Just wo deri g as ive seen other nasty markets offering hacked apps, as android is open source what are the legals on unofficial / hacked/ pirated apps is it really ilegal with android being open source, or is it to the dev to make sure it haas to be registered in some way as LVL or other methods?
Device(s): Three Chinese Androids: Kliton I806LS, Lenovo P700i, Ampe A76
Carrier: China Mobile, China Telecom.
Thanks: 1,375
Thanked 1,169 Times in 823 Posts
IANAL but destributing copyrighted proprietary software without the copyright holders express written permission is illegal...end of.
The Android OS might be open source, but something like Angry Birds is most definitely not free open source software(FOSS).
__________________
The People's Guide to Android in the People's Republic.
Honorary Grand Poobah Shenzhen University English Corner. http://welcometomychina.tumblr.com/ There are nine million bicycles in Beijing.
There are nine million Androids in Shenzhen.
The Following 5 Users Say Thank You to mikedt For This Useful Post:
An open source OS (Android) does not make pirated apps legal or right. There are many places to get legitimate copies of apps sanctioned by the developers such as the Play store, Amazon App Store, GetJar, etc. There are probably many others so ask here if you have any questions.
There are also many sites that offer pirated versions of the apps. I'll say officially that discussion of these sites is against the rules here. I'll personally say stay away from these as there is nothing but bad news as there is mostly malware and viruses chunked on to the apps, let alone no updates. Also, the devs put a lot of work into their apps and a buck or two (usually) is not a lot to pay.
I know where to get origionals from, I was just wondering, and as open source is free for anyone to use tinker with got me thinking if the first person to prosecuted for an android based whatever if the fact that it roots are open source code or whatever means it cant upheld ? Or officially its still all open source etc as the dev did not develope or ever own the origional, obv no one on here is goi g to say its right or they agree with it rar rar rar just thought id pose the question, is apples making everything ilegal if it aint apple etc like jailbreaking which got me thinking and also what google stance would be..
Last edited by thequeenscheese; January 23rd, 2013 at 08:51 PM.
I know where to get origionals from, I was just wondering, and as open source is free for anyone to use tinker with got me thinking if the first person to prosecuted for an android based whatever if the fact that it roots are open source code or whatever means it cant upheld ? Or officially its still all open source etc as the dev did not develope or ever own the origional, obv no one on here is goi g to say its right or they agree with it rar rar rar just thought id pose the question, is apples making everything ilegal if it aint apple etc like jailbreaking which got me thinking and also what google stance would be..
Just because the OS is open source does not mean that applications designed to run on it are.
The Following User Says Thank You to RAZRi_Man For This Useful Post:
Android itself is open source with some limitations such as a developer needs to meet certain requirements to include Google Apps (which are not open source). Apps in the Play store however, are not open source. The source code is owned by the individual developers that have created the app. Them publishing them on an open source platform does not make them open source, hackable, or free to distribute.
The Following 6 Users Say Thank You to Unforgiven For This Useful Post:
to clarify: Open source software is generally published under a version of the GPL (GNU Public License, more info at: The GNU General Public License v3.0 - GNU Project - Free Software Foundation (FSF)
While Linux and Android are Open source (this means that the source code is available for anyone woth the relevant shills to ownload and modify, provided all such modifications remain open source, and upstream contributors are credited for their work.
Most Apps however, are definitely not open source and copyright remains with the creators. Just because Linux, Android or any other OS is FOSS (Free, open source software) does not mean that all Apps running on it are. While it is legal (and encouraged) to redistribute Open source software, it is most definitely not legal to redistribute copyrighted Apps/music/boks etc.
The Following 3 Users Say Thank You to Davdi For This Useful Post:
It is fact. Unless the developer specifically states otherwise on their website/elsewhere, you can be safe in the knowledge that their app is proprietary code and copyrighted like you would expect of most software.
The only thing that's open source is Google operating system(aosp) and the Linux kernel.
Applications and many other pieces of software (such as sense or touchwoz overlays) are closed source and property of the company or person that makes them.
There are some (e.g. Apple, Microsoft, Oracle) who claim bits of Android aren't - or at least, shouldn't be - open source and are spending millions suing to prove it
Ok I take you guys word for it , but why are so many markets allowed to opperate still in this case?
Well, there's the legal markets (Google/Amazon/etc) where devs choose to put their apps.
Then there's the pirate markets. They aren't "allowed" to run as such, it would be more appropriate to say nobody has managed to get them shut down yet. (And that can and does happen).
4Likes
A legal question
button.
