Hi folks, I thought I would ask other developers for their opinions on the large number of apps on the market which seem to infringe on third-party intellectual property.
I have apps in the free Casual Game category, and a quick count reveals that out of the 200 top apps, at least 30 very likely infringe on third-party copyrights and/or trademarks. I believe similar numbers apply to other categories. This of course may place the developers of these apps at risk of lawsuits, and is also a breach of the Market terms and conditions. My worry, however, is that these apps constitute unfair competition: they use "stolen" intellectual property to promote themselves, thus out-ranking competing apps which play fair. For example, I would love to use Disney material in one of my games. I asked Disney and did not obtain a permission, hence I am not using their material. Yet my game has to compete against other games which do use Disney material, almost certainly without permission. Maybe these are just the rantings of a slightly bitter developer of not-massively-successful apps. But maybe my concerns also ring a bell for other developers. What do you think? Should infringing apps just be accepted, or is there something we as a community can do to deal with the problem? It would also be good to hear the thoughts of developers of infringing apps. Best, Michael. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Android Developers" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/android-developers?hl=en
