How to get rid of competition in appstore

[Uriel]

I learned of this today and I have to say this is... so preposterous that almost unbelievable.

Apparently if there is game that sells better then yours all you have to do is ask apple to remove it. And they do it. Seriously what is this? Soviet Russia?

Full story here:

http://codeminion.com/blogs/maciek/2...store/#more-57

[ImNoSuperMan]

Ridiculous. I loved ur game. No expert on copyrights so not really sure if apples decision was correct or not but this is really unfair practice by Luxor devs. Hope apple reconsiders it and puts it back online.

[Prab]

I feel so so sad. This is just so ridiculous.

[Stroffolino]

Sadly, it is probably not the first or last time that this sort of thing will happen.

What makes this even more absurd is that Luxor was hardly the first such game. Puzzle Loop, an arcade game from Japan, is the originator of the marble popping genre, which was later cloned by Zuma, etc.

Originally Posted by ImNoSuperMan

Ridiculous. I loved ur game. No expert on copyrights so not really sure if apples decision was correct or not but this is really unfair practice by Luxor devs. Hope apple reconsiders it and puts it back online.

[LessThanYouThink]

Pathetic. I can't believe Apple would support their claim.

[Uriel]

Originally Posted by ImNoSuperMan

Ridiculous. I loved ur game. No expert on copyrights so not really sure if apples decision was correct or not but this is really unfair practice by Luxor devs. Hope apple reconsiders it and puts it back online.

It is not my game, it was sublicenced from befriended studio. I am posting about this because this sets dangerous precedent and people have to hear about this.

This is outrage because the game was a twist on Luxor mechanic and by no means copyright infringement. The PC version was quite popular and was actually sold on same portals as Luxor.

The only difference is that iPhone port was even better then PC original and hit iStore before Luxor port. Therefore it became a genre setter for iPhone and was way more popular then Luxor port.

Following this logic every FPS should be banned since they are wolfenstein's clones and therefore copyright infringement.

Ridiculous.

[MikeSz_spokko]

holy crap !

I sure hope Codeminion will sue Apple for that BS...

PS: how sweet it would be to see a similar claim from Xerox/HP/IBM for Apple to just shut down itself with the exact same reasoning

[lazrhog]

This reminds me of the trism creator trying to patent the use of accelerometers in a puzzle game. I wonder if that patent gets approved he will demand a fee from everyone on the puzzle top 100

hey, for the record, you can't copyright a game idea, only graphics and sound. I understand there only have to be 7 differences to be supported in law - but I would need a citation of the specific case.

[The Game Reaper]

Pathetic. And Stone Loops was better than Luxor.

[squarezero]

Originally Posted by MikeSz_spokko

holy crap !

I sure hope Codeminion will sue Apple for that BS...

PS: how sweet it would be to see a similar claim from Xerox/HP/IBM for Apple to just shut down itself with the exact same reasoning

Codeminion could try to sue Apple. And they would lose -- just like MumboJumbo would lose if they tried to sue Apple for allowing Stoneloops into the store in the first place. Apple claims total neutrality when it comes to copyright issues; if they didn't, they would become liable in any copyright dispute involving the App Store (or the iTunes store in general). It's not their job to adjudicate the conflict between MumboJumbo and Codeminion, but once they've been informed that there's a potential violation, they need to respond or risk becoming liable themselves.

That said, this is a thoroughly jerky move from MumboJumbo. I think a boycott of their products would be an appropriate action.

By the way, the relationship between the Mac OS and the Xerox PARC project is not as one-to-one as most people believe. Read here if you want a more sophisticated understanding of the issues. Not sure what claims you suppose HP/IBM would have over Apple.