Filed under: Apple Corporate, Software, Developer, App Store, App Review
App Store rejections tied to third party rights infringements
See update from Apple PR at the bottom of the post. Despite what at least one developer was told, the ebook category is not 'banned from the store.'
Apple recently invited a great deal of criticism after it rejected Google's Google Voice application from App Store. At the same time, it pulled third party GV apps leaving their developers without recourse and forced to swallow refund costs that exceeded their initial per-sale earnings. Today Engadget notes Daring Fireball's story of a simple dictionary being censored. Now it looks as if Apple may be targeting the e-book section of App Store.
TUAW has learned that Apple has begun rejecting all e-book submissions because "this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing upon third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store." At first glance, this policy seems in line with Apple's approach to applications that promise charitable contributions. Apple cannot police the developers and will not allow possibly fraudulent postings on their store. Apple does not want to be in the position of vetting rights claims.
At the same time, Apple has been rejecting applications from content providers who do in fact own the rights to their materials and can prove those rights. A colleague who spoke on the condition of anonymity related that a project he developed for a national content syndicate was rejected without recourse. He still got paid for his work but the application languishes without an outlet.
Apple isn't stopping with content source providers. They're also targeting those who provide media browsing tools. Another developer who built an e-book reader received a recent rejection along the same lines. The application might be used to read copyright infringing books, so Apple will not let it in App Store. In an e-mail, he wrote, "Leaving aside the presumption of innocence, [what] about iTunes and iPod; shouldn't they be banned too? After all many users indeed are using them to listen to the music that is not always legally obtained."
It's obviously premature to assign an external motivation to Apple and TUAW has no evidence whatsoever that Apple is using these rejections to pave its way to a new market. At the same time, the timing of these rejections couldn't be worse. With Apple rumored to enter the e-book market sometime in the winter, this new policy could fly very close to regulatory scrutiny.
Update
Apple wrote to TUAW to clear up the speculation around ebook app approvals. From a representative at Apple:
"We have not stopped approving ebook readers and ebooks in fact we've approved 221 new ebooks to the App Store since 7/30/09. The book category in the App Store lists 6,000 apps and this doesn't cover the full scope since ebooks are included in other categories like medical, reference and education."
![TUAW [Cafepress]](http://www.blogsmithmedia.com/www.tuaw.com/media/tuaw-cafepress-promo.png)
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 2)
jon said 6:36PM on 8-04-2009
apple is turning into microsoft. google android is becoming really really appealing.
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dastranger said 5:10PM on 8-05-2009
I'm with you. I've been EXTREMELY disappointed with Apple lately on how they've handled the app store. I'm strongly considering moving over to Android. Shame, b/c I absolutely adore my iPhone, but the recent pulling of Google Voice apps b/c they "supposedly duplicate iPhone features" was the final straw for me. Why?
No app is safe anymore. Sure, I may sound paranoid, but using Apple's words themselves what makes ANYONE think that apps like Air Sharing or the future DropBox app are safe anymore? Why aren't those apps safe anymore? Because APPLE released an app called: iDisk Mobile.
Dave Wood said 10:46PM on 8-05-2009
Well I was very worried about this post, as I had an app awaiting review. Apple had looked at it a few days ago, (shows up in my logs). It uses third party content so I thought maybe it was going to get rejected.
But I just got approved!!!
App Store link: http://bit.ly/cp86B
stuck said 6:53PM on 8-04-2009
Why, just the other day I used Mobile Safari and the PDF reader to finish reading a book that I was reading at a friend's, which I obtained using the Google. Suck on that, Lemon.
Apple is worse than Microsoft - they're better at getting you to give up your rights and freedoms and getting you to good about it - until you realize it's gone, of course. Time to warm up the jailbreaker...
(Maybe this lends credence to the iTablet as book reader?)
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Vincent said 5:09PM on 8-05-2009
Well. That may sounds like an excuse. But it certainly hold some truths. Apple will always get "clean" content - no porn, no illegal content. Apple is a very clean environment.
However I am convinced Apple is preparing an ebook solution that will be first released on the Tablet and also available to other Mac products, OSX, iPhone, Ipod touch. Indeed: they have the platform (iTunes) and I don't think they will launch a tablet without the ebook feature.
Also - I am convinced they will launch a payment system. Why would they not?
As to who is the most evil between Google and Apple...frankly this is hard to know. Actually MS looks kind of nice these days!
ThomasShaped said 5:06PM on 8-05-2009
I think my next phone shall either be a Pre or run Android..
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Kyle Johnson said 5:11PM on 8-05-2009
Not only can you use Safari to infringe on others rights, you can also email files, and I hear the people fill their iPod with stolen music. So I guess Apple should ban Safari, Mail, and the iPod app.
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Paul Mensah said 5:12PM on 8-05-2009
I just realized how ugly the old round button calculator interface used to be lol
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ToddJ said 7:13PM on 8-05-2009
Paul, I couldn't disagree with you more about the look of the calculator. I think it looks way better (and more "Apple like" than the current one. The only thing I didn't like about the rounded one was that it didn't have a % button. In fact, I was hoping someone would make a calculator that looked like the old round buttoned one (this time with the % button) and put it in the app store.
SubGenius said 10:08PM on 8-05-2009
Actually someone did make a calculator with round buttons and the exact same color scheme. Only problem was it was a physical calculator made by a corporation named BRAUN.
http://cache.gizmodo.com/assets/resources/2007/07/iphone_braun.jpg
alexmak said 5:27PM on 8-05-2009
I'm that developer that got e-book reader rejected. Actually it was a ninth (9th!) reject for our app since May, and we are still not in the App Store.
And what's worse — we don't know how exactly we are supposed to fix this " infringing upon third party rights" in the e-book reader. Should we be responsible for users' actions?
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Robert said 7:01PM on 8-05-2009
Feel free to start a class action lawsuit (pretty please). I think that's the only way to get Apple to stop being evil. That might not even work.
George said 7:29PM on 8-05-2009
Hey that's scary. Let me get this straight: they rejected your E-book reader app citing that it can be used to infringe ebook copyrights? Is that not true of Stanza, et al?
Do you have any more info about this? A blog post, maybe?
alexmak said 1:38AM on 8-06-2009
yes, that is correct — it's the e-book reader that is capable of using FB2 and PDF file formats for the books, so Apple in fact said that users will be using it to read stolen books.
Here is a post in my blog about that with some additional details
http://alexmak.net/blog/2009/08/06/the-most-ridiculous-app-store-reject-ive-ever-seen/
Twist said 5:55PM on 8-05-2009
Wow the irony is thick enough to cut with a knife considering the RIAA tried to use this same argument against the iPod and other DAPs.
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gitchel said 6:09PM on 8-05-2009
Hmmm. When I go into the Books section of the store on my iphone, I can see the Top Paid books, but I'm not getting anything at all under Top Free. I haven't been in this category for a long time but shouldn't there be something free in there?
Are they cleaning house? Or has no one ever put a free book in there?
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Karen LH said 7:31PM on 8-05-2009
The free books are there, both on the mobile device and via iTunes.
gitchel said 12:59AM on 8-06-2009
Actually, as Karen pointed out, the free books are still there. Apparently, paid books fit through 3G better than the free ones. ;-)
the list reappeared once I got home to the WiFi.
Dan said 6:39PM on 8-05-2009
This is an Apple blog and everyone here is pissed at Apple.
Speaks volumes.
Apple: Wake up. Get your shit together or you're going to lose your most important customers.
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JD said 7:27PM on 8-05-2009
This is probably clearing the way for their ebook business. How can they possibly resist, with a tablet coming out and the iPhone (as that recent New Yorker article agreed) the best small-form ebook reader out there? Eliminating competition is primary rationale for App Store rejections, this is just preemptive. Though how they can do this when it is worse than what Microsoft ever did, monopoly-wise (they didn't ban Netscape, at least!), boggles the mind.
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