Google Is Adding DRM To Android Apps

[Len]

The topic of DRMs can be a bit contentious. This is because while it is understandable that creators want to prevent their creations from being pirated, there are some who feel that they have the right to do what they want with their purchases. For example this wasn’t really an issue with physical media formats such as CDs or cassette tapes, where if you buy a physical CD you’ll be able to lend it to friends, make copies, and so on.

That being said, for proponents of DRM, you might be interested to learn that Google has updated its Google Play platform where DRMs are now being added to Android apps, or as Google has phrased it, they have added “a small amount of security metadata on top of APKs to verify that the APK was distributed by Google Play,” which as Android Central points out, is DRM under a different name.

In Google’s case, the idea behind the addition of DRM is to prevent malware. According to Google, “In the future, for apps obtained through Play-approved distribution channels, we’ll be able to determine app authenticity while a device is offline, add those shared apps to a user’s Play Library, and manage app updates when the device comes back online. This will give people more confidence when using Play-approved peer-to-peer sharing apps.”

That being said, DRM is essentially a tool and it is up to developers how they want to use (or abuse) it, so it remains to be seen how this will ultimately work out.