iOS apps hijack Twitter accounts, post false "confessions" of piracy
Dictionary app maker's move is the very definition of how not to fight theft.
by Jon Brodkin Nov 13 2012 Ars Technica
An iOS application developer has come up with an extreme way of fighting software piracy-by auto-posting "confessions" to its users' Twitter accounts.
If you search Twitter for the hashtag #softwarepirateconfession you'll find a stream of tweets stating, "How about we all stop using pirated iOS apps? I promise to stop. I really will. #softwarepirateconfession." There are many dozens of these tweets in the past day alone, all identical. So what's happening? It turns out that Enfour, the maker of a variety of dictionary apps, is auto-posting tweets to users' accounts to shame them for being pirates. But the auto-tweeting seems to be affecting a huge portion of its paid user base, not just those who actually stole the apps.
An apology in Japanese was posted on the Japan-based Enfour's site, listing affected products including more than a dozen English dictionary and thesaurus apps, such as American Heritage, Collins, and Australian Oxford dictionaries. There are another half-dozen or so Japanese language apps affected as well.
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