Many consider Android's ability to sideload apps onto a device as a major bonus for the platform.  It's a great feature for end users, sure, but it has the potential to be not so great for developers.  Sideloading makes it easy for anyone to load any app they want onto a device, so Google has plans to combat pirating and poor copy protection with a new licensing service for Android apps.  The new mechanism can check with a Market License server whenever an app is launched to see if the app was indeed purchased legitimately.  The new service is available for new apps immediately and will be rolled out to current apps "over the next few months."

This is great news for Android as it could entice new developers to the platform and bring back older ones that may have been turned off in the past.  I'm a little concerned about what may happen when a user opens an app when they don't have any sort of Internet connection, but I'm sure Google has worked everything out with its new copy protection system.  What do you think about this news, Android fans?  Do you feel app copy protection is a big problem?

Via Engadget