Crackulous, Automated App Store Piracy Tool

The biggest downside to the App Store from an anti-bootlegging perspective is that the FairPlay DRM protection is applied the exact same way to all apps. So if you figure out how to crack one, you now have a working method to crack them all. So what’s now common with jailbreakers are tools like this to allow you to create completely unlocked versions of any app from the App Store.

The other factor is that this has been going on for months, and is getting worse, but so far there’s not been a single indication that Apple cares or plans to do anything about it. I suspect we’ll soon start seeing high-profile App Store apps that take matters into their own hands and attempt to detect whether they’re running on a jailbroken phone, and, if so, quit.

★ Tuesday, 3 February 2009