Android Market is the app repository that Android cell phone users can access to download new applications for their cell phone. The market offers both free and commercial applications and offers a 24 hour return policy for purchased applications. The guys over at Androideka are reporting about an Android Market Hack that allows users to download and Android applications for free, sort of. The requirement is a rooted or developer phone. Rooting an Android phone is not a difficult process so it basically means anyone with an Android phone can do this. It is possible to download all applications from Android Market for free because of the inefficient application protection and the return policy. A user downloads an application from Android Market. He might need to purchase it first but should not worry about that as he will get a refund if he returns the app in the next 24 hours after download.
The only protection that the Google Android team has implemented is the location of the android applications. Users without root cannot access this location on their Android cell phone. But everyone with root can. There is no other protection in place which means that it is possible to copy the android application to another location, return the application and install it again from the new source.
All protected Android apps are located in the folder /data/app-private/ which can be accessed on rooted Android phones. It is therefore theoretically possible to purchase, install, copy, and return all Android applications to get them all for free. It should also be noted that the copied versions of those protected Android applications can be installed on all Android phones, even non rooted ones. It will probably not be long before the first Android app packs hit the dark side of the Internet.
The only difficulty that arises is that the applications will not be updated automatically as Android Market does not recognize them. Be sure to check out Androideka if you are interested in Google Android news.
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