I wonder how many other developers have unknown "linked" accounts with a former coworker or business partner.
Dash developer's response to Apple's response
11–20 of 134 posts
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#12After listening to the call it does seem like Apple didn't do due diligence and notify all parties involved. They notified the owner of the dev account, but not the owner of each account that was going to be deactivated. Doing this could have prevented the misunderstanding.
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#13Always record your calls if the other side is.
The audio didn't start from the beginning so it is hard to say if they notified that they were recording, but in California, all parties must consent if one wants to record a phone call. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#Uni...
Since the dev behind Dash is based in Romania[1], is this law still applicable?
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#14Always record your calls if the other side is.
The audio didn't start from the beginning so it is hard to say if they notified that they were recording, but in California, all parties must consent if one wants to record a phone call. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telephone_recording_laws#Uni...
He's from Romania..
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#15After listening to the first 2 minutes of the call, i can say with absolute confidence that Apple is straight-up blackmailing him.* I would love to hear opinions on whether this is something that could be taken to court. * They did make a mistake in not verifying whether the second account activity was actually done by Kapeli, yet they want him to claim they made no mistake, otherwise they won't reinstate Dash.
I think Apple's position is reasonable here.
A second developer account, which is the account linked to fraudulent reviews, was opened using the same credit card, same bank account, and same test devices as the main Kapeli account. So it's reasonable that they would assume the same person was in control of both accounts.
The developer claims this is not the case, however. Apple seems willing to accept that. All they are asking is for him to write a blog post stating these facts.
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#16Earlier quoted context omitted.
I doubt a relative would post literally thousands of fake reviews over the course of many months without the dev's knowledge
Read the post again. Kapeli paid for the dev fee for an account he did not make or control, and gave the person controlling that account hardware he had bought. Apple proceeded to pull a facebook and marked the two accounts as linked and treated them as being the same person. Then the person controlling said account started doing shady stuff, followed by Apple dinging them, but failing to actually follow up with Kape…
This.
Apple should be contacting the App's official developer account link to the App Developer, or all accounts linked to the App's Developer, not just the discovered linked Account. After all, isn;t the official account the one bound by the license and terms of use for the developer's app?
If Apple chooses not to notify the App developer's via his official account, but the discovered account. Well, then only the discovered account should be deactivated (and not impact the App).
Would apple send a password reset to the discovered linked account or the official account contact? We could insert a few jokes here, but obviously the answer here is the official account email.
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#17After listening to the first 2 minutes of the call, i can say with absolute confidence that Apple is straight-up blackmailing him.* I would love to hear opinions on whether this is something that could be taken to court. * They did make a mistake in not verifying whether the second account activity was actually done by Kapeli, yet they want him to claim they made no mistake, otherwise they won't reinstate Dash.
No, there is absolutely no legal case here whatsoever. Apple's developer program terms grant them virtually unbridled power to do whatever they want with your developer account no matter how fair or how unfair. You have no legal right to have a developer account. Normal business contractual negotiations (as these are) are not blackmail.
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#18After listening to the call it does seem like Apple didn't do due diligence and notify all parties involved. They notified the owner of the dev account, but not the owner of each account that was going to be deactivated. Doing this could have prevented the misunderstanding.
I'm sure there was much more communication than just that call. Apple, in a previous statement, said "Warning was given in advance of the termination and attempts were made to resolve the issue with the developer but they were unsuccessful"
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#19This is the first I've ever heard of the concept of "linked" Apple developer accounts. I suspect most people won't come across this particular issue but it's just another fun app store concept.
Re: Dash developer's response to Apple's response
#20After listening to the first 2 minutes of the call, i can say with absolute confidence that Apple is straight-up blackmailing him.* I would love to hear opinions on whether this is something that could be taken to court. * They did make a mistake in not verifying whether the second account activity was actually done by Kapeli, yet they want him to claim they made no mistake, otherwise they won't reinstate Dash.
I think Apple's position is reasonable here. A second developer account, which is the account linked to fraudulent reviews, was opened using the same credit card, same bank account, and same test devices as the main Kapeli account. So it's reasonable that they would assume the same person was in control of both accounts. The developer claims this is not the case, however. Apple seems willing to accept that. All they…
The unreasonable parts are:
- Apple assumed, and let these assumptions stay untested, and particularly failed to reach out to the different contact details on all involved accounts.
- Apple admits they terminated his account in error, yet blackmail him in refusing to reinstate unless he makes a blog post. (Actual contents of the post irrelevant to the point at hand.)