iPod As Accomplice To Software Pirating

by , 2:30 PM EST, March 1st, 2002

The teenager stopped at a nearby display Macintosh [in CompUSA], pulled the iPod from his pocket and plugged it into the machine with a FireWire cable. Intrigued [Dallas computer consultant Kevin] Webb peeped over the kid&'s shoulder to see him copying Microsoft's new Office for OS X suite, which retails for $500.
2/28/2002 Wired on-line

There is virtually no technology that hasn't been co-opted for illicit purposes totally unrelated to the technology's originally designed purpose. Bootleg cassette tapes have been used to pirate music. Ditto for the VCR and movies. Who hasn't heard of someone with a "black box" cable TV setup. Pirating Microsoft software, some misguided souls undoubtedly think, is downright patriotic.

It seems like the iPod has been tapped for similar contributions to such misplaced red-white-and-blue sentiments, according to a report at Wired.com

Apple's iPod music player stars in this story of youthful shoplifting, as Wired's Leander Kahney recounts a gentlemen witnessing the deft pilfering from a CompUSA display Mac. Kahney epiphanizes that even though Apple crippled the iPod so that it can't share music between computers, the company overlooked the fact that stealing software is as easy as a drag and a drop. Couple this with the fact that OS X software is typically contained in one nice, neat icon "package," the pirateer's job is that much easier.

And so is deterring such shoplifting, if retailers are not vigilant:

Unsure whether the kid was a thief or an out-of-uniform employee, Webb watched as he left the store. "I thought there's no point in getting any more involved in this imbroglio," Webb said. "Besides, this is Texas. You never know what he might have been carrying."

Indeed.

Thanks to devices like the iPod, we now have a new phrase in our lexicon, coined by Kahney: "virtual shoplifting."

You can read the whole story in Wired, which we recommend as a good read.

The Mac Observer Spin:

Texas or not, that kid in the CompUSA deserved a resounding �dummy slap� on the back, lower portion of his head, but that sad incident shows once again that, with the advent of new technology, newer forms of illicit activity come to the fore, which in turn demand more novel deterrents.

Apple shouldn't be held liable for how its products are used (after all, the one-computer assignment for the iPod was a nice gesture towards the recording industry) -- besides, the company would be hard pressed to create a copy-protection scheme to prevent moving software between computers, similar to the infamous registration schemes being used at Microsoft. Time will tell.

We are not experts on the workings of the "criminal mind," but this incident with the iPod may surely be used as a template to extrapolate other devices and applications towards ends unintended by the manufacturers.

What are your thoughts? Sound off below.

Wired: Have iPod, Will Secretly Bootleg