It is a copyright infringement to use services that offer paid mobile apps for free? Various sources apparently say that is.
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1How exactly are you doing this? Did you win a price? "Use our $99.99 app for free"? Or are you pirating the software? – gnasher729 May 05 '22 at 15:36
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Many services are offering pirated apps apparently. – May 05 '22 at 15:46
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1If you use a pirated app, then of course it is copyright infringement. – gnasher729 May 05 '22 at 16:24
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@gnasher729 Not always. Making an unauthorized copy is infringement. But using such a copy is generally not, if the person using it did not make it, nor ask someone else to make it. If I make an unauthorized copy of a book I commit infringement. If I sell that copy, the buyer is not an infringer, even if the buyer knows the copy is unauthorized. – David Siegel May 21 '22 at 16:09
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That depends on how one does it. If one simply hacks a site offering what are supposed to be paid services so as to get them for free, that is probably theft of services rather than copyright infringement.
If one uses someone else's ID/password without authorization to use an online service, that s probably a violation of The Computer Fraud and Abuse Act of 1986 (CFAA), which has been codified at 18 U.S. Code § 1030 See https://law.stackexchange.com/a/79767/17500 for more on the cfaa.
If the app is normally downloadable for a fee, but one somehow bypasses the fee-charging part and downloads without permission, that is probably copyright infringement.
If the owner makes a gift of what is normally a paid app, that is a gift and in no way illegal or improper.
If you provided links to these "various sources" or some of them. I or others here could evaluate them, and this answer might be improved n light o any context such sources provide.
If a more detailed scenario was provided, I might be able to improve this answer, or someone might be able to give a better one.
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