iPhone users in the EU are now able to easily pirate audiobooks and ebooks

Digital piracy on the iPhone is not very prevalent in the United States due to the sheer number of hoops users have to jump through. With recent changes to Apple’s policies in the EU, though, it is now easier than ever to pirate audiobooks and ebooks. This is primarily attributed to the acceptance of BitTorrent clients.

You might be familiar with the new EU rules. Apple now allows third-party apps to be installed in addition to App Stores. A new app store called AltStore PAL only has a few apps, but most of them are BitTorrent clients that allow users to easily download pirated content and store it locally on an iPhone. The apps drawing the most attention are iTorrent, an iOS torrent client that can be used without jailbreaking iPhones or iPads, and qBitControl, a qBittorrent remote client for iOS devices.

Apple bans Torrent apps worldwide because it recognizes that they’re “often used to infringe third-party rights.” But now that the EU’s Digital Markets Act has weakened the tech giant’s ability to police its walled garden. This will create an influx of pirated books, audiobooks, music, and movies.

Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.