpussy
4. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by Gaygirlie · 2013-01-01 03:12 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  to justify a piracy site
  Except that he wasn't trying to justify it. Piracy is not theft and that's that.
5. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by timholman · 2013-01-01 03:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  The "argument" is not "pointless". Ones and zeros have almost no value. They are reproducible, infinitely, for free. But, you want to charge me a dollar just to use one particular combination of ones and zeros?
  It never ceases to amaze me how people with a background in computer programming and operations (as you clearly have) will discount their own labor, and the labor of others.
  The iOS / Android store model is everything that the Slashdot crowd claims to support in software development. Most of the money goes to the developers, and most of those developers are not rich. In return for putting the effort into writing and maintaining a software package that gives you many hours of enjoyment (or utility), a developer asks for less money that you'd pay to buy a candy bar or can of soda. It is the micropayment support system that everyone used to wish for back in the days of multi-hundred dollar monopoly software prices, and yet somehow, to some people, it is still too much to pay.
  I support the iOS / Android store model, and I say that as someone who has written an open source software utility with thousands of users. I distribute it freely, but that is my choice, not the choice of someone else. I have zero sympathy for those who think they have the right to make that choice for someone who is only asking you to pay one or two dollars for his time and effort.
6. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by BasilBrush · 2013-01-01 03:44 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If/when we fix copyright laws, then I might respect them more. You want copyrights for software? Five years. You want copyrights for music, books, and movies? Fifteen years. That's it, no more. Software is all but useless from an economic point of view after five years. Works of fiction never lose value, but still, fifteen years. Original research in a scientific field, I might go to 30 years. Genuine R&D, that takes dump truck loads of money? I might go thirty years on that as well.
  I agree with you on the length of copyrights. They are way too long. And I'm absolutely with you on taking civil disobedience action to make the point.
  So, what you need to do is only copy-without- permission software that is older than 5 years. And music, books and movies that are older than 15 years.
  If you copy new stuff, then that just makes it clear you're just a pirate, not a principled opposer of unfair copyright.
  In fact this argument about unfair copyright lengths has been used so often I keep expecting someone to launch a sight that lists, possibly with links to download, items that are beyond a certain age. To facilitate this principled civil disobedience. But I don't see any. Which makes me think that maybe this argument is really just a lot of hot air, designed to make the proposer feel better about his piracy.
7. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by BasilBrush · 2013-01-01 03:54 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  They can *ask* to be paid, but there is no right to get paid or "Should".
  Indeed, it's called offering it for sale. But they certainly do have a right to get paid if you take a copy of the software.
  
  The distinction is that requiring that you get money for your effort is borderline extortion.
  Workers are applying extortion by expecting to get paid for their efforts? Have you ever had a job in your life?
  That's the trouble with open source fans. They know the price of everything and the value of nothing.
8. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by Grashnak · 2013-01-01 04:13 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  That's possibly the most moronic statement ever made about this topic.
  The next time your salary is due to be deposited or a client is due to pay your bill, I hope they suggest that they refuse to be extorted and tell you to fuck off.
  
  --
  Life needs more saving throws.
9. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by BasilBrush · 2013-01-01 05:05 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Yep. Anyone who uses a GPL'd free product should expect that if/when he passes that free item on, he doesn't charge for it.
  So that's one software license you take seriously.
  But what about people that don't agree? Surely they have as much right as you to ignore the license and do what they like. If they are developing some closed source software for example, why shouldn't they copy code from something GPLed? So long as it fits their personal morality.
  
  Remember, I'm primarily arguing against unbridled corporate greed with my rants against current copyright law
  Fine. But this story is about the App Store, where the majority of apps are from independent developers who are charging 99c.
10. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by ducomputergeek · 2013-01-01 05:21 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  And what do you call it when I insist on $.99 in exchange for being allowed to use the program I wrote and you are using that program and paid me nothing? It cost me time (labor) to write the code, compile the code, go through the checklists to submit to the app stores. I don't work for free. My time is worth something to me. So in a way it is theft. Theft of my time. Time I could have spent earning extra income helping someone with an odd job or time I could have spent going out with friends or even getting a couple extra hours of sleep.
  I've had people say to me, "But you should feel proud that people are using your app."
  My response is I didn't write that app to get a happy feeling. Happy feelings don't buy coffee. I wrote my apps in the hopes others would find them fun or helpful and in exchange spend a buck that goes towards my coffee fund.
  Do I make a lot of money from my apps? I made a little over $8500 last year. It's not replacing my day job yet, but it did buy this laptop and plenty of coffee on the weekends.
  
  --
  "The problem with socialism is eventually you run out of other people's money" - Thatcher.
11. Re:Piracy = Theft Analogy by mark-t · 2013-01-01 05:45 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  If you consider theft to be the completely unauthorized taking of a resource, whether this resource is physical or not, then copyright infringement could still reasonably be considered theft. The resource, in the case of copyright, is the measure of control that the copyright holder is supposed to possess over who is allowed to make copies, which is the only real value of copyright in the first place. To suggest that the content maker has just as much control before you make an unauthorized copy as after is blatantly false... of course it is reduced - however insignificantly a single copy might affect it... while many thousands or millions of copies which were not generally possible for a private individual to economically accomplish before technology like the internet, simply scales that issue.
  If you want to argue that this type of control is not reasonable for a content maker to desire, then that's an entirely different kettle of fish to suggesting that copyright infringement isn't theft, and even at best is moving the goalposts. Please consider the alternative to copyright before subscribing to that belief however... and the alternative is not public domain.
  
  --
  File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Cost of Apps by timmyf2371 · 2013-01-01 02:25 · Score: 4, Insightful

I've never understood the desire to pirate apps iOS (or Android/WP) apps. If I'm paying over £500 for the device, then logic dictates that I have enough disposable income to pay the going rate for apps, particularly when most of the popular apps start at the ridiculously low price of 69p. Many of these are published by independent developers or small software firms, where every sale counts.

And seriously, who is so cheap that they would refuse to pay 69p for whatever game is popular at the moment?

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1. Re:Cost of Apps by flonker · 2013-01-01 03:12 · Score: 3, Insightful
  
  Much of it comes from the frustration of purchasing an app only to find out within the first few seconds of using it that it was a waste of money. (I was thinking specifically about business and productivity apps, but it applies to games and entertainment as well.)
Re:Living in the wrong country by Anubis+IV · 2013-01-01 04:21 · Score: 4, Informative

The solution to your problem is called "going to the store and using your cash to purchase an iTunes gift card". Not having a credit card is no excuse when there's a simple and legal recourse available to you. Stop making excuses.
Re:This should be YRO by Concerned+Onlooker · 2013-01-01 04:59 · Score: 3, Informative

As much as you think Apple is making the developers make twice as much. Apples app store is not perfect but it was a huge breakthrough for so many developers. Stealing apps isn't hurting Apple as much as it is developers.

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http://www.rootstrikers.org/
we need 3rd party app stores not ones with Pirated by Joe_Dragon · 2013-01-01 05:01 · Score: 4, Insightful

we need 3rd party app stores not ones with Pirated apps but ones with say Content that is banded on other app stores, one that offer lower costs to dev's, one that let you have open-source software on them, ones with out API locks.
You can get firefox on Android but not on windows phone or ios.
Re:Why bother? by mspohr · 2013-01-01 05:31 · Score: 3, Interesting

While not condoning software piracy, I don't think it is wise to repeat the myth that "Pirated software is chock-full of malware".
It is true that some pirated software has malware just as it is true that Windows has malware and some apps from the Apple or Android app stores have malware or may spy on you.
The point is that you need to trust the source and not just download random stuff. I don't know about the quality of the software from this web site (I've never heard of it) but presumably if it had malware, this fact would be outed quickly.
Linux and the other Unixes have a big advantage in that they have "repositories" for their software which are controlled and monitored carefully by the authors and the community and any malware is excluded or outed and fixed rapidly.

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Alright. by Andy+Prough · 2013-01-01 06:09 · Score: 3, Insightful

I'll amend my statement. "Average, non-technical computer users should assume that pirated software is chock-full of malware".
Installous isn't the real story. by Trilkin · 2013-01-01 06:58 · Score: 3, Informative

Apptrackr is. Apptrackr shut down which made Installous pointless since that was the repository that Installous pulled from. As far as I understand they are/were owned by different people, but in either case, it's a case of Apptrackr being gone and the frontend made for it being useless.

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Re:This should be YRO by Shoten · 2013-01-01 08:17 · Score: 3, Informative

Depends who they're "stealing" from, doesn't it? Since Apple makes so much money from their app store, maybe they feel entitled after overpaying for the hardware...
A feeling of entitlement is a bit natural and expected after taking a financial ass-raping by visiting an Apple store.
How is buying an iPhone being assraped? It sounds entirely consentual to me. The biggest whiners I know about the iPhone's price are the people who are first to get the latest one. It's like being an intern who competes for the position then complains they don't get paid. They knew full well what they were doing, and they signed up for it. If it's so awful, maybe they shouldn't keep buying the iPhones?

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Re:Why bother? by Jane+Q.+Public · 2013-01-01 08:33 · Score: 3, Insightful

"Pirated software is chock-full of malware."
The software on Installous wasn't "pirated". It was copied. There is a real, significant, and LEGAL difference.

Frankly I am getting goddamned tired of seeing people do the RIAA's job for them by labeling copied software as "pirated" when it's not.

If you don't know the difference, LOOK IT UP.
Re:Copying is not theft. by BradleyUffner · 2013-01-01 11:13 · Score: 3, Insightful

Copying is not theft. Copying is not stealing. It is NOT the same thing.
Back in 1985 a man named Dowling was prosecuted for the Interstate Transportation of Stolen Property for selling infringing copies of Elvis records. U.S. Supreme Court in DOWLING v. UNITED STATES, 473 U.S. 207 (1985) http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/scripts/getcase.pl?navby=search&court=US&case=/us/473/207.html struck this down because copyright infringement is not theft. You have to deprive your victim of the item in order to steal it from them. Making copies doesn't deprive anyone of what is being copied, therefore its not theft.
It is, however, just as illegal.