Service for pirating iOS apps abruptly closes, cites 'stagnant' community
A prominent service for jailbroken iPhones that served up stolen iOS App Store applications abruptly closed on Sunday, marking a major victory for Apple in the war on piracy.
The "Hackulous" website was updated with a statement on Sunday revealing that the service was gone for good. The letter revealed that the community for stolen applications had become "stagnant," and its forums were a "ghost town."
"It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff," said the Hackulous team. "We're incredibly thankful for the support we've had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence."
Hackulous was an application that could be installed on jailbroken iOS devices. It was used in connection with another service, called Apptrackr, which served up cracked applications via a Web interface.
Strangely, Apptrackr also abruptly shut down and cited a lack of activity. But the timing of the two closings was viewed as suspicious by TorrentFreak, who spoke with two people familiar with both sites' operations who were "surprised" at the closings.
"The sites were apparently healthy and still had plenty of users," author 'enigmax' wrote. "Indeed, the shutdown statement appears to carry a contradiction ??'ghost town' forums are by their very nature not particularly difficult to keep 'well-moderated' since nobody uses them."
The site also claimed that Hackulous was installed on "millions" of devices, and those users were presented advertisements every time they used the software. A potential reason for the shutdown could be related to rumors that there may not be a jailbreak for Apple's latest iOS 6 mobile operating system.
Jailbreaking is a practice that allows users to run unauthorized code on devices like the iPhone and iPad. While jailbreaking can allow users to simply make changes not allowed by Apple, such as custom themes and unauthorized applications, it can also be used to pirate iOS software.
For years, Apple has played a "cat and mouse" game with the iOS jailbreaking community, attempting to plug holes and fix exploits used by hackers. The company even went as far as to censor the word "jailbreak" among iTunes Store content temporarily in May of this year.
While jailbreaking can be used to perform illegal activities, such as stealing applications through Hackulous when the service was active, jailbreaking itself is not illegal.
The "Hackulous" website was updated with a statement on Sunday revealing that the service was gone for good. The letter revealed that the community for stolen applications had become "stagnant," and its forums were a "ghost town."
"It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff," said the Hackulous team. "We're incredibly thankful for the support we've had over the years and hope that new, greater communities blossom out of our absence."
Hackulous was an application that could be installed on jailbroken iOS devices. It was used in connection with another service, called Apptrackr, which served up cracked applications via a Web interface.
Strangely, Apptrackr also abruptly shut down and cited a lack of activity. But the timing of the two closings was viewed as suspicious by TorrentFreak, who spoke with two people familiar with both sites' operations who were "surprised" at the closings.
"The sites were apparently healthy and still had plenty of users," author 'enigmax' wrote. "Indeed, the shutdown statement appears to carry a contradiction ??'ghost town' forums are by their very nature not particularly difficult to keep 'well-moderated' since nobody uses them."
The site also claimed that Hackulous was installed on "millions" of devices, and those users were presented advertisements every time they used the software. A potential reason for the shutdown could be related to rumors that there may not be a jailbreak for Apple's latest iOS 6 mobile operating system.
Jailbreaking is a practice that allows users to run unauthorized code on devices like the iPhone and iPad. While jailbreaking can allow users to simply make changes not allowed by Apple, such as custom themes and unauthorized applications, it can also be used to pirate iOS software.
For years, Apple has played a "cat and mouse" game with the iOS jailbreaking community, attempting to plug holes and fix exploits used by hackers. The company even went as far as to censor the word "jailbreak" among iTunes Store content temporarily in May of this year.
While jailbreaking can be used to perform illegal activities, such as stealing applications through Hackulous when the service was active, jailbreaking itself is not illegal.
Comments
Look out your window.
More likely explanation. They received a formal letter from Apple's attorneys and decided that this was the easiest way to save face.
Not to mention, of course, that they were never a major player. If Cydia were to close down due to lack of interest, that would be a real story.
Good riddance, I say. Only a$$holes install pirated Apps anyway.
Well that's good. I admire hacker culture but it's supposed to be about coming up with cool inventions not about stealing from other developers.
Dev team blog is also offline. I think they seal team 6'ed these guys. ....and a happy new year.....
I had not even heard of the site until this story. Not that I have been terribly interested in jailbreak for any reason - yes I have been tempted a couple times in order to add features that are not supported by Apple or available via officially approved Apps.
Originally Posted by daratbastid
Dev team blog is also offline.
No…
Either way, IMO, the scene has died down a ton since iOS 6. That's fine and not a big deal. Just wish we could get demos and ad versions easily.
Btw, I'm also a developer which is how I learned about these methods.
Originally Posted by 1983
…free apps aplenty on that platform.
By this you mean piracy, yeah?
The problem is that if the developer wanted you to be able to try their app, they can easily do it. By taking it without permission, you are violating the offer that the developer is making.
I guess Ford shouldn't mind if I go down and take one of the cars from the dealership and drive it for a month, right? After all, their test drives are far too limited for my taste, so I should have the right to demand that they give me what I want rather than what they want, right?
That said, I did have to jailbreak a phone once. When I dumped AT&T and switched to Straight Talk, AT&T agreed to unlock the phone since the contract was expired. Unfortunately, the phone still did not work with Straight Talk, so I had to jailbreak it to make it work. Fortunately, when I upgraded to iOS 6, that was no longer a problem and jailbreaking was not necessary.
You can demo a car. Or, you with pretty much every physical product you buy in the store you can return it if you don't like it. Apple really needs to include this in their App Store. There a plenty of apps I won't even try because there is no trial period. However, if they allowed me to try it for two weeks or 10 uses or whatever and if I wanted to use it again after that I got a modal window saying I need to pay for it from the App Store I would likely be trying and buying a lot more apps. I think it hurts developers by not having this option.
I did emig647 did back when TomTom was new to iOS and cost $100. I tried it, I liked, it but the lack of the option for backgrounding App Store apps meant it wasn't going to work for me. I deleted it and then bought it from the App Store as soon as that option and update came along.
Wouldn't matter...cause Dev team no longer exists to jailbreak.
Good riddance.
As I've stated many times in the past, I still say that most people who jailbreak are losers and thieves, regardless of what some might claim.
If you can't afford to purchase 99 cent apps, then go buy a shitty Android phone, you low class moron.