Ripdev Launches Kali Anti-Piracy Service for iPhone Devs

As its name implies, the Kali Anti-Piracy service is aimed at iPhone developers looking to protect their applications from being pirated. Kali Anti-Piracy subscribers have access to a developer login and an SDK. Devs need to submit their app to Ripdev's encryption server, which sends it back wrapped with the protection code.

“Evidently, the piracy rate currently is quite high due to the fact that there are numerous automatic 'cracking' products that allow any application purchased from the AppStore to be extracted and distributed in unprotected form,” Ripdev says. “Sadly, the whole process takes under 3 minutes per product… What does this mean to you as a developer? Obviously, you lose money.”

A little over a week ago, a Gizmodo report revealed that Crackulous, an iPhone application that makes it easier to pirate iPhone apps, had just been released to the public. Users of a jailbroken handset could use it to strip the apps' copy protection, according to various other reports. Such apps could then be shared via BitTorrent sites for others to download and use for free / illegally.

“With Kali Anti-Piracy your application is being wrapped in the additional layer of protection engineered by experts in Mac OS X and iPhone OS architectures, giving potential hackers much harder time in achieving the precious 'crack',” the Ripdev team explains. “Moreover, we are constantly monitoring the current trends and news in the underground hacker communities to make sure Kali AP stays on top of the 'competition'.”

According to the makers of Kali Anti-Piracy, the integration process with an application is fairly simple. Developers just need to follow simple instructions found in the downloadable SDK once they sign up and activate their product on the Developer's portal. If, after acceptance in the app store, your app is pirated, “it will cease to launch or function properly,” the team says.

Also noted on the Ripdev web site is that Kali Anti-Piracy uses only documented and allowed calls. As such, the service is fully compliant with the Apple iPhone SDK. Ripdev also confirms that a number of applications protected with the Kaly AP are already selling in the App Store.

Are you a developer? How does the Kali Anti-Piracy Service sound?