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



    Installing unlicensed programs on a jailbroken device is illegal and ugly. Because of this, authors do not receive remuneration for their work. Many developers take the problem philosophically. But there are daredevils who decide on specific 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 post messages on the following Twitter messages to some users: “Maybe we all stop using pirated programs for iOS? Personally, I will not. Honestly".

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



    Judging by the public reaction, the developers of Oxford Deluxe for iOS managed to achieve their goal and drew attention to the problem. True, this turned out to be not quite the attention they were counting on: for one pirated admission #softwarepirateconfession there are about a dozen reviews from outraged users.

    A number of questions arise. How ethical is it to tweet outsiders without permission? And is this not an even more immoral act than violating a software license? And from a legal point of view, posting messages to someone else’s twitter can be classified into several articles at once, offhand, sending spam and impersonating another person.

    On the other hand, Oxford Deluxe is asking for user permission to post to Twitter, and if the user has allowed it, then you won’t apply the charge of “spamming” to such a program. Although somehow unfair - ask the user for permission to post to Twitter, and then crap there.

    Another problem is that the program does not always punish the truly guilty. One of the users who fell victim to spam from Oxford Deluxe even published a check on the purchase of the program in iTunes to justify it .



    He honestly paid 299 kroons in August 2010. Now in iTunes USA, the program costs $ 55. The only “fault” of this particular user is the jailbreak of the phone. Apparently, Oxford Deluxe publishes spam automatically on each user’s jailbroken phone. In this case, the program’s actions can definitely be described as malicious, because jailbreak is not something bad or illegal.

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