It was reported that the digital rights management (DRM) technology used by Microsoft to protect apps sold via the Windows Phone 7 marketplace had been cracked, enabling miscreants to remove the security protection on downloaded apps so that they can be installed freely on handsets. According to Windows Phone Central, the weakness in the security “has been known for some time, and there have been calls for Microsoft to address these concerns,” although apparently as yet this has not happened. The programmer responsible for cracking the DRM did so as part of a “white hat operation” to highlight the weakness, rather than for malicious purposes.

The FreeMarketplace proof-of-concept tool was especially notable due to the fact that it automates the process of removing DRM from apps and creating an installer file for the unprotected software. It followed the publishing of a whitepaper which also detailed weaknesses in the WP7 copy protection, although this was subsequently made unavailable.

While so-far piracy has not been an issue for WP7, largely due to the lack of supporting handsets meaning that there is a limited market for unofficial products, it could become a significant should the platform gain traction. While Microsoft certainly seems to be attempting to emulate Apple’s model of having a tightly controlled app ecosystem with products only able to be installed on devices when obtained from legitimate sources, in the iOS community it did not take long for devices to be “jailbroken” to enable other apps to be installed, with an alternative store ecosystem emerging to support this.

Late in November 2010, a tool was released which enabled WP7 handset owners to install apps from sources other than Microsoft’s official Marketplace, although this was swiftly removed after contact from Microsoft.