Apple criticized for blocking Beeper Mini iMessage on Android app - 9to5Mac
Apple criticized for blocking Beeper Mini iMessage on Android app - 9to5Mac
Last week, Beeper Mini debuted as a way to bring iMessage to Android without having to hand over your Apple...
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I absolutely am not an iPhone or iMessage fan, but criticizing a company for blocking someone who reverse engineered they platform to gain access isn't right in my opinion.
If a 3rd party app is allowed to utilise Apple's iMessage protocol/network, then every other messaging provider (WhatsApp, Telegram, etc) will be required to open up their platforms.
I cant wait to see the day where WhatsApp allows 3rd party apps to use their messaging network.
It's very right. All messaging platforms should be open or interoperable.
Imagine if from Hotmail you could only email others on Hotmail. Or the same with Gmail. Or not being able to SMS anyone on at&t from any other telco. There's no good reason to limit it like that.
Also consider that they were charging for the service. The only part of the deal I wasn't keen on. 1 because again, messaging should be open and interoperable. 2 they were basically charging a recurring fee for access to Apple's service, not specifically theirs in this instance. Which seems bad on Beeper, until you realize that Apple is basically refusing to make money from their service. And they're not doing it out of principle, ideology, or good will. They're doing it because they don't want to compete. Not with regards to iMessage, or anything else.
Apple already publicly announced they’re working on both implementing RCS to (Apple) Messages and working to get E2EE into the RCS Universal Profile, so this whole “anti-competitive, anti-interoperability” argument falls flat.
At the end of the day, this app was an attempt to commercialize a high-profile exploit which threatened the security of iMessage. Politicians like Senator Warren making these criticisms of “monopolistic behavior” are, as usual, being tech-illiterate buffoons.
The argument stands just fine. There's a big difference between saying something and doing something. Just as there's a big difference between doing something and doing something well. iMessage can absolutely do SMS messages. It's one of the worst SMS clients in general. Which is part of the problem.
I expect their RCS implementation to be degraded 2nd class citizen to iMessage based on Apple's history. Anything else is a fools bet. I hope to be surprised, however I don't expect it.
Apple can make good hardware and software. The big issue is how they implement it to anti-competitive effect. Of the big 3, all of whom need to be broken up badly. Apple isn't even the worst. Just close.
Exploit is a strange choice of words for using a system as it was designed. Definitely not an unbiased choice. It was no threat to the non existent security. You can't threaten what isn't there. There was no buffer overflow, malformed packets, or any "exploit". They sent credentials, the server accepted the message and relayed it as designed. Something which should have always been possible, but Apple artificially restricts.
Warren and her group while tech illiterate, are more spot on than you in this case at least. Though you're either just repeating things uninformed, or being disingenuous. If I leave my door standing wide open I cannot say someone exploited the lock when they walked in.
Maybe we wouldn’t have the spam ridden hellscape that is modern email if it worked more like current messaging platforms
Apple has reverse engineered a lot of stuff to make it work on apple products. A fair number of Microsoft products specifically. I don't know why they should be exempt from having similar happen to them.
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DMCA specifically protects the right to reverse engineer something for interoperability. There is no reason other than being cordial to request "permission".
And that’s fine. Beeper and the 16yo hacker haven’t broken any laws, haven’t done anything wrong, and won’t go to jail. But that doesn’t mean Apple can’t close the hole they exploited. It is their messaging network, and they can make any changes to it that they want.
I never made that claim. I never said it wasn't Apple's prerogative to close any loopholes or backdoors. I didn't claim any ethics on the part of Beeper or the original exploiter. I am asking for a provable viable instance where the law was broken and what law and how. The person who blocked me made a lot of claims that they failed to back up with factual information with sources and repeated themselves several times with claims of unlawful conduct. They didn't explain which laws had been broken or how. I would like that information still.
I called myself a layman specifically because in the case of Apple products that's what I am. I'm not criticizing apple for closing a potentially exploitable security flaw. I am saying that this tech company (like every other) is absolutely borrowing within the constraints of the law and outside it from other tech companies and that because that is the case there is some hypocrisy in the stance that somehow other companies are expected not to.
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Has Beeper actually charged money for it? My understanding is that this rollout was planned to be paid eventually but nobody has paid anything as of yet for the functionality.
By your own admission though, beeper is using an exploit that they did not reverse engineer. They paid for someone else's process which probably was covered under DMCA at the time. I will wait to see if Apple decides on litigation because so far I haven't even heard a word about them suing beeper and I absolutely think they would if beeper has done something illegal.
You quote directly from the same source I was using (Cornell law) and your quote directly suggests that reverse engineering for the purposes of interoperability (in this case with iMessage and it's use on iPhones and the interoperability with android phones) appear to both be covered. If they aren't covered you haven't explained why your suggestion that they are doing so to profit makes sense except they haven't charged anyone that I can find for the service. Even their FAQ has been updated to say they will continue offering the service free of charge and will warn users when it moves to a paid service. I don't dispute that they do plan to have a paid service but at this juncture they haven't actually implemented that.
I don't "misunderstand the purpose of DMCA". I actually couldn't care less about apple or beeper. I don't use either brand or service and this is a solution to a problem I don't have. I find the tech discussion around the interoperability of iMessage and RCS (assuming that actually happens) interesting, but again it doesn't directly benefit me in any way. Pretty much my whole family use android phones. I don't have any friends who appear to care about the blue bubble green bubble nonsense, though I am tangentially aware of it, mostly through tech articles.
Are beeper required to agree to Apple's EULA? If so, why? Please explain that.
You assert that I am "defending". I haven't actually defended anything. I simply pointed out that wording in the DMCA would suggest that Beeper was exempt from certain restrictions. That's not the same thing.
Did I hurt your feelings or something? Are you taking out your frustrations with other people on me? Because it does seem like it.
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I read everything you wrote. I'm trying to understand and you come off as hostile and appear to be forgetting that not everyone has all the details you seem to be keeping in your head. Calm down and explain it for a layman, please.
Edit: Also, is Apple so exclusive that I can't just have an interest in knowing about the tech? Because literally that's why I am here.
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But you've failed to draw the parallel here between Apple and their intellectual property being reverse engineered by a third party who's motivations remain unknown, and Beeper who bought the reverse engineering code/process from that third party for the purpose of interoperability. Which I believe I said before but perhaps wasn't clear about. Proving in court that the original engineer of this exploit did so for the purposes of interoperability, or if the intent was to make money will seemingly be between Apple, the courts, and that entity.
Apple device users are subject to the EULA. Beeper and their customers may or may not be depending on if they are Apple device users. There is some gray area here as far as the messaging because my understanding based on the articles I have read is that Beeper is calling their App "Beeper Mini", and are simply marketing it as what it is. A way for Android users to interface with Apple iMessage users. They aren't calling it iMessage for Android. They are calling it Beeper Mini. That being said, the tagline is "iMessage on Android" and yes it does bill itself as enabling Android users to send and receive imessages. The important thing to note here is they go on to say that it's a stand alone app built to send and receive "blue bubble messages" on Android. They don't claim it's an apple product, just that it works with apple products (I'm reading directly from their website here).
The reflection in news sources isn't the greatest point to be made specifically because news outlets have a history of creating taglines, nicknames and nomenclature for things that the original entity behind the story has no real say in. Serial killers are a good example. News networks are notorious for naming serial killers despite law enforcement avoiding giving them monikers like "golden state killer" etc.
I agree with you that Beeper is implementing a paid system and that this was always the intention. I believe I said that as well in my original statement. However I'm still trying to connect the dots as to how Apple has grounds against Beeper specifically. Surely they may potentially have grounds against the original exploiter. But against Beeper? Have they actually stolen Apple's intellectual property?
I wouldn't know a lot of things about Apple if I didn't occasionally peruse communities like this one. There is only so much context you can get from Android users (even people who use both, or neither) about Apple products. I wouldn't for instance understand why the original Beeper was such a big deal to some Apple users, until someone explained in a different thread that they like being able to answer messages from their work phone or work station (not an apple product), throughout their work day. I've worked in places where cell phones were absolutely not allowed, so I could see how this could be a big deal.