Dictionary for iOS publishes anti-piracy messages to Twitter on behalf of users

Installing unlicensed programs on a jailbroken device is illegal and ugly. Because of this, the authors do not receive remuneration for their work. Many developers are philosophical about the problem. But there are also brave souls who decide on concrete actions. So did the developers of the Oxford Dictionary and Oxford Deluxe English Thesaurus for iOS.



After the update on November 1, the program began to publish on Twitter some of the following messages: “Maybe we will all stop using pirated programs for iOS? Personally, I will no longer. Honestly".



Dozens of such messages can now be seen on Twitter using the hashtag #softwarepirateconfession .

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Judging by the public reaction, the developers of Oxford Deluxe for iOS managed to get their way and drew attention to the problem. True, this turned out to be not exactly the attention that they expected: # a single pirate recognition of #softwarepirateconfession accounts for a dozen reviews from outraged users.



A number of questions arise. How ethical is it to post tweets to strangers without their permission? And isn't this even more immoral act than violating the software license? And from a legal point of view, the publication of messages in someone else's twitter can be classified at once into several articles, offhand, sending spam and posing as another person.



On the other hand, Oxford Deluxe requests the user's permission to post messages to Twitter, and if the user has allowed it, you will not apply the charge of “sending spam” to such a program. Although it is somehow dishonest to ask the user for permission to post to Twitter, and then to crap there.



Another problem is that the program does not always punish the really guilty. One of the users who fell victim to spam from Oxford Deluxe, in his defense, even published a purchase receipt on iTunes .







He honestly paid 299 CZK in August 2010. Now in iTunes USA, the program costs $ 55. The only “fault” of this particular user is the phone jailbreak. Apparently, Oxford Deluxe automatically publishes spam to Twitter every user with a jailbreaked phone. In this case, the program's actions can definitely be described as malicious, because jailbreaking is not something bad or illegal.