14 DAY TRIAL // Mountain View-based Internet giant Google has decided to move against those users who rooted their Android-based mobile devices, and blocked them from accessing the newly launched movie rental service
in the Android Market.
Those users who rooted their devices and installed a custom ROM on them would not be able to enjoy the service, it seems.
Owners of rooted devices who would attempt to access the service would receive a error message which, according to Google, is meant to signal the fact that rooted handsets are not supported.
Here's what a help article on the Android Market reads:
I see "Failed to fetch license for [movie title] (error 49)” when I try to download a movie
You'll receive this "Error 49" message if you attempt to play a movie on a rooted device. Rooted devices are currently unsupported due to requirements related to copyright protection. For the time being, the only device that can access the said service, which was launched in early May during the Google I/O, would be the Motorola XOOM.
The service requires for the tablet PC to run under the Android 3.1 OS version, and would be available, obviously, only for devices who were not rooted.
It is rather interesting that Google decided to make this move, especially since it touts the Android platform as being an open one, Android Central notes in a recent article.
Not to mention that other companies did not put in place similar requirements for their users. Owners of jailbroken iPhones can still access Apple's iTunes service, while Netflix enables all users to access its movie database.
While there are not too many users hit by this limitation at this moment, this would become a general issue when the service is rolled-out for Android-based smartphones too.
The number of rooted mobile phones is quite high, especially when it comes to devices powered by Android 2.2 or higher, and the service would arrive on them in the next few weeks.