Google Introduces Licensing Service for Paid Android Applications
Provided you can locate an APK file outside of the Android Market, it really isn’t all that hard to install illegally obtained copies of paid apps onto your Android phone at no expense to yourself (unless you use an AT&T Android phone, har har har). Seeing the potential trouble this could cause for hard working developers hoping to turn a buck off the legitimate sale of their software, Google is introducing a new licensing service for apps purchased through the Android Market to make it harder to use pirated wares.
The new service works by querying a Google server at launch of an application to check purchase records and make sure the person using the app actually paid for it. The hope is that the new system will provide better protection from unauthorized use of applications than the current copy-protection methods in the market. The new system will become standard over the coming months. You can read more about it at the Android Developers Blog.