Dictionary apps post false piracy confessions on Twitter
Publishers, as you might have guessed, want piracy to end. So far, though, nothing has proved to be effective. Laws? Nope. DRM? Pirates laugh at DRM. So dictionary app developer Enfour has come up with its own novel solution, but it's one that targets legitimate customers.On 1 November, the developer rolled out updates to its apps that included an "anti-piracy" module. Once installed, the update requests access to users' Twitter accounts â€" an odd permission for a dictionary app. As it turns out, that access is then used to impersonate the user posting to Twitter with a false piracy confession under the hashtag #softwarepirateconfessions:(Screenshot by Michelle Starr/CNET Australia)This tweet appears in exactly the same form hundreds of times over.When it afflicted Pocketables associate editor Andreas ØdegÃ¥rd, who had purchased the Oxford Deluxe dictionary app for US$50 in 2010, he posited that the app is targeting phones with Installous installed â€" an app that allows users to share cracked and jailbroken apps. (ØdegÃ¥rd was careful to mention that he has only used this app once â€" when another app he bought stopped working.)It is plausible that this feature would target jailbroken iPhones, but it seems that even uncracked devices are falling prey, as user reviews on iTunes suggest.According to Tracey Northcott, Enfour's vice president of International Communications, the tweets are a "bug". However, it has been two weeks since the update, and the Enfour confessions are still happening.We're inclined to agree with ØdegÃ¥rd:You don't accidentally include a feature that asks for Twitter access and then uses that access to accuse the owner of software piracy.Via www.pocketables.com
