While organisations like the MPAA and RIAA get a lot of press for lobbying governments into taking down music and movie related file sharing sites, the US authorities have been targeting a new kind of piracy as well – app piracy.

In a single swipe, the US government has taken down three websites involved with the distribution of copyright protected applications. These include: applanet.net, appbucket.net and snappzmarket.com. Visiting those pages now gives you the simple message below:

This wasn't just some local scuffle however. Most of the servers operating these websites were found to be overseas, so it ended up taking internaional cooperation to take them offline.

Assistant attorney general Lanny Breur came forward to comment (via Wired): “Software apps have become an increasingly essential part of our nation's economy and creative culture, and the Criminal Division is committed to working with our law enforcement partners to protect the creators of these apps and other forms of intellectual property from those who seek to steal it.”

Application piracy on mobile phones is a particularly interesting case in the world of copyright infringement. Mobile purchases are easy, downloads are small and fast, games and applications are usually available universally at the same time and because of this, many of the reasons downloaders give for doing so illegally are quashed by the very nature of the app market.

Kitguru Says: With that in mind, if you pirate apps, what are your reasons?

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