Help With App Sharing

[salimdao]

hello.

my friend and i wanted to try app sharing for sometime now. does the "signing into my account to download it" method still work with the new iTunes and iPhone firmwares?

also, when he signs into my account and clicks Buy, he gets a message that asks if he wants to purchase the app instead of asking him if he wants to re-download it. what should he do at this point?

[Julien]

What you are asking for is not sharing but stealing. Stealing is a crime.

[salimdao]

how is it stealing? i bought it already.

[Julien]

how is it stealing? i bought it already.

...but did your friend? You bought it and the licensees only covers you.

If you go to McDonalds and buy a burger can you just walk up to the counter and say I want another one to share with my friend?

[salimdao]

no, but i can share my bought burger with him. surely they wont kick us out for sharing my burger with him.

food analogies aside, i think of it as letting your friend borrow a CD or book.

[slicecom]

no, but i can share my bought burger with him. surely they wont kick us out for sharing my burger with him.

food analogies aside, i think of it as letting your friend borrow a CD or book.

That analogy doesn't work as if you share your burger with him, neither of you get a complete burger. Neither does the borrowing a CD or a book analogies because if he borrows it, you no longer have it.

This IS stealing. Don't do it.

[NiroshanMan]

Yes it is in some way "stealing". But there is no way Apple is gonna find out. If you just borrow your friends iPod Touch/iPhone and sync the apps with your computer. What you can do is bring the iPhone back to his computer and click "Transfer Purchases" and it will put your apps on his computer and then you can authorize it for him. Technically speaking you can authorize it up to 5 computers like music, so why the hell not let a friend be one of those authorized users.

I'm not really against stealing/pirating since i do it all the time, so go for it is all im saying. Whether moral or immoral its just a fricken app its a few bucks a developer can be without.

[Julien]

Yes it is in some way "stealing". But there is no way Apple is gonna find out....

I'm not really against stealing/pirating since i do it all the time, so go for it is all im saying. Whether moral or immoral its just a fricken app its a few bucks the a developer can be without.

So if someone who is poorer than you steals some of your money it''s OK since its just a fricken few bucks you can be without?

Just because you steal something the cowardly way (anonymously over the internet) doesn't make it the thing to do. If you are going to steal at least shoplift.

[NiroshanMan]

So if someone who is poorer than you steals some of your money it''s OK since its just a fricken few bucks he can be without?

Just because you steal something the cowardly way (anonymously over the internet) doesn't make it the thing to do.

So you think that developers of iPhone apps do this for a living, i think not. Developers are probably working with others and this is a side project to make some money, they know they can't just live on this stuff.

So do you think this is stealing, ripping cds to put on iTunes for your iPhone? Well it is, and you know how many people do this...millions. You can't stop piracy or anything of its sort its inevitable.

[Pandora01]

So you think that developers of iPhone apps do this for a living, i think not. Developers are probably working with others and this is a side project to make some money, they know they can't just live on this stuff.

I know one of these developers and yes, the profit he makes from the App store (among other things) is a part of his income. He is not a faceless drone at some Fortune 500 company. He makes his own living as an independent developer. So stop condoning the OP's stealing my friend's beer money! It's shoplifting, pure and simple, no matter how many contortions you do.

[muckymucky]

well i know music on itunes can be shared with 5 differnt computers (aka authorize to use with 5 differnt computers in case need be) so i would feel that apps on the appstore should follow similar principles. i see it as if you have 2 iphones, buying it on one then using the same account to download the 2nd is totally legal because "you" bought it, and want to use it for both phones. but in your case, it gets into ethics and legistics and is kind of in a morally grey area.

while letting your friend borrowing your CD isnt illegal, its piracy when they rip it and puts it on their computer. so what you did is exactly that.



ethical notes aside, i did this with me and my girlfriend's iphones, we signed in using same acct, so the apps that i purchased on my iphone itunes knows i alaready bought them so when she clicks buy, it just says "you've bought this~blah blah click to redownload". i dont know why yours doesnt do that if using the same acct. but one disadvantage does strike me tho: the app's DRM gets all messed up because somethings telling the app that they're DRMs are being abused and they would stop working. and it got very annoying because i had to reinstall the apps a few times every week.

if anything, why not see if the jailbreak community has the solution you need, i think i heard something about ways apps could be installed without appstore. so go look into that.

[ki2594]

well some may say its wrong, and to a degree it is


BUT because forums are about helping, this is a way you can do it (But think about it)

You buy it. Your friend connects there iphone to whatever computer there iphone is synced to. You sign in to your iTunes account on there computer. Click "buy" on the app that he wants to "share" and then it will say do you want to buy? and you say yes but then it will say you've already downloaded this app on this account, click ok to download again. SO it will download it to his itunes, you sign out of your account and then they just have to sync there iPhone, done.

Again i do think it is wrong to some degree, but its there choice, i'm just answering there question. The above were directions from a Mac Rumors article.