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Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

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Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#261

Post by molszanski »

zepto wrote: post #240
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 30% of all revenues, why should anyone give a flying damn about poor Apple having to do its homework?

Agreed, but the issue here seems to be a legal one. There is very little IP protection for software in general. If the app conforms to the rules, Apple may not be able to determine that it’s a violation of any rule. Then what?

The very least, there should a well-known, published and discussed precedents.

Apple should inform developers about edge cases of the app store and developers should know about it before they enter the contract.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#262

Post by BenjiWiebe »

lucioperca wrote: post #223
valuearb wrote: post #155

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I guarantee this app went through review and that none of the scam screens appeared then.

If they push changes, Apple knows it.

Not if both screens were in the code all along, and the scam screen is only enabled when www.example.com/check returns true.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#263

Post by latexr »

valuearb wrote: post #210
hctaw wrote: post #202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the binary users download isn't the binary you sign and send to app review, what's the point of signing or reviewing anything?

The binary is never changed. Apps can behave differently based on a flag set in the cloud, that’s only triggered after approval. They can behave differently based on geofencing areas, such as Cupertino. As to the point of whether review matters, can you imagine the dreck the store would be filled with without review?

> As to the point of whether review matters, can you imagine the dreck the store would be filled with without review?

Anecdotally—and this has been true for multiple years—none of the apps I use were discovered via the App Store, I always found them somewhere else. The App Store is already filled with garbage, and searching is both broken[1] and can be manipulated[2].

App review seems to be useless in every single way[3], stops developers from making quick fixes, and arbitrarily stops people from installing apps they may want.

[1]: Last time I tried searching for “pinboard” (a bookmarking service), I had scroll past twenty pinball apps before reaching the first relevant app.

[2]: Apps buying the name of their competitors as search terms for themselves.

[3]: Cant’t even stop malware: https://www.wired.com/story/apple-app-store-malware-click-fr...

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#264

Post by zepto »

molszanski wrote: post #261
zepto wrote: post #240

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, but the issue here seems to be a legal one. There is very little IP protection for software in general. If the app conforms to the rules, Apple may not be able to determine that it’s a violation of any rule. Then what?

The very least, there should a well-known, published and discussed precedents. Apple should inform developers about edge cases of the app store and developers should know about it before they enter the contract.

Maybe so, but how is that related to this case?

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#265

Post by hctaw »

comboy wrote: post #38
fxtentacle wrote: post #31

FYI, in situations like this the best way is to: 1. Register your videos and images with the USCO. It'll cost 2. You can now file DMCA takedowns. Send one to Apple with the USCO registration ID and a copy of the image and a link to the app in question. 3. Apple will either immediately remove that fake app, or be liable for up to $350k in punitive damages for wilful infringement and lose all DMCA protection. 4. If App…

Some people want to create great, useful apps. That's what they want to do. They are willing to give away half of their earnings to different 3rd parties to just not deal with the bullshit. It's unlikely to be their full time job. They probably don't make that much money on it, cloning happens just when the app begins to make any reasonable profit. So dealing with all your described is just not practical. Time is val…

Those people shouldn't be releasing on the App store then, if it's a hobby use hobbyist distribution channels and let users side load the app.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#266

Post by latexr »

valuearb wrote: post #189
shawnz wrote: post #184

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the "keyboard" wasn't usable for practical purposes then why did it pass review? A stronger review process could refuse such apps. And if the "keyboard" was usable for practical purposes then why would the scammer waste the chance to monetize those practical, working features which they sunk their own time developing?

It’s not the reviewers job to decide if you created a “good” keyboard, just that your app generally does what it says it does. Doing specific feature testing would not be trivial. Your description may say you have the worlds only AI keyboard driven by machine learning. No way the reviewers will be able to test that, so they will accept it at face value. A few years ago Apple substantially decreased the App Review tim…

> It’s not the reviewers job to decide if you created a “good” keyboard, just that your app generally does what it says it does.

From KeyboardCleanTool’s webpage[1]:

> In 2011 Apple rejected the app for the Mac App Store because apparently it's "not useful", however I often use it to clean my Macbook Keyboard without producing annoying input.

App review does make judgements on the usefulness of apps (and in this case they are wrong, because plenty of people use that app).

[1]: https://folivora.ai/keyboardcleantool

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#267

Post by rrauenza »

staticman2 wrote: post #139
bluGill wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

At that price any copyright lawyer will be happy to deal with the paperwork. You were making 2000/month, so the infringement is taking money away. For a share of that it is easy to register the copyright and then send the proper letters. Probably this will settle out of court where apple pays your lawyer from fund the developer would have got and then removes the app. you get nothing directly from the lawyer except t…

If the infringing App is in a foreign country the scenario is much more complicated than you are suggesting.

The Northrups did a video on this for a photo that was clearly stolen from them:

https://youtu.be/DUEbi4r8Pg0

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#268

Post by bsder »

zepto wrote: post #259
ulrikrasmussen wrote: post #245

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or multiple markets with actual human curation that can compete for quality.

Most markets compete on price, not quality. You’ll see most people flock to where they can get stuff for free or very little, exactly as it is on the web . We already see a race to the bottom and massive duplication of apps. It will only get worse if there are more stores, and then nobody will be in a position to fix it. Apple should be being pressured to do something about this, but forcing the store open will have…

> Most markets compete on price, not quality.

But some won't. And if people get used to it, they will go elsewhere for a specific app and leave the scams behind.

At which point Apple will have to do something or their marketplace will devolve into a cesspool and everybody will leave.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#269

Post by thekingofravens »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #65
yarcob wrote: post #5

Oh my god, they don't even bother implementing the app any more... It reminds me of my first App Store experience. I made an app that was somewhat successful (about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses). Within short time, a chinese speaking developer cloned it. They copied the icon (slighlty different color), they copied the UI, they even copied all the text in the dialog boxes. They released…

>about 2000€ a month, enough to pay for a students living expenses Just out of pure curiosity, where did you live/study that 2000 Euros are student living expenses? In my neck of the woods in central-western Europe (Austria), 1000 Euros per month is already really good money for most students and 2000 is what you make as a junior full time employee in a good tech company.

Not an 1:1 comparison, but but in Seattle (US) if you could convert your 2000€ a month to the roughly 2400$ US it is you would still have at least one roommate to be able to pay rent. Different story in the US, as kids tend to leave home often due to a much lower cultural focus on the family. Individualism is obsessed over here.

Re: Apple watch keyboard developer put off by app store scammers

#270

Post by WesolyKubeczek »

zepto wrote: post #240
WesolyKubeczek wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For 30% of all revenues, why should anyone give a flying damn about poor Apple having to do its homework?

Agreed, but the issue here seems to be a legal one. There is very little IP protection for software in general. If the app conforms to the rules, Apple may not be able to determine that it’s a violation of any rule. Then what?

Excuses, excuses.

Apple advertises the benefit of its App Store that thanks to the diligent manual review, such fraud simply has no place there. They also maintain that the fees are high because the review process is top notch and thus expensive.

Now they have to admit that either the walls in their garden are worse than Swiss cheese by letting bad actors in, or that they are complicit in that fraud, because someone had to approve that shit.

Now if I’m just as likely to be screwed over by an Apple-approved app from their walled garden as I am by sideloading random crap, what’s the point in it for me, as a user? If I have to exercise just as much caution, I can just as well sideload what I want.

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