Ripdev launches anti-piracy service for iPhone developers

Piracy is almost an unavoidable issue for PC and Mac developers, but even the App Store’s closed and protected environment hasn’t stopped hackers from “cracking” iPhone apps. Last week, Hackulous introduced Crackulous—a tool that makes it easier for iPhone apps to be cracked. The iPhone SDK and Apple’s Terms of Service limit what individual developers can do to address the issue of piracy.

Kali Anti-Piracy from Ripdev is a new service offering protection for iPhone developers worried about their apps being pirated. Ripdev has discovered a way of putting an extra wrapper around iPhone apps; this wrapper prevents the app from launching if it has been cracked, and prevents current cracking tools (like Crackulous) from working on the app.

Kali Anti-Piracy is also completely compliant with Apple’s SDK Terms of Service, using only documented and allowed calls. If the app is purchased legitimately, it will still run on a jailbroken iPhone. The service seems pretty straightforward to use; you submit your app to Ripdev’s encryption server, which processes the file and gives you a protected version of the file, which you then submit to the App Store.

The service doesn’t come cheap: For apps under $9.99, the set-up fee is $100. For apps over $9.99, it’s $300. There is also a quarterly fee taken from the 70% cut that developers get from the App Store. However, for popular apps, this service may help protect the income for developers whose apps are at risk of being pirated.

Product [Kali Anti-Piracy] Via [TUAW]