iOS jailbreak app Installous shuts down, but new piracy options emerge

January 2, 2013 | By Jason Ankeny

Piracy community Hackulous has closed, spelling the demise of its Installous jailbreak app, which offered access to free, pirated versions of premium apps developed for Apple's (NASDAQ:AAPL) iOS platform.

"We are very sad to announce that Hackulous is shutting down," reads a post on the Hackulous homepage. "After many years, our community has become stagnant, and our forums are a bit of a ghost town. It has become difficult to keep them online and well-moderated, despite the devotion of our staff."

Installous enabled users with jaibroken Apple devices to download free pirated iOS apps and games from a variety of sources, then install the software as if they had purchased it directly from Apple's own App Store. Some apps were available to Installous users within hours of their official release.

The Installous shutdown coincides with the emergence of new app piracy options that do not require consumers to jailbreak their iOS device. The Next Web reports that one app, Zeusmos, provides users with a license and provisioning profile that allows them to install pirated apps; it is available for free on jailbroken devices or sold as a premium download for non-jailbroken units.

"The intent of Zeusmos will be to SOLELY code sign applications," the app's creator, 15-year-old Kevin Ko, said in a statement provided to The Next Web. "We will not be supporting or encouraging any form of piracy through the link providers or even via search (although they were based off the iTunes API). The intents [sic] as I have stated [was] to allow open development for developers. Recently I've had the time to add this feature into Zeusmos called the 'Exclusive Apps' section where developers who got their application rejected in the App Store were able to post their application on here for free and share their application to a large audience of users. Such applications even included Grooveshark and many others."

Another service, Kuaiyong, offers free versions of apps that appear to have been purchased under an Apple enterprise license, which enables installation across multiple devices. Some developers report thousands of users installing the same exact copy of their app, complete with the same set of encrypted credentials.

For more:
- read this CNet article
- read this Next Web article