Comment Here's their apology (not good enough) (Score 1) 231
On November 1, 2012, a version of the UniDict® iOS software revealed a bug that has embarrassed both our users and our company. We are sincerely sorry for the uproar and the bad feelings our customers have experienced. To everyone affected, we offer our humble apologies.
The story and tech details
On the morning of November 1, customers had an unpleasant surprise if they opened the app and let it go to sleep before it was closed. Upon waking, a dialog box showed "Run in Safe Mode" then the app disabled itself and performed an auto soft close. A notification appeared locally on the device and if the user had authorized the app to access their Twitter account, a tweet of the notification was sent out under their account with a hash tag #softwarepiracyconfession. This tweet only happened if the user tapped a send confirmation button.
As soon as we realised there was a problem, we corrected it by removing the anti-piracy module and working with Apple to get the patched version online for download. It was available before close of business on November 1. At no time was the device itself or personal information compromised; there was no virus, no unofficial APIs, no hacking and no malware involved. Nevertheless, a number of users with certain system configurations were affected during this time period. Some may still be if they haven't updated to the fixed version. If you are not running the latest version, we urge you to update your app immediately to avoid the potential embarrassment of an unexpected tweet.
Why this happened
Combatting piracy is challenging. As a small family-owned company with few employees every lost sale impacts our livelihood and our ability to continue developing apps that we are passionate about. Piracy of Enfour products happens at an astonishing rate. We have seen a 1:100 ratio of legal to pirated copies of our software. Ouch. We can't thwart truly determined hacker & crackers, but we wanted to possibly shame those who were opportunistically stealing our software. Just like installing a shop-lifting alarm in a store, we thought we were being creative with a notification and a timed tweet for users of a cracked app.
In retrospect, this was not the wisest choice. The bug that revealed this creative indiscretion was a screwup and we accept full responsibility. We have tried to reach as many affected people as possible using social media via our personal accounts as well as via our website and also the iTunes store -all in multiple languages. We have taken all possible steps to ensure that our customers are never affected again.
Piracy is a hot issue. Despite what some believe about piracy being acceptable and harmless, we know piracy does cost us money and affects us directly. It's far too large and personal a topic for us to pontificate upon, but if you are interested in a perspective that fits our opinion, there is a good article in Bloomberg Business Week. http://www.businessweek.com/articles/2012-11-01/piracycuts-into-paid-app-sales
Thank you We appreciate the time you took to read this letter and if you would like to discuss the issue further, we are available for comment.
Tracey Northcott
VP International Communications
Enfour, Inc.
3F Kouju Bld 3-52-8 Sendagaya
Shibuya-ku Tokyo 151-0051 JAPAN
tracey@enfour.co.jp
http://www.enfour.com/
https://itunes.apple.com/artist/enfour-inc./id284965604?l=en
TEL: +81-3-5411-7738
FAX: +81-3-5411-7704
I'm not a user of their software, or apple products for that matter, but if I were affected by this bug I would definitely *not* be appeased by this too-little, too-late apology/justification. Would they accept an apology from someone they caught pirating their software? No - they would take legal action, because "piracy costs us money". I sincerely hope that affected users take legal action against Enfour, if only to make an example out of them for other companies who think they are allowed to illicitly access users' devices. Maybe the EFF will weigh in?