Hasta La Gadget!

We’re not saying anyone should pirate Windows 8, because it’s against American legal code and universal moral law, but if you wanted to, it’s out there for the downloading. Illegally. More »

Scottish developer Matt Gemmell is saying that Android’s open source philosophy is designed for piracy from the ground up. If you’re taken aback by Gemmell’s statement, he has a lengthy post on his blog to explain his presumption. Gemmell says that Google’s Android platform and Play Store are built in such as way that makes the sideloading of apps almost as easy as legitimately purchasing them. “People pirate Android apps because it’s easy. It’s easy because the system was built with an open mentality,” he said.

Last week, Madfinger Games announced that its popular game Dead Trigger for Android  is now free to download via Google Play. Madfinger Games pointed out that the unbelievably high piracy rate on Android somewhat prompted them to make the game free. “You search the internet for pirate copies of apps, then copy them onto your (regular, unrooted, non-jailbroken) device, and launch them,” Gemmell writes. “The system is designed for piracy from the ground up. The existence of piracy isn’t a surprise, but rather an inevitability.” I’d like to point out that Gemmell is actually a Mac OS X and iOS developer, so I recommend that you take his report with a grain of salt in hand.

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Nexus Q in stock at the Google Play Store, Google Nexus 7 tablets out of stock in the UK, replenishments nowhere in sight,

Mobile game developer Madfinger Games has blamed rampant Android app piracy for the sudden decision to drop its title DEAD TRIGGER from $1 to free, re-opening arguments about how much Google does to protect devs. “Even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant” Madfinger Games wrote on its Facebook wall, “that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free.”

Interestingly, the game is not being released as a “freemium” title in which further gameplay can be unlocked through in-app purchases, but as completely free-to-play; however, there are in-app purchases for gold and other items. The news has not been met with universal approval from existing owners, frustrated that a game which they paid for in the weeks since its launch on Android is now being given away for nothing.

“Regarding price drop. HERE is our statement. The main reason: piracy rate on Android devices, that was unbelievably high. At first we intend to make this game available for as many people as possible – that’s why it was for as little as buck. – It was much less than 8$ for SHADOWGUN but on the other hand we didn’t dare to provide it for free, since we hadn’t got XP with free-to-play format so far. – However, even for one buck, the piracy rate is soooo giant, that we finally decided to provide DEAD TRIGGER for free. Anyway – DEAD TRIGGER is not FREEMIUM, it always was and still remains FREE-TO-PLAY, that means, all players are able to play it without IAP! We stand up for this statement, because all members of our team are playing (and enjoying) DEAD TRIGGER without IAP” Madfinger Games

More concerning are the longer-term implications. Madfinger Games does not explain what it plans to do to financially support DEAD TRIGGER, though advertising and/or relying on in-app purchases could be the future strategy. However, if piracy among Android apps continues at the same pace, developers like Madfinger – or those which do not want to base their revenue model on ads or extras – could decide simply to avoid creating software for Google’s OS.

That could have a significant impact on Google’s platform overall, though the problem isn’t new. Research last year indicated that “rampant piracy” was a major cause of concern among Android developers, with those creating iOS apps seeing considerably more income from paid downloads.

You can download DEAD TRIGGER here.

[via Steve Troughton-Smith]

“Unbelievably high” Android piracy forced free app decision says game dev is written by Chris Davies & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

The French Supreme Court has handed down a ruling that Google must censor terms such as “torrent,” “RapidShare,” and other phrases that could be related to illegal file sharing. The decision was in response to a case brought by SNEP, a French music industry group, requesting that Google be forced to censor its results and be held accountable for facilitating piracy. The court ruled that the Mountain View company couldn’t be held responsible for people’s decision to click through to sites containing illegal material. But it reversed a lower court decision, demanding that related terms be removed from its autocomplete database to making finding such content more difficult. Google was understandably disappointed by the ruling, especially since the company already actively blocks some piracy related search terms. But, that apparently wasn’t enough for the SNEP. Check out the ruling itself at the more coverage link.

Filed under: Internet

French Supreme Court orders Google to censor piracy related terms in Instant search and Autocomplete originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 19 Jul 2012 11:03:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  The Register  | Email this | Comments

Two months ago the Netherlands and UK governments ordered ISPs to block The Pirate Bay. Now, figures from a number of ISPs confirm exactly what we, though obviously not the governments, knew: it doesn’t make any difference whatsoever to P2P traffic. More »