Your WP7 App XAP File Exposed ? Here is the Microsoft’s Official Response

Few days ago, some 3rd party websites gave people links to download WP7 apps XAP file directly from Microsoft’s server. This caused confusion among developers regarding piracy.

Here is the official Microsoft’s response on this matter.

Microsoft evaluates instances where intellectual property may be exposed on a case-by-case basis to determine what, if any, action is warranted. It is important to note that applications obtained from a site like this cannot run on consumer retail devices. These application files are signed and will not run without modification. Such files would only run on the limited number of “unlocked” phones in circulation, such as those that have been registered by a Marketplace developer via App Hub.

Developers that are concerned about unauthorized access to, or use of, their application code always have the option of protecting their applications through the use of code obfuscation tools like the Dotfuscator product recently announced for Windows Phone 7 applications and currently available at no charge from PreEmptive Solutions.

The best resource for registered developers is the anti-piracy model whitepaper, per Todd Biggs’ post on the 11^th for example;

http://forums.create.msdn.com/forums/p/65871/403591.aspx#403591

This response seems to be pretty nonchalant considering Microsoft has just confirmed that, for a period, all 2000 applications in marketplace could be downloaded and used by an unlocked device, of which there could potentially be 13000 at the moment, and likely many thousand more in the future, all without paying the developers a single cent.

While the flaw has been fixed, if I was a developer I would be pretty angry, and expect more of an apology from the software giant.