On Fri, Dec 9, 2011 at 1:04 PM, Bryan Stinchfield <[email protected]>wrote:
> Any ideas what they are referring to? Probably this: > My app, *Angry Birds Walkthrough Portal* [...] please see the > * Intellectual Property and Impersonation* ... sections of our Content > Policy. Please also be advised that *your application’s > title, description, and screenshots* are also subject to the above Terms. > I don't suppose you got permission from Rovio to use "Angry Birds" in your title and description, and to use their artwork? Yes, i did use keywords in the description, but so does google and > numerous other extremely popular apps - xconstructions for instance, > the lite version has been downloaded over 5 million times and they are > an editor of choice ... yet they use keywords. > You're comparing your app that uses Angry Birds' popularity to sell itself to *this <https://market.android.com/details?id=de.hms.xconstruction&hl=en>*? Seriously? You will note that there are a total of 6 keywords and none of them are the names of popular apps used as a cheap ploy to bottom feed off their search hits. > My keywords did include angry birds, but that being used as a keyword is > completely related to my app. > Your title also included "Angry Birds", and your icon includes their copyrighted image. The only other infraction I see is one that hundreds of other developers > did, they used artwork from the app. > "Officer, why are you arresting just *me*? I was just looting with the rest of the mob. Surely that's OK?" > Actually though, the image i used for my icon wasn't even from a > screenshot of the game or their website (Rovio's) it was from somewhere > else, I can't even remember now it was last year. > So let's say you're a photographer. You take a picture and post it in your online resume. It becomes famous. Someone takes that picture, copies it, and posts it elsewhere. I take that copy of the picture, forget where I got it, and then bundle it with my own work, to help it sell and thus profit from it, without your permission. But it's OK because I forgot where I got your clearly identifiable image from? Dude ... come on ... you can't be serious ... > Has ANYONE had any success at contacting google, disputing the > alleged infractions and getting their app reposted? > There was a recent thread of someone getting banned due to DMCA notice and they got it resolved. They never heard from Google though. In your case, it seems pretty obvious that you'll not get re-instated. > Yes, I can retool the artowrk, I already did that and I re-released it > Wow. That's priceless. > I had the best placement possible, int he top 4 most viewed and downloaded > next to angry birds, angry birds seasons and angry birds rio - all before > I added the keywords, which even google themselves do. > Being that highly ranked is probably why you got the spotlight. The timing of your keywords is likely coincidental. People don't get banned for adding relevant keywords. Hell, every word in your description is technically a "key word". There's nothing special about putting "Keywords: foo bar dope sluts" in your description. It's mainly for people that can't think of how to work those words into their description. > Then they mention impersonating an app - clearly, based ont he description > and the title of the app it is NOT angry birds ... WTH, you know? > The first two words in your title exactly match what is arguably the best-selling mobile game out right now. You are using a well-known (and copyrighted) image in your app icon. It can be easily argued that this would cause confusion with users that would believe your product is somehow affiliated, endorsed, related to, or created by Rovio. This would be bad for Rovio, you know? IANAL. > I make an app, pay my developer fees, pay them 30% of what I make in sales > and I can't even dispute these charges? > Nope. Sucks, I know. I can't even see who complained about these allegations against my app? > Maybe - get a lawyer and find out. > What about all the apps with duplicate names? The ones that blatantly rip > off artwork from Angry Birds and other games? Why are they still there if > mine isn't? > Ok, so I link to YouTube videos - plenty of other apps do that as well, why > are they still there? Can't I go and complain about apps that do the same > thing as mine yet were released afterwards? "Officer, what about all the other people stealing stuff from this Walmart!? The ones that blatantly take the LCDs and other electronics? Why aren't you, *by yourself*, arresting them if you are me? OK, so I also bashed in an old lady's head - plenty of other people did that as well, why are they still here? Can I go complain about the people that are stealing as well as I am yet only came to loot after I bashed in the window?" Dude, there are A LOT of Angry Birds coat-tail riders, but there's limited resources to curtail them, so they go for the big boys first - like the one sitting cozy in 4th place. The fact that there are others doing the wrong thing does not make it OK to also do the wrong thing. > After beginning to go through this horrid > experience, I've come to find out that oogle has incredibly lacking > support for the people that make them money, their developers. > It took this experience to figure that out? I could have told you that 2 years ago. > Why don't they warn you about it and give you 24 hours to fix it before > removing your app? > With the Android Market, Google is not exactly known for the first-class developer relations and communication. They do whatever the f*** they want, developers be damned. Get used to it. > When I released the walkthrough portal I was one of very few devs doing > it, now the market is proliferated with walkthrough apps for Angry Birds > ... and I lost my number one placement to all of them and I can't even > dispute it ... > If it's any consolation, whomever took your spot will likely suffer the same fate in due time. > To anyone who is going to post something like "you violated the TOS, you > knwo what you did" - get lost > Oh - shit, well I wish I'd read this far before I started typing. Oh well, no going back now. Sorry! Frankly, I'm shocked at how shocked you are. > I wouldn't be posting this if I knew what I did wrong, i'm not doing > anything anyone else isn't doing. > I hope my witty analogies have pointed out that "doing what other people are doing" does not make what you're doing OK, mkay?? ;-) > Also, does anyone know if you can refund the purchase price of an app yet > let the purchaser keep it? > They can keep the current copy of the app, but they lose the ability to update or re-install it. So if you ever update it, they would have to pay again. If they uninstall it, they would have to pay again. > I'd like to let the people who purchased the old suspended app but the > new version yet refund them their money but let them keep the app. Let me > know how to do this if it is possible. > Refund the original purchases and tell them to buy the new one, which they then would have the right to re-download (until it gets banned by Google). > Thank you everyone for letting me vent and release my frustrations ... > Well, no one really "let" you ... you didn't really ask ... you kind of just started bitching =P ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- TreKing <http://sites.google.com/site/rezmobileapps/treking> - Chicago transit tracking app for Android-powered devices -- 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
