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The Windows App Store is Full of Pirate Streaming Apps (torrentfreak.com)

Posted by msmash on from the piracy-problem dept.

Ernesto Van der Sar, reporting for TorrentFreak: When we were browsing through the "top free" apps in the Windows Store, our attention was drawn to several applications that promoted "free movies" including various Hollywood blockbusters such as "Wonder Woman," "Spider-Man: Homecoming," and "The Mummy." Initially, we assumed that a pirate app may have slipped past Microsoft's screening process. However, the 'problem' doesn't appear to be isolated. There are dozens of similar apps in the official store that promise potential users free movies, most with rave reviews. Most of the applications work on multiple platforms including PC, mobile, and the Xbox. They are pretty easy to use and rely on the familiar grid-based streaming interface most sites and services use. Pick a movie or TV-show, click the play button, and off you go. The sheer number of piracy apps in the Windows Store, using names such as "Free Movies HD," "Free Movies Online 2020," and "FreeFlix HQ," came as a surprise to us. In particular, because the developers make no attempt to hide their activities, quite the opposite.

4 of 98 comments (clear)

  1. Britain by aardvarkjoe · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Perhaps Britain should declare war on Windows the same way they have on Kodi. It would make at least as much sense.

    --

    How can we continue to believe in a just universe and freedom to eat crackers if we have no ale?
    1. Re:Britain by amiga3D · · Score: 5, Interesting

      It would make more sense. Kodi bans illegal plugins while MS is hosting them on it's app store. The insane crusade against Kodi makes zero sense. Android, Windows and other systems host piracy apps and do less to discourage it than Kodi does.

  2. Re:Malware Heaven by tepples · · Score: 3, Interesting

    UWP apps from Windows Store run in a container that restricts how much damage malware can do. For extra protection, spin up a copy of Windows 10 in a virtual machine. But I concede that most users aren't going to be using a VM, and many apps are built with Desktop Bridge instead of UWP.

    So to protect users even further, you can set the takedown process in motion. Download each app, search for X-Men films, and report them to Fox. Then search for Star Wars and Avengers films and report them to Disney. Then search for DC films and the other Avengers and report them to Warner Bros.

  3. Re:The what? "Windows Store"? by Ksevio · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I went there once. I was using the new calculator and wanted to report how much it sucked, so I tried the feedback button. Then windows told me it didn't know how to handle it and told me to check the app store. The app store couldn't find anything to do either, so I eventually found the windows 7 calculator from a 3rd party source