Piracy isn’t talked about a lot, but it has quietly grown into a major problem for many developers. It’s more of an issue in Android because its open nature and loose authentication tools allow pirates to rip off and distribute paid apps.
“This is one of those problems that seem to have been running under the radar,” said Carl Howe, an analyst at Yankee Group. “Every developer thinks, ‘it must just be me.’”
Developers, you’re not alone. A recent survey conducted by Yankee Group and location-based services and software provider Skyhook found that 27 percent of developers believe piracy in Android is a huge problem, with more than three-quarters saying that it’s easy to copy and republish an Android application. Many point to pirate forums as the largest source of pirated apps.
I don’t understand why Google allows this sort of thing to happen.