Google has patented a new scheme to
prevent clones of apps and games from thriving in the Play store. Not
harmless little clones as in Happy
Poo Flap, but works of insolent, copy-shop developers who steal
other people's assets and code to repackage and profit from it. To
put an end to this scenario, all currently existing apps that have
been uploaded by their original creators will be submitted to a
database of "signature sets for known software applications".
That is, all of their code, data, and assets will be categorized, and
newly uploaded apps will be compared to this database to obtain a
"similarity rating".
It's unclear whether Google will
enforce sanctions upon submissions with unsatisfactory ratings, but
such a measure seems logical. Who needs apps that are 80 to 100
percent similar? If implemented properly, this system ought to make
the Google Play Store a better, if a little less crowded place for
everyone. There are minute details to be taken into account, though.
What if two compared apps make use of the same frameworks and
libraries, but do substantially different things? Or two apps have
over 80% similarity, but one is free, and the other is paid? We'll
have to assume Google has this stuff all figured out.
Hopefully, Google has been thinking how
to tighten security measures as well, because the Play Store is
literally being played lately. Recently, two apps that covertly waste
the device's power to mine crypto-coins, and another paid app (Virus
Shield), which actually does absolutely nothing at all, all managed
to climb high in the store's ranks, scamming many users. Which, given
Android's popularity across the globe, is absolutely intolerable.
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