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Android Market apps now have to check in with licensing servers to confirm legitimacy
The Android Market is doing away with its current copy protection scheme for apps, because breaking protection to pirate the apps is a little bit too easy for the comfort of the developers who sell their software in the market. To protect its relationship with the all-important dev community, Google has launched a "licensing service" that verifies whether an app was legitimately purchased. This kind of scheme isn't uncommon, but it's sometimes unpleasant for users. In a perfect world, your Android phone would always have reception, and a licensing server would always be up and running to authenticate the apps you've bought. There are bound to be a few problems, though, and it's not clear how Google will address them. I'm not going to assume the worst, but I do wonder what happens when you have an offline app and you're in a service black hole. Can it run without being able to access the licensing server?
Google could protect developers without checking apps every single time they run, but there are other possible worries, like legitimate apps failing the licensing check due to glitches (a la Microsoft and Windows Genuine Advantage). On the plus side, Google has some of the best server infrastructure in the world, so it's very unlikely these servers will go down for any length of time.
Currently, this type of authentication is available to any developer who wants it, but it's not mandatory. It'll be interesting to see how many app creators start using it right away.
[via Engadget]
Comments
7
Subscribe to commentsSilverWaveJul 28th 2010 5:50PM
Hmm haven't bought any apps yet though Robo Defense is tempting.
The HTC Desire has a lot of apps built in which are better that a lot of the stuff on the market... so... meh
PhawxJul 28th 2010 5:50PM
As long as it's like Steam DRM, I'm cool with it.
arteseaJul 28th 2010 6:35PM
Your title says "have to check in", whilst it is clear that this is an option for devs to use to add extra copy protection. If you read the full spec it does suggest that apps shouldn't check on launch everytime, but instead cache a result for those moments when you are out of coverage/wifi.
However if you are a dev who really doesn't like the idea of an unverified user you can force it to always check.
Whether you kick the user out for failing, or only offer a lite version instead will be the devs decision.
ProlornJul 28th 2010 8:56PM
If that's so, which I find likely, I have to agree that the title is factually incorrect.
Now, personally, I think it's great that Google's offering this option. I just hope developers and companies are smart enough not to abuse this option. I'm sure there will be a few idiots, of course, but hopefully their example will educate others.
cmsb55Jul 29th 2010 1:25AM
This is really good news for developers as it is ridiculously to pirate Android apps using a certain very popular backup app. I've only done it out of curiosity in order to see if it works, which it does almost perfectly (the only problem is that you can't receive app updates).
COM_by_CRAIGJul 29th 2010 2:15AM
They should just make it just hard enough or scary enough not to want pirate apps. Try to keep at least 85% of people being honest. Apps should check the licensing server while connecting to the app store. If you get caught you might get banned. Don't hurt user experience because of greed for you can never stop all the pirates.
@davey_ladJul 29th 2010 8:37AM
they could use the same technique as Windows Activation. i.e. you install and you've got X days to activate your copy either online via the phone or entrering an activation key manually.
Certainly not bullet proof.. but show me a copy protection system that is