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

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.

Comments

The what? "Windows Store"?

[xxxJonBoyxxx]

Is Microsoft still trying to push some kind of app store on Windows users? Has anyone really been there yet?

Re: The what? "Windows Store"?

[slazzy]

All 3 zune users love it, apparently it "plays for sure!"

Malware Heaven

[Tukz]

And how many of these DOESN'T contain malware?

Re:Malware Heaven

[Anonymous Coward]

"Don't" is the word you're looking for.

Re:Malware Heaven

[tepples]

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.

Britain

[aardvarkjoe]

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

Re:Britain

[amiga3D]

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.

Re:Britain

[Bert64]

Well that's the thing, windows is "too big to fail", so it gets a free pass in areas where others are heavily scrutinised.

For instance, PCI DSS requirement 8.2.1 says:

8.2.1 Using strong cryptography, render all authentication credentials (such as passwords/phrases) unreadable during transmission and storage on all system components.

Windows stores user passwords using the NTLM algorithm, which is based on MD4... This is not considered "Strong cryptography", i believe PCI defines acceptable "strong cryptography" elsewhere in the standard and in doing so explicitly rule out a number of older algorithms.

Re:Britain

[Lanforod]

Well that's the thing, windows is "too big to fail", so it gets a free pass in areas where others are heavily scrutinised.

For instance, PCI DSS requirement 8.2.1 says:

8.2.1 Using strong cryptography, render all authentication credentials (such as passwords/phrases) unreadable during transmission and storage on all system components.

Windows stores user passwords using the NTLM algorithm, which is based on MD4... This is not considered "Strong cryptography", i believe PCI defines acceptable "strong cryptography" elsewhere in the standard and in doing so explicitly rule out a number of older algorithms.

If someone is trying to comply with PCI requirements and is not using Active Directory, that's a problem right from the start. Using Active Directory changes the password storage to AES (kerberos).

Does anybody really care

[Big Hairy Ian]

I think the news here is that someone actually browsed the Windows Store

Re:Does anybody really care

[Nidi62]

In a world where even The Emoji Movie grosses over $120 million, a lot of people.

Proof!

[Anonymous Coward]

Proof that nobody bothers with the Windows app store. If even the RIAA/MPAA don't bother with it, you know it's dead.

Say it ain't so

[nospam007]

There's also apps called 'browsers' who can be used to buy knives, guns, viruses, chemicals, bomb-building materials, cars to run people over..., not only apps violating some imaginary 'intellectual' 'property'.

I find it surprising

[sgrover]

That the term "blockbuster" and "The Mummy" appeared in the same sentence together. That movie received much hype from the studious but absolutely none from anyone else. To be honest I forgot it existed. Maybe it's mentioned in the pirating apps because that is the only way anyone would ever want to see it?? hmm..

Re:It's a nightmare.

[jawtheshark]

People want it

[citation needed]

because the developers make no attempt to hide...

[drewsup]

I beg to differ, they hid them in the best place possible, the MS App store! Guaranteed to not be seen by anyone!
I would have posted this on my Lumia 635, but as the browser keeps crashing, as it's ALWAYS done, had to post my Mint laptop.

Re:The what? "Windows Store"?

[Bert64]

Piracy has always been microsoft's biggest ally...
They may pay lip service to anti-piracy efforts, but were it not for piracy microsoft wouldn't be in the position they are in today. Microsoft depend on lock-in and inertia, and a huge proportion of those users who are locked in got that way with pirate versions.

If you couldn't pirate windows or its applications, then millions of users would have found something else that they could obtain for free, which would likely have resulted in millions more linux users. Many users can't or won't pay for software, and in eastern europe, asia and africa pretty much all software is pirated.

If there were that many active linux users, there would be very little (if any) windows specific software out there, it would be much easier for users in the west to switch away from windows and many would do so. windows if it still existed at all would end up as an expensive niche brand, rather like osx is, running on expensive niche hardware.

Re:This is modded funny, but is actually true.

[Bert64]

Or:

C. Microsoft know full well they are there, but they realise that piracy is a significant way to grow the user base, so they intentionally let it slide hoping it will get more users locked in.

Re:The what? "Windows Store"?

[Ksevio]

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

Re:The what? "Windows Store"?

[Bing Tsher E]

So you're saying that even with giving Linux away for free, people prefer to pirate Windows.

That's an odd thing for an advocate to be asserting.

Re:So its like all the app stores

[UnknowingFool]

By "all the app stores" you mean it really only mean the Windows app store. I fail to find pirate apps among the top 10 free apps in Google Play where it is a mix of different types or iTunes where it's also mostly games. But feel free to live in your alternate reality.