Piracy Cripples iOS Game in Less than a Week

[BaldiMac]

SB Settings and themes are both legal too .

By the nature of code injection, no derivative work is ever created - since extra code is injected directly into RAM. If you own a device, you're perfectly entitled to put whatever 0s and 1s you wish into its RAM (which is all code injection does). That's not creating a derivative work, that's using the hardware you've bought.

The code in RAM is just a protected by copyright as the code on the flash drive. But that is certainly a good argument. I doubt it is as straightforward as you describe because app sandboxes would have to be bypassed and apps would need to gain access to areas of the OS that are unavailable to App Store apps. But that is outside of my area of knowledge.

If jailbreaking in any way was illegal, do you not think Apple would have moved to shut cydia, or its repositories, down (which, let's face it, wouldn't be hard)? Yes, people do illegal things with it, but providing an avenue to do illegal things isn't illegal (i.e. I can illegally import things by driving them through the channel tunnel, but that doesn't make driving through the channel tunnel illegal).

Again, jailbreaking is absolutely legal for specific purposes. Read the exception that you linked to:

"Computer programs that enable wireless telephone handsets to execute software applications, where circumvention is accomplished for the sole purpose of enabling interoperability of such applications, when they have been lawfully obtained, with computer programs on the telephone handset."

And, no, I don't think Apple would move to shut down cydia for much the same reason that they don't move to shut down hackintosh projects.

Also, there is no real "for limited use" clause I found - they made 3 main points:

You are quoting the EFF's opinion. Not the copyright office's decision.

 

[m00min]

Hopefully, you see the difference between that and 100% legal!

Eh? Jailbreaking an iPhone is entirely legal. I'm not sure what you're getting at there.

 

[BaldiMac]

Eh? Jailbreaking an iPhone is entirely legal. I'm not sure what you're getting at there.

Absolutely. It is legal in the US for specific purposes.

Of course, as you pointed out, I don't know where you are. So you are making a vague and unsupported claim.

----------

Well I can tell you that I have a jailbroken iPad - and everything on there is legal.

Just FYI, to point out the legal mess, the copyright office actually disapproved a jailbreaking exception for tablets. So there is no DMCA exemption for the iPad.

 

[m00min]

Absolutely. It is legal in the US for specific purposes.

Of course, as you pointed out, I don't know where you are. So you are making a vague and unsupported claim.

Ah, ok. I'm in the UK.

 

[BaldiMac]

Ah, ok. I'm in the UK.

From this article, it appears that you all have the same caveats as we do in the US.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-07/28/investigation-is-it-legal-to-jailbreak-a-uk-iphone

Vague laws to create a legal mess.

 

[Switchback666]

I remember saw something about next year jailbreak might be ilegal ? Any news about it ?

 

[ECUpirate44]

i pirate games, and if i like them i'll buy them. if i dont i delete the game.

For every one of you, theres a hundred who say the same thing then don't actually buy the game.

The real issue here was the amount of pirated copies was so overwhelming that it crippled the multiplayer servers.

 

[thewitt]

For every one of you, theres a hundred who say the same thing then don't actually buy the game.

The real issue here was the amount of pirated copies was so overwhelming that it crippled the multiplayer servers.

I'm sorry to say I don't believe it's 1 in 100, its more like 1 in 10,000... Pirates don't buy games, they steal them. Plain and simple. They are proud of that fact, as every thread I've read on every forum and BBS in the last 26 years reinforces.

We've been in the software business for nearly 25 years and it's been the same game on every platform. Nothing changes.

We spend nearly as much time thwarting the thieves as we do adding new features for our paying customers.

 

[Brian Y]

The code in RAM is just a protected by copyright as the code on the flash drive. But that is certainly a good argument. I doubt it is as straightforward as you describe because app sandboxes would have to be bypassed and apps would need to gain access to areas of the OS that are unavailable to App Store apps. But that is outside of my area of knowledge.

I can tell you that modifying the contents of the RAM of your own computer is not copyright infringement in any way shape or form, in any country, and no court would ever decide otherwise. That would be ludicrous!

 

[m00min]

From this article, it appears that you all have the same caveats as we do in the US.
http://www.wired.co.uk/news/archive/2010-07/28/investigation-is-it-legal-to-jailbreak-a-uk-iphone

Vague laws to create a legal mess.

Hmm, well there's illegal and then there's immoral. I shall choose based on the latter. If our police were charged with arresting geeks for doing geeky things they wouldn't have time to bait the speeding drivers or the round up the drunk teenagers

 

[BaldiMac]

I can tell you that modifying the contents of the RAM of your own computer is not copyright infringement in any way shape or form, in any country, and no court would ever decide otherwise. That would be ludicrous!

You could tell me that, but simply quoting a limitation to copyright law that applies directly would make for a more interesting conversation.

It doesn't make sense to me that what you are describing would be legal. Seems like it would allow for wholesale modification of the software.

Also, to your claim itself that the modification is limited to code injection within RAM. I assume you don't have to launch SBSettings and every other tweak every time you restart your device, so how does it get into RAM without modifying the copy on the drive to launch it into RAM?

 

[ECUpirate44]

I'm sorry to say I don't believe it's 1 in 100, its more like 1 in 10,000... Pirates don't buy games, they steal them. Plain and simple. They are proud of that fact, as every thread I've read on every forum and BBS in the last 26 years reinforces.

We've been in the software business for nearly 25 years and it's been the same game on every platform. Nothing changes.

We spend nearly as much time thwarting the thieves as we do adding new features for our paying customers.

Okay, 1 in 10,000.

 

[BaldiMac]

I remember saw something about next year jailbreak might be ilegal ? Any news about it ?

I think the only news similar to that was that a proposed exemption to the DMCA for jailbreaking tablets was disapproved. I haven't heard anything new on jailbreaking smartphones.

 

[Brian Y]

You could tell me that, but simply quoting a limitation to copyright law that applies directly would make for a more interesting conversation.

It doesn't make sense to me that what you are describing would be legal. Seems like it would allow for wholesale modification of the software.

Also, to your claim itself that the modification is limited to code injection within RAM. I assume you don't have to launch SBSettings and every other tweak every time you restart your device, so how does it get into RAM without modifying the copy on the drive to launch it into RAM?

The "added" software (which is allowed) modifies value in memory.

There wont be a specific clause, but it would come under "fair use", since you own the machine, and changes in RAM aren't persistent changes (no modification has ever been made to the software - consider a painting on a wall - if you hold a filter in front of it, the colour may look different, but hasn't actually changed ).

 

[BaldiMac]

The "added" software (which is allowed) modifies value in memory.

There wont be a specific clause, but it would come under "fair use", since you own the machine, and changes in RAM aren't persistent changes (no modification has ever been made to the software - consider a painting on a wall - if you hold a filter in front of it, the colour may look different, but hasn't actually changed ).

There is no fair use exemption for modifying copies in RAM. Sounds like you just made that up. If not, feel free to quote a statute or legal decision. It doesn't make sense at all as it would render the developer's exclusive right to create derivative works irrelevant.

And, again, you skipped over the modifications necessary to inject the code into RAM.

 

[itjw]

It doesn't matter what you believe. If I have no way to determine if I want to own something, & no recourse, I don't buy it. Never have. The result is, I either buy nothing at all, or I buy things that I'm fairly sure I want to own. Just like anyone. I've simply found a way to reduce the risk of buying a lot of garbage in between, by not gambling on total unknowns.

You can personally attack me any way you want but it changes nothing. You won't find anything in my possession I haven't paid for. ...and you have no idea what has been stolen from me over my life, so I'll just let your hotheaded blabbering slide.

Call it whatever you want. Based on your responses I can decide that I don't BELIEVE that you "paid for everything in your possession" because you have already admitted that you don't pay for things until you TRY them first...

These programs that you steal first and pay for later (right...) DON'T offer "free trials" and therefore you are taking something without paying for it.

I realize that a petty thief needs to rationalize things like that so they don't feel bad, and you can choose to ignore me all you like, it doesn't change the fact that you are now a documented liar and a thief.

It's not namecalling if it's the truth lol... Sorry.

 

[Rodster]

I can confirm I have not paid a single penny for all my 100+ iOS games and apps.

Oh wait i'm not a pirate, i'm what you call a moocher. I hunt appshopper.com for every paid app that was sold for free. I wonder how long it will take for Infinity Blade to show up?

 

[Brian Y]

There is no fair use exemption for modifying copies in RAM. Sounds like you just made that up. If not, feel free to quote a statute or legal decision. It doesn't make sense at all as it would render the developer's exclusive right to create derivative works irrelevant.

And, again, you skipped over the modifications necessary to inject the code into RAM.

I'm going to give up with this - I seriously cannot be bothered arguing with you any more - it's getting boring and it's clear that you're not going to accept any logical argument. It's quite clear that you're trolling to get a reaction now, and arguing for the sake of arguing (you have argued against pretty much every single post I have made in this thread, and looking over your posts I'm not the first to get this).

There is no "fair use" exception, since there is no definition of fair use. It's any use, which can be considered fair. If you think somebody's going to list off every single fair use then you're seriously misguided. That, and I'm not going to quote some arbitrary law at this point because, quite frankly, I couldn't give a damn whether you agree with me or not. I know I'm right with this, end of conversation at this point as far as I am concerned.

And modifications aren't required, its "addition" of software, which you well know is allowed.

But I'm leaving this thread now.

 

[yusukeaoki]

I still pirate them.
If I like it, I support the devs by buying it.
If I dont, I just delete the game.
Its that simple.

 

[firewood]

The code in RAM is just a protected by copyright as the code on the flash drive. .

Almost every time you switch apps, or reboot your device, you are, sooner or later, modifying code in RAM, 4 to 16 bytes at a time depending on the memory bus width.

Are you saying that switching to another app (big enough to need the physical memory) is somehow illegal?

 

[iSee]

...What if this game had gone completely viral like Angry Birds? What would they do when the server crashed with 2 million legal players?...

Um, gee, I don't know... maybe they could spend some of the massive stream of cash coming in to scale up their server capacity. Now, I'm well aware that depending on the current design of their software that that may not be very easy to do. But a couple of million dollars (at least) has a way of making hard problems solvable.

Since their load was generated by non-paying pirates, it seems they didn't have the resources to deal with the problems.

 

[JAT]

Um, gee, I don't know... maybe they could spend some of the massive stream of cash coming in to scale up their server capacity. Now, I'm well aware that depending on the current design of their software that that may not be very easy to do. But a couple of million dollars (at least) has a way of making hard problems solvable.

Since their load was generated by non-paying pirates, it seems they didn't have the resources to deal with the problems.

It's weird, when I read your post, my brain automagically substituted "we" for every "they" you typed. Huh.

It takes more than 10 minutes to scale up, regardless of capital. They weren't prepared, period.

 

[fujitsu]

I feel bad for the developer. Piracy really hurts. Dang.

 

[Winnychan213]

Cry me a river, you are not the only company that needs to deal with piracy. Regardless of what the law said, piracy will still exist. Here is a bridge, now get over it.

 

[BaldiMac]

There is no "fair use" exception, since there is no definition of fair use. It's any use, which can be considered fair. If you think somebody's going to list off every single fair use then you're seriously misguided. That, and I'm not going to quote some arbitrary law at this point because, quite frankly, I couldn't give a damn whether you agree with me or not. I know I'm right with this, end of conversation at this point as far as I am concerned.

That's a pretty complete argument there. Not sure what you were expecting here other than a discussion. Do you expect everyone to just agree with you because you know your "right with this, end of conversation."

You also thought you were right when you claimed your jailbroken iPad was completely legal. The copyright office disagreed.

And modifications aren't required, its "addition" of software, which you well know is allowed.

Again, iOS has to be modified to launch an app such as SBSettings into RAM. iOS does not launch third party services on startup without modification.

Almost every time you switch apps, or reboot your device, you are, sooner or later, modifying code in RAM, 4 to 16 bytes at a time depending on the memory bus width.

Are you saying that switching to another app (big enough to need the physical memory) is somehow illegal?

No. I'm saying that's a licensed use of the software.