WARNING - Forget Clones, Now they are stealing game source code

Discussion in 'Public Game Developers Forum' started by Kierun Studios, Feb 24, 2017.

  1. Kierun Studios

    Kierun Studios Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2016
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    Mumbai
    #1 Kierun Studios, Feb 24, 2017
    Last edited: Feb 24, 2017
    All,

    I just noticed two pirated versions of my game Dual Tennis published on apple app store.
    Exact same game, same source code, just different developer.

    More details here:
    Forget Clones, now worry about Daylight Robbery on Appstore

    I have contacted Apple and raised copyright infringement procedure as well.

    Yogesh
     
  2. Mariko

    Mariko Well-Known Member

    May 19, 2016
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    Unfortunately this isn't entirely new. I see it damn near every day when checking AppShopper for new games. And the overwhelming majority are from China, where copyrighting does not exist. It's starting to get more prevalent from outside China also. But most all of them come from places without copyright laws, too.
     
  3. NinthNinja

    NinthNinja Well-Known Member

    Jan 31, 2011
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    If they are just taking the code and changing the assets then the only way to stop this is to encrypt your assets and check the authenticity on load. If the assets are not the same then close the game down.

    You could have some fun here by letting the game be alive with the new assets for a time period then print a message saying piracy is bad or words to that effect. That would send a message to these thieves and give them some bad press.

    I'm sorry this has happened to you.
     
  4. Kierun Studios

    Kierun Studios Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2016
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    Game Development
    Mumbai
    @NinthNinja - They are not even changing the assets. They take the app, remove the title and any asset linked to your game name and just republish as its theirs.

    This is stealing and is illegal.

    In future, I'll have to see if I can dynamically get the name of the app at runtime and if its not matching show some piracy message
     
  5. Mariko

    Mariko Well-Known Member

    May 19, 2016
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    It is illegal in the US/Canada/UK etc... The problem with most of this sort of thing comes out of places like China, where copyright protections don't exist. Which sadly makes it very hard, if not impossible to go after people that do it.
     
  6. NinthNinja

    NinthNinja Well-Known Member

    Jan 31, 2011
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    If you go into this further there are quite a few Chinese companies that have had investment from US companies. These Chinese companies because of lack of copyright can clone or rip source code and publish. The parent investment company should be liable for copyright infringement. I think I read somewhere that a guy got a game published from a US company and was ripped off by a Chinese company, the the publisher had investment from an investment company that also invested in the Chinese company. So when the publisher complained to the investment company, the investment company complained to the Chinese company. That issue was sorted out because of conflicting interests as the Chinese company did not want to lose it's investment strategy.

    But because the Chinese market is hard to crack western companies invest in Chinese companies. Now there should be laws to make these investment firms liable for copyright infringement. If they invest in the Chinese market then they should be liable from profit made from shady dealings. Simple as that.
     
  7. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    iOS Apps & Games Developer
    You should do some encryption to your server URL/data,
    otherwise they going to get free server for their copy of games.
    As for ripping off your source code, I dont think u can do anything much.
    Do make a report of copyright infringement with proof to Apple. It is quite
    difficult to prove that you wrote your code too, since many freelance programmer
    also sells their codes in websites, so there are definitly many apps/games that
    have same codes in them. Good luck to u.
     
  8. AlbertRex

    AlbertRex New Member

    Mar 1, 2017
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    Do you know how they did that?
    I thought that it's difficult to decompile apk & ipa files?
     
  9. Kierun Studios

    Kierun Studios Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2016
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    They can work with the ipa and just delete the graphics and update bundle identifiers.

    Today another clone "New Pingpong SMASH" hit the appstore. Another exact clone of my game - Dual Tennis.

    I'm really disappointed how apple allows such cloning.
     
  10. abcgi

    abcgi Member

    Mar 3, 2017
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    Game Designer
    Cyberspace
    Good detective work. It's a difficult problem to solve completely but your reporting it, and bringing attention to it, will surely help combat it.
     
  11. Kierun Studios

    Kierun Studios Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2016
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    Today Apple Legal team confirmed that they have removed all the three cloned apps from the appstore :)
     
  12. Nullzone

    Nullzone 👮 Spam Police 🚓

    Jul 12, 2013
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    Nice, congratulations!
     
  13. ahgame

    ahgame Active Member

    Aug 18, 2016
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    awesome news, did the developer got ban from the App Store as well?
     
  14. Kierun Studios

    Kierun Studios Well-Known Member

    Nov 15, 2016
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    No. Developer still is live with his other apps.
    I'm hoping multiple reports for the same developer would lead to that result.
     
  15. liteking

    liteking Well-Known Member

    Aug 1, 2013
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    Indie Game Developer
    My Story

    The way Apple do it is let developers dealing with each other. They don't care about copyright or cloning when they review the app. I think it's beyond their capability to handle such issue for millions of apps on the App Store.
    A few years ago, I had an app that got reported by Facebook legal team. The app is 100% original, not a clone or rip off or anything, but the app name is something like "ABCXYZ for Facebook". Apparently having "for Facebook" in the app name. is not accepted by FB Legal team. They said I violated their trade mark.
    So Apple wanted me to talk to Facebook legal team directly to resolve the issue.
    After some email back and forth, I decided to take the app down, as it didn't generate enough revenue to be worth the effort.
    So if you have someone using your assets illegally, just report.
     
  16. Rocotilos

    Rocotilos Well-Known Member

    Dec 5, 2009
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    iOS Apps & Games Developer
    Yup this is true. Apple don't care about who owns what. 3 years ago there was a developer who had his original app taken down because the cloner reported his app first.
     
  17. Zq7r

    Zq7r Well-Known Member

    Apr 25, 2016
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    Wow this is scary.
     

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