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Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

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Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#121

Post by judge2020 »

speg wrote: post #6

So you can now tell users that you can pay/subscribe on your website but you can’t offer alternative payment in-app (or can you if it’s a webview?) But can you do that instead of offering in app payment? Or will you be required to have both. Personably I really don’t want to see alternative payment methods in app unless they follow the same policies and APIs as the existing ones. I hate that Adobe will stop giving my…

The wording makes it so you can send email blasts to free-tier users about signing up via an avenue that's not the App. Within the app itself, for digital items, you still cannot use other payment processors or even Apple Pay, and cannot allude to that fact.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#122

Post by xmprt »

zeusk wrote: post #96
inopinatus wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I once saw this implemented as a regex. Unfortunately the regex was refer*er. “Tests pass, ship it”

inb4 refeer (should've used referr?er)

I also feel like this is a buffer overflow waiting to happen. If somehow someone makes the header length way longer than expected (eg. referrrrrrrrrrrrrrer).

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#123

Post by judge2020 »

ocdtrekkie wrote: post #84
Ajay-p wrote: post #46

The same federal judge is hearing the Apple-Epic case and a ruling could come at any time. I suppose this is not unusual, but is it ever considered to not have a judge hear more than one case by a party?

Well, there's only a limited number of federal district judges in a given jurisdiction, so the odds are that a bunch of tech companies going at each other in California will get in front of the same federal judge. However, I'd argue it's also beneficial: Having two different judges rule radically differently on very similar cases (this one and Epic) would only create more confusion, as to what the ruling is, or shoul…

> If either party doesn't think the judge is going to make the right ruling, there's jury trials,

Apple and Epic both opted out of a jury trial, probably would have needlessly extended the process and neither of them think a jury would be able to take in all of the nuances of the case to make an informed decision.

Unless, can either party still demand a jury trial a month before/a week before the ruling?

https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2020-09-30-epic-and-a...

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#124

Post by mixmastamyk »

btilly wrote: post #116
dhosek wrote: post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are lots of ways for spelling errors to get reified. They can also end up in a data interchange XML schema (I bumped into that one at a previous job where it seemed like an obvious and trivial fix to correct the spelling of a class name and discovered that it had ended up in a company-wide data interchange schema which could not be practically fixed).

The most important example of that class of error is REFERER. It should have been spelled REFERRER. But nobody caught it, and you really can't change something that is part of the HTTP standard...

Early header compression.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#125

Post by manmal »

tdeck wrote: post #108
jsnell wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What do you think the step forward is here? The developers are still not allowed to communicate about alternate purchase options in the app, they would need to have some other form of communication with the user. Such advertising via side-channels was never forbidden, it's just that it's impractical for most developers to establish that side-channel. I really have to congratulate whoever wrote that press release. The…

Someone should set up a payment service for apps that's cheaper for the consumer and developer, then advertise it heavily. "Check if your favorite app is on FOO to save money". Every app using such a system could benefit from the direct advertising done once by the payment provider. They could even offer a service that checks your bill from Apple and helps you switch the payment for eligible apps, thereby saving mone…

Revenuecat is perfectly positioned to do that, but probably won’t dare anger Apple in this way.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#126

Post by mikeiz404 »

cgearhart wrote: post #36
mortenjorck wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A big change would be letting developers make it clear to users how to use alternative payment options, but Apple's press release only says via e-mail It really says something that "allowing" businesses to communicate certain information with their own customers via an independent channel was considered a concession in this settlement. I'm still wrapping my head around it.

I can feel your frustration, but it also strikes me as tone-deaf to those very same customers. The most common kind of email I send these days—by orders of magnitude—is “unsubscribe”. I don’t want your emails unless I actively asked for them. (And, no, passively being opted in or being forced to opt in by a user agreement or whatever doesn’t count.) I would happily pay middle men a lot extra to get fewer unwanted ema…

By all means use vxNsr’s service (though I wish they mentioned their financial incentive before hand, props for mentioning it in the first place).

I second their approach. By using a unique email per service you maintain a bit more control by being able to filter via “to” address or deregister the email via the service provider. It’s not perfect but it’s at least some bit of control where trust is not required.

Personally I am using simplelogin.com. And full disclosure I wish it had smoother UX in many cases but overall the price vs feature set cannot, as far as I am aware, be beat.

In general: I agree. Demanding attention, whether that be in person such as via mail, txt, or phone call or digital such as via email, should be opt in and NOT opt out. Incentive wise it simply does not make any sense for it to be opt out when the cost of contact is close to 0.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#127

Post by xuki »

manmal wrote: post #125
tdeck wrote: post #108

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Someone should set up a payment service for apps that's cheaper for the consumer and developer, then advertise it heavily. "Check if your favorite app is on FOO to save money". Every app using such a system could benefit from the direct advertising done once by the payment provider. They could even offer a service that checks your bill from Apple and helps you switch the payment for eligible apps, thereby saving mone…

Revenuecat is perfectly positioned to do that, but probably won’t dare anger Apple in this way.

Why? Apple is not paying them, the developers are.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#128

Post by manmal »

saurik wrote: post #7

I don't understand... did anything even really change? Like, "more price points"... but that seems like a non-sequitur :/. A big change would be letting developers make it clear to users how to use alternative payment options, but Apple's press release only says via e-mail... which I guess they insist wasn't allowed before?

I wonder if that means app developers can now send emails to freshly subscribed users (who are still in the trial period) to cancel their App Store subscription and instead subscribe via an alternative payment provider. Eg. customer could pay 10% less, developer gets up to 24% more, win-win. Maybe the developer could throw in some goodies, like auto-cancellation after the first year.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#129

Post by BarryMilo »

yyyk wrote: post #117

A more suitable headline for the original article would have been: "US developers' lawyers agree to settle potential class action suit". I wish they didn't. There are important and rather easy wins to be attained (e.g. I don't see how the Apple Payment requirement could survive a trial). Developers could still object to the settlement[0]. That way, Apple will still be bound by its concessions, while the suit goes for…

I also wish companies would put justice above profits, but this is so far removed from our current reality it's hard to imagine.

Re: Apple agrees to settle potential class action suit by U.S. developers

#130

Post by x0x0 »

ksec wrote: post #103

>Apple agrees to make sure the search results in the App Store are based on objective criteria. I cant help but laughed when I was reading it. What were they doing before that? I thought the most important part was the next bit, >The settlement, which must be approved by Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, comes as Apple is awaiting a ruling in a separate lawsuit, brought by Fortnite developer Epic Games, which seeks to fo…

The value that objectively pays Apple the most per click.

Separately... I remain astounded at the risks of quasi-arbitrary government action (lawsuit here, Senators here, regulators in EU) that Apple is running to protect their app store vig. Just amazing.

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