> Yeah there we are. As far as I can see, the next step in preventing piracy > is to not allow users to install apps outside of Market at all. > > We're not going to do that.
That's not what I was picturing. Isn't there some way that we could do both? Apps downloaded from market could be encrypted and only decrypted by the OS when used (in real time, never decrypted and left as an open APK on the device). I guess what I'm looking for is the market to encrypt and sign an APK in real time for a particular user/ phone when downloaded. Each download would result in different bytes for each user/phone This doesn't necessarily preclude the installation of unencrypted apps does it? I totally agree that we need app distribution capabilities outside the context of Android Market -- it's a necessity for an open platform. In a nutshell, what I'm hoping LVL can grow into is a system that packages license verification in a way that is really really hard to remove. It seems like we've got half of that equation nicely under way with LVL in its current form. Dave On Aug 25, 1:04 pm, Dianne Hackborn <hack...@android.com> wrote: > On Wed, Aug 25, 2010 at 8:13 AM, keyeslabs <keyes...@gmail.com> wrote: > > Again, my contention is that something stronger than obfuscation is > > needed to lock the APK down. OS-level APK encryption support in > > addition to license verification. I would like to see us get to the > > point that users must choose to root the phone (similar to Apple) in > > order to use pirated apps. Better yet, users must root the phone and > > in so doing remove the legal ability to access some desirable piece of > > software. > > Yeah there we are. As far as I can see, the next step in preventing piracy > is to not allow users to install apps outside of Market at all. > > We're not going to do that. > > If there are other suggestions that will actually make things harder without > doing that, I would certainly like to hear them. At this point people need > to modify apps; once they are doing that, there aren't too many more things > to do except make it harder to remove the illegal use check code out of the > app. > > > I realize that it's easy for me to rant on about what I want, and very > > difficult for Google to strike the right balance between open and > > lucrative. My fear at this point is that we're establishing a culture > > of piracy on Android that is going to be difficult to turn around. > > Um there is a culture of piracy *everywhere*. :} > > If you are saying that because you think most people are pirating Android > apps... I think your perception of things is probably pretty off. I know > lots of people who have Android devices, and none of them even think of > turning on the option to install from external sources, let alone go out and > find pirated apps. > > -- > Dianne Hackborn > Android framework engineer > hack...@android.com > > Note: please don't send private questions to me, as I don't have time to > provide private support, and so won't reply to such e-mails. All such > questions should be posted on public forums, where I and others can see and > answer them. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to android-developers@googlegroups.com To unsubscribe from this group, send email to android-developers+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
