HomeWorkify’s Demise and Reincarnation

Homeworkify (now accessible from homeworkify.st) was an AI-powered online platform for assisting students with their schoolwork. Previously, Homeworkify was accessible from homeworkify.net and through its iPhone and Android apps, all of which have now been removed from the internet, Google’s Play Store, and Apple’s App Store, respectively.

Launched in 2023, it had features like a homework scanner (AI math solver), practice problems and quizzes, question-answer forums, personalized dashboards, test and exam preparation, interactive learning experience, and live tutoring.

However, it was mainly used for two purposes:

But if you don’t care why it was shut down, skip this part and move on to how good its reincarnated version is.

Solving homework problems: Students could input their questions and receive solutions, often step-by-step, in various subjects like math, science, and history.
Unblurring Chegg answers: (More often than not), Homeworkify could bypass the paywall of educational resource websites, specifically Chegg, giving students access to expert-solved problems.

Why Was Homeworkify Shut Down?

Homeworkify was recently taken down, and for good reason. While it claimed it was a non-profit (which I have no reason to disbelieve, even though it offered a plus and a premium besides a basic, free plan, maybe for covering its running costs), it was essentially bypassing Chegg’s paywall to access its solutions, which was not only unethical but also illegal.

Here’s how it connects:

Chegg’s Business Model: Chegg relies on subscriptions and pay-per-question access to its library of expert-solved problems. This is their main source of income.
Homeworkify’s Impact: By unblurring Chegg’s answers, Homeworkify undermined Chegg’s core business model – it posed an existential threat to it. Students could access the same solutions without paying Chegg, hurting their revenue.

This led to a legal action against Homeworkify from Chegg. Here’s why:

Copyright Infringement: Chegg’s content is protected by copyright laws. Bypassing their paywall for access is copyright infringement.
Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA): In the U.S., the CFAA prohibits unauthorized access to protected computer systems. Chegg’s website has measures in place to restrict access to paid content. Scraping their content violated the CFAA.

Chegg’s Lawsuit Explained

On June 3, 2023, Chegg filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to shut down Homeworkify during the lawsuit. The court initially denied the motion because Chegg did not conclusively identify Defendants or show they accessed Chegg without authorization as required for the hacking claim.

Chegg’s Renewed Motion and Evidence

Instead of backing down, Chegg renewed the motion with new evidence. It identified Defendant Vikasa Swami as running Homeworkify and showed he lives in India. Investigators also linked Swami’s IP address to accessing Homeworkify. This time, however, the court granted Chegg’s motion for preliminary injunction against Homeworkify.

To save you time, here’s an AI-generated summary of the court order granting Chegg’s motion for preliminary injunction against Homeworkify, in case you want to learn more about the case:

(A preliminary injunction is a court order hitting pause. It stops someone from doing something until the entire case is decided. In this case, the judge stopped Homeworkify because it looked like they were copying Chegg’s stuff.)

Chegg is an online education company that provides step-by-step solutions to textbook problems through its Chegg Study service, which users must pay a subscription fee to access.
Defendants operate a website called Homeworkify that advertised providing free access to paid homework help sites like Chegg. Users could view Chegg answers on Homeworkify without paying Chegg’s subscription fees.
Chegg sued Defendants alleging they stole Chegg content through various means, like creating free trial accounts and using automated scripts to mass download solutions. Chegg brought claims for computer hacking, copyright infringement, unfair competition, and breach of contract.
Chegg filed a motion for preliminary injunction seeking to shut down Homeworkify during the lawsuit. The court initially denied the motion because Chegg did not conclusively identify Defendants or show they accessed Chegg without authorization as required for the hacking claim.
Chegg renewed the motion with new evidence. It identified Defendant Vikasa Swami as running Homeworkify and showed he lives in India. Investigators also linked Swami’s IP address to accessing Homeworkify.
Chegg provided evidence that Defendants used stolen subscriber credentials to directly access legitimate Chegg accounts without authorization, including after a cease-and-desist letter. (A cease-and-desist letter is a fancy way of saying, “Stop doing this, or we’ll sue.” It’s a formal warning to get someone to halt an activity you believe is wrong). The court found this likely satisfies the computer hacking statute.
Chegg also showed the same IP addresses used in a cyberattack on Chegg.com were connected to Homeworkify and Swami, making Defendants likely responsible for the attack.
Based on the new evidence, the court found Chegg demonstrated a likelihood of success on its computer hacking, copyright infringement, and unfair competition claims. The balance of harms and public interest also favored Chegg.
Therefore, the court granted Chegg’s renewed motion for preliminary injunction, which will remain in place during the litigation to prevent further copying of Chegg’s content on Homeworkify. The court also allowed service on Defendant Swami via alternative means due to his location in India.

How Homeworkify Remains Online?

That’s all we know about Chegg’s lawsuit against Homeworkify, and that’s because homeworkify.net has shut down.

However, while the domain homeworkify.net was blocked by the .net registry and their apps removed from Google’s Play Store and Apple’s App Store, this didn’t stop them from moving to another address, in this case, to homeworkify.st.

In case you’re wondering, the registry is the organization that manages the domain name system (DNS) for a specific top-level domain (TLD), such as .com, .net, or .io. The registry can suspend a domain name if it receives a legal request or a complaint from a third party that claims the domain name is used for illegal or abusive purposes.

For example, two of the largest movie and TV streaming piracy sites, Lookmovie and Cuevana3, had their domain names suspended by the .io registry in March 2022 after receiving a legal request from the Motion Picture Association (MPA). The suspension meant that the domain names could no longer resolve to the IP addresses of the pirate movie sites, effectively making them inaccessible. However, both sites quickly moved to different domains, such as .ag or .to, to continue their operations.

That’s why such sites change their domains periodically to avoid being suspended by the registry or find a more lenient or anonymous registry that does not cooperate with the authorities. And that’s why it’s nearly impossible to shut down Homeworkify completely – it will likely keep its presence online with different registries (extensions) or using similar domain names.

Is Homeworkify.st Worth Using?

The shutdown had a significant impact on Homeworkify’s business and revenue. Their mobile apps are gone. And the website (with .st extension) isn’t as good as before. The only thing it can do now is to let you bypass Chegg’s paywall for free because of their stolen Chegg data.

Here’s how it works:

You search for a specific question on Chegg, only to encounter a blurred answer. Don’t worry. Copy the link and paste it into Homeworkify’s search bar, and it lets you know whether it has stolen that answer from Chegg or not (they mostly have it.)