Games not present in all appstores help

move to a civilized country.

joke (well not really but what is the likelyhood that he will do what i said, not meant to be taken as an offence, i know thats what i'd do and what i'd like to hear)

 

That is so rude of you....

Joke... no, its not, you are Rude.


Rivozzz, I do not if it is illegal or not, but... I opened a thread, which kind of died, NO dev responded

 

I'm pretty sure you can just switch countries in iTunes on the bottom right of the app store, and setup an account for that country to purchase - unless you iTunes card is limited by country?

 

As far as I know it's neither illegal nor legal. You are not supposed to do it, because there are reasons why some games are not available in some stores. On the other hand Apple doesn't care about it, although many people admittedly do it (mostly not for games, but for TV series).

 

Yes, for example Wolfenstein RPG is not available in the german app store, because the original Wolfenstein game is forbidden in germany. Other reasons may involve copyright.

A gift card is only valid in a specific country's app store. So if you buy one in your local supermarket, you can only use it in your country's app store. If you want one for the US store, you have to go to ebay.

 

It's about distribution rights, a company might only have the distribution rights in US, another company has the distribution rights in Europe, another in Asia, Africa etc. This is especially often the case for games made in the 90s.

 

Well my friend and I shared a US account (none of us lives in the US!) and I did win a gift card online, but then Apple closed the account and when I try to log in it says

byebye 10$ (with 2.44$ left!) gift card!

 

yeah, I thought making an account for another country violated the terms of service with apple

 

I can tell you that it's not illegal to obtain a US gift card and create a US account from outside of the US as long as the gift card is obtained by legal means. Be careful with eBay because there are many fraudulently acquired gift cards on there. Also be aware that if you have issues with the cards Apple is likely not to help you since it does violate their terms. So it can be done and you won't go to jail. At worst you'll lose the money you spent to buy the GCs and have your account closed.

 

You just need to reset your password, too many sign attempts by one of you with the wrong password.

 

So I don't think it is illegal to the extent that you could get arrested and prosecuted for it. But it does go against Apple's terms of service. When you make an account, sign up for iTunes, etc., somewhere in the disclaimer it says you are not supposed to sign up for other countries, etc. And you have to "agree" or can't use iTunes. If it is a moral dilemma then it's up to you whether or not this goes against your principles. But no, I don't think it is actually "illegal".

Another reason that some games are not available in all countries is due to the perceived sales in the market. Dev's do not make any money selling an app unless the app sells over $250 worth, per each country. So if a dev figures the sales will not do well in a smaller country, he may not want to distribute to that country at all if he thinks he won't make at least $250. Otherwise the money under that amount would just all go to Apple.

 

As far as I'm aware, it's only illegal if the CC used to pay for the GCs was stolen. If they're not then this is what happens (per terms):

a. Termination by Apple. If you fail, or Apple suspects that you have failed, to comply with any of the provisions of this Agreement, including but not limited to failure to make payment of fees due, failure to provide Apple with a valid credit card or with accurate and complete Registration Data, failure to safeguard your Account information, violation of the Usage Rules or any license to the software, or infringement or other violation of third parties' rights, Apple, at its sole discretion, without notice to you may: (i) terminate this Agreement and/or your Account, and you will remain liable for all amounts due under your Account up to and including the date of termination; and/or (ii) terminate the license to the software; and/or (iii) preclude access to the Service (or any part thereof).

http://www.apple.com/legal/itunes/us/terms.html

Basically they'll close your account and you'll lose your store credit and they could also ban your IP address in extreme situations. I know there are people who use legally obtained GCs outside the US without issue, it's up to you if it's worth that risk or not.