Sunday, warez site Funky Space Monkey announced the release of Crackulous 0.9, a GUI front end to xCrack. Crackulous, as the name suggests, removes the DRM from App Store software, allowing users to distribute pirated programs outside of App Store channels without the developers or Apple getting paid. Crackulous was developed at Hackulo.us, a donation-supported forum dedicated to, well, stealing software. There's really no way to put a good spin on it.

Crackulous is the brainchild of iPhone pirate Salad Fork, who notoriously called an early leak of his software "absolutely disgusting and downright insulting." Back in November, Mr. Fork became outraged when his pirating software was pirated and released without his consent or control. Today, he must be experiencing another wave of stress: the otherwise free Crackulous software has already been repirated and is being sold for ten bucks a pop in a new wave of poetic justice.

What Crackulous does

According to the Crackulous v.9 specs, the software lets you "[c]rack Applications from the App Store! Share them with the community! Crackulous can crack multiple applications at a time, with the most POWERFUL and EASIEST to use application available." Here's how it works: users pay for and download a legitimate copy of each application from the App Store. Then they apply the Crackulous crack to create a version that can be distributed and run from a jailbroken file system. Finally they upload the cracked version to a warez site, where the software is hosted for downloads.

Once cracked, the Hackulo.us onsite FAQ strongly encourages users to upload their application to Appulous, their online repository for cracked iPhone apps. Appulous members can then download the pirated software for free. Like Hackulous, Appulous is presumably supported by donations to cover hosting and bandwidth costs.

A rather touching notice at the bottom of the main Appulous page mentions that "Appulo.us, its logo, website, and web application are Copyright �2008 Appulo.us. iPhone and iPod Touch are registered trademarks of Apple, Inc. All other contents are copyrighted and trademarked by their respective owners." It's good to see that the Appulous owners are so scrupulous about enforcing copyright.

Pirated pirating

As of today, the Hackulo.us forum mods claim they've hosted over 20,000 legitimate downloads, for whatever value of "legitimate" they may be using. In this case, they refer to people who have not appropriated the Crackulous software and are attempting to sell that software for profit. Because, yes, once again Crackulous has been pirated.

The Crackulous.net site is selling Crackulous for $10 a pop—at least for now. The price is due to head up to $20 per copy, making the current $10 PayPal price a Great Bargain. Amusingly, the Crackulous.net site accuses the (original) free version of being malware and adds in its "Is Cracukulous illegal" FAQ: "Of course not! Even the folks in Cupertino use Crackulous for testing iPhone applications and sharing them with their friends and family." Whoever developed this site surely had quite the sense of humor.

In a fit of indignant ire, the Crackulous developers are offended that the fruits of their hard work and effort are being distributed by and profited from others. The Hackulo.us announcement notes that one such party (by which we assume they refer to Crackulous.net) has reported earnings of $40, or 4 copies at $10 per copy. They write, "We've had well over 20,000 legitimate downloads, so his 4 isn't much of a penetration -- but hey, it's fun to virtually punch pathetic losers like this in the face."

No, you cannot make this stuff up.

Effect on App Store and developers

To date, there have been approximately 500 million App Store downloads, serving approximately 10 million iPhones. Compared to that 10 million+ number, the 20,000 users of Crackulous represent an extremely limited subset of users. Yes, each Crackulous user can provide a copy of software that may reach thousands of users, but on the whole, Crackulous does not seem to present a serious threat to the App Store ecosystem.

Crackulous and Appulous users are limited to those who have taken the time to jailbreak their iPhones and, beyond that, to the minority who actively engage in software pirating. The biggest cost to developers looks as if it will be to support users who have not paid for their licenses and who are using application-specific services such as Web bandwidth or tech support for products they haven't bought. These costs are real and serious but they're unlikely to tip a developer from being able to operate with profits into losing money.

Apple is probably not going to do more than issue a few take-down notices in order to affirmatively protect its rights. As for developers, dealing with pirates is part of the normal status quo of the software business. For now, there's little that can be done.