Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from the shelves for copyright violations. But the world of iPhone/iPod Touch games? Apple treats it like the Wild West. So long as it passes quality control (some games don’t — just look at Yoot Saito’s Gabo), Apple doesn’t seem to have a problem with releasing a title to iTunes — often despite glaring copyright issues. Just take a peek at these few examples.
LED Football: Mattel LED sports games were all the rage in the late 70′s and early 80′s. I remember having a baseball one that I played to death. That’s why I was so excited to see the old Mattel classics coming to the iPhone in picture perfect recreations of the originals! But what’s this? The word Mattel doesn’t seem to appear anywhere in the game. OH! I GET IT! Mattel had nothing to do with these games despite being point for point clones.
Mattel would have a great case on their hands if they decided to pursue legal action. It’s not even like these things are out of production — Mattel has an active re-release of their LED classics on store shelves now. 99 cents on the AppStore is a far cry from the $9.99 MSRP of the re-issued classics. There’s no way these can’t be hurting business. Why would anyone take a $10 trip down memory lane when they can do the same journey for a tenth of the cost?
Monster Typer: While it’s essentially a mobile twist on Typing of the Dead, Monster Typer’s copyright concerns aren’t with Sega. They’re not with Mavis Beacon either. No, Monster Typer’s issue lies with Sony and/or the artist Roltio. You see, Rolito was commissioned to create the art for the Sony-published PSP game Patapon. To say the art in Monster Typer was inspired by Patapon would be a gross understatment. Regardless, Apple was more than happy to release this free typing tutor to the App Store. It’s a shame too, because asides from the art theft leaving a bad taste in our mouths our review of Monster Typer couldn’t have been more glowing. Why should it take the threat of a lawsuit from Sony to fix such a glaring violation of intellectual property rights?
And that’s just a sampling of the issues on the App Store now. Numerous past releases have been curbed from their renegade ways once the lawyers got involved;
Atari Shuts Down Breakout Clones: Breakout clones, in one form or another, have existed for years. Back in 1977, Breakout created a genre. As such it can be hard to determine what might fall under the category of copyright violation and what could be considered an evolution of the species. Games like Arkanoid, Break’em All and Magic Ball could easily be seen as seperate from the original Breakout franchise. BreakClassic and BreakTouch 3D however, were borrowing a little too heavily from the series title for Atari’s liking. After a brief lawyer intervention, these games were removed from the App Store.
Nintendo Shoots Down Duck Hunt: While some games might fall into something of a debatable gray area like the Breakout clones mentioned above, there’s no arguing what happened with the iPhone App Duck Hunt, which shared more than just a name with Nintendo’s own NES classic. In fact, Duck Hunt was a direct port. It was the digital equivalent of bootlegging. Nintendo felt the same way and demanded Apple take it down. Lawl Mart, the game’s developer, wasn’t discouraged. He intends to change the name and graphics and re-release the game as soon as possible.
THQ Didn’t Feel PhoneSaber’s Force: Sure it was fun to swing your iPhone around making lightsaber noises and running the risk of accidentally chucking it into the ground, but THQ Wireless, a company that held exclusive rights to Star Wars mobile properties, didn’t see the fun in someone stealing the IP rights to a license that they’d paid handsomely for. The original app was removed, and THQ actually reached a pretty good bargain with PhoneSaber’s developers — they bought it. Now you get grab PhoneSaber Unleashed, a free download meant to help promote THQ’s actual Star Wars iPhone game, The Force Unleashed.
Again — this is just a sampling. While the problem seems to be running rampant the vast majority of developers still take the moral highground by creating original content or getting permission from license holders. A great example of this is the team at Cowboy Rodeo, the studio behind the recently released Pinball Dreaming: Pinball Dreams. A straight port of the Amiga original, Cowboy Rodeo made sure to get the blessing of the game’s co-creator and coder Andreas Axelsson, who ended up giving the team access to the original source code. Better for them, and in the end, a better product for us.
Copyright infringement seems to be an ongoing issue on the App Store, yet Apple doesn’t seem concerned enough to change their approval process to make sure these items aren’t making their way to the store. Is it that they can afford the lawsuits? Or do they just pass the cost on to the publisher? What makes them so unconcerned, and what can copyright holders do to change this? And then there’s the most important question — what happens to us, Joe Consumer? If I spent 99 cents on Duck Hunt, do I get my money back when it’s yanked off my phone? Or do I get to keep it despite it being pulled down from the store? It’s a strange situation with far more questions than answers.
Apple will likely need to tighten up copyright abuse if they want to encourage larger publishers and developers to bring their wares into the mix, which is exactly what the rumored Premium Game Store is set to do. But will they tighten up their shabby treatment of copyright law to date? Or will my iPod Touch remain the place to go for classic games that aren’t tied to their parent companies?
I have to disagree with the Monster Typer – Patapon link you make, because to me, they look nothing alike.
Copyright covers reproduction, not inspiration, and Monster Typer doesn’t seem to breach copyright in any way.
Otherwise, the whole world is in breach of copyright.
I think copyrights should be a matter of the developer, not Apple itself, since Apple just sells software (while ps games and wii games get a more active partecipation of sony and nintendo).
Actually i think copyright should be a matter of the developer BEFORE even start coding.
Also i think Apple Store policies and filters are already restrictive enough, i’d rather prefere a “far west” section of the appstore, instead of a “premium-polished-sexy-looking-best-friend” section.
I agree sometimes copyrights are more a legal matter with no practical match in real life.
Copyright is not Apple’s responsibility in the least. That’s between the developers and the owners of the material in question.
As someone who makes a living from intellectual property, I am in no way diminishing the importance of copyright, nor am I condoning the plagiarism that developers are committing. But the onus is not on Apple to “police” copyright issues. You’re perhaps confusing copyright with Apple’s own approval process for apps, based upon its own app criteria. But Apple is under no obligation to check every app for possible copyright violations. Think about what you’re suggesting: How could Apple possibly police every single, submitted app for all art work, icons, and UI elements, sounds, game content, methods of computing, and so forth? Impossible.
That’s between the developers and the owners of copyrighted material. Developers who copy without permission should be prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law. Apple’s only responsibility is to remove such apps, once formal complaints have been issued.
[...] Just another piece of shameless self-promotion from yours truly. In addition to theBBPS (and the numerous other sites I’ve linked you to over the years) I’m also a contributor with MacApper. Yesterday I published a post about the Apple’s AppStore and the mountain of copyright abuses that bounce around there. You can check it out here. [...]
They certainly care about their own copyrights, and I’m pretty sure Apple could be held responsible for enabling copyright infringement by selling applications which actively infringed. If someone brought a copyright infringement suit against a developer, Apple would certainly be named, because they have profited from the infringement (their 30% cut from each sale). Apple may try to claim protection from the safe harbor clause of the DMCA, but the fact that they’re making money from copyright infringement would not look good in court. Still, I’m not a lawyer so what do I know?
They don’t care if it makes money for them but they are quick the other way round. The are sue Woolworths Australia because the supermarket is using a stylised peeled apple as a logo – well they are a food store!!
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright? | MacApper…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright?…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
I believe they reason they dont care is because its profit to their company.. They use the entertainment industry to ride the hype wave.. lol helps with the sales (;
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright? | MacApper…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright? | MacApper…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
Editorial: Does Apple Care About Copyright? | MacApper…
On most gaming platforms, when a game goes through an approval process there’s some rigorous legal testing in addition to quality control. That’s why you never hear about Wii or PS3 games being pulled from ……
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