Hacker News Reader

FWIW, I contribute to an app that has been on the App Store for ~10 months now, been in the top 100 for its category since release and is open source (under a BSD license). We've had several people tell us that someone could do this very thing - compile the app and post it online for free - but it hasn't been done yet.

That would be because:

- The copied app (unlike on the free internet) couldn't be called "Colloquy" (or reference Colloquy in its tags) because Apple would forbid its distribution, and so discoverability is significantly reduced.

- It costs $99 to acquire an appstore developer certificate to work with Apple's DRM, reducing the chances of opportunistic behavior on behalf of users. I can't just check out your project and put it online.

Of course, the app has been cracked and placed on other sites (and its technically legal since binary modifications/redistributions are allowed). But thats a different issue.

Is it really a different issue? It seems like the only thing protecting you from unrestricted copying is Apple's DRM and control over the AppStore.

View on HN