Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

flipagr.am

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

41–50 of 69 posts

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#41

Post by codeka »

shimms wrote: post #12
Steko wrote: post #4

"On August 22nd, 2013..." "We were under the impression that Apple would protect us from being in a situation like this. " Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly. What if the fraudster complained about you and Apple acted too quickly and tossed your app? I mean sure your app was there first but in lots…

> Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly. I didn't get the same impression from reading the article. To me it sounded less related to the time it took Apple to reply, and more related to the content of that reply, specifically where they basically washed their hands of it and said (paraphrasing) "you d…

Going from what the author says, Apple have asked that they try to settle it through the third-party developer first before getting Apple involved. But:

> Unfortunately since the developer is acting maliciously and mostly likely without any intention of ever responding to us, we have no way of settling this matter through that channel.

Basically, it sounds like they just decided -- without even trying -- that it wouldn't work and that they want Apple to do all the hard work for them.

I mean, I kind of understand if you're giving Apple a 30% cut of all your revenue that you'd expect something in return, but this sounds like a bit of an overreaction from the developer to me.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#42

Post by jacquesm »

fnayr wrote: post #23

Thank God they ignored it. I've been developing apps on iOS for 3+ years and we get legal notices from Apple all the time that another company is trying to get our app shut down for completely frivolous reasons. If Apple put themselves as the arbiter of these disputes it would be horrible.

By having a review process Apple did put themselves up as the arbiter of any disputes.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#44

Post by honzzz »

If the guys from Flipagram are reading this - why would you contact Apple about this? Eastern European countries have lawyers and courts too. And not only can hiring a good lawyer in some Eastern European country be much (much!) cheaper than in the US but if you win the lawsuit the other party will probably have to pay reasonable part (if not all) of your legal expenses.

And it might be helpful to try to understand the mentality of post-communist countries. One of the biggest damages that communist regime did to our society is the perception still engrained in minds of many that 'if you don't steal you are stealing from your family'.

It is totally plausible that the fraudulent developer is just 'trying their luck' and all it would take to stop them would be threatening them with the lawsuit. One letter written by your Enghlish speaking lawyer hired over the internet - $500 and you will be done with it.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#45

Post by tobylane »

jacquesm wrote: post #42
fnayr wrote: post #23

Thank God they ignored it. I've been developing apps on iOS for 3+ years and we get legal notices from Apple all the time that another company is trying to get our app shut down for completely frivolous reasons. If Apple put themselves as the arbiter of these disputes it would be horrible.

By having a review process Apple did put themselves up as the arbiter of any disputes.

When did the review process start covering that? Some things are only considered on appeal.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#46

Post by anovikov »

honzzz wrote: post #44

If the guys from Flipagram are reading this - why would you contact Apple about this? Eastern European countries have lawyers and courts too. And not only can hiring a good lawyer in some Eastern European country be much (much!) cheaper than in the US but if you win the lawsuit the other party will probably have to pay reasonable part (if not all) of your legal expenses. And it might be helpful to try to understand t…

Well, in a way this is still correct mentality, it reflects reality of life. For example, theft is perceived as norm in the workplace and included in people's salaries (people doing same jobs but in circumstances that makes theft easier get less). Most typical example is the wage of a salesperson: those selling pre-packed goods measured in pieces get more, sometimes way more, than those selling weighted goods, because they can't 'hack' the scales.

There are almost no good salaries, and very little chance to get caught, so this is really, the norm. And it happens on all levels of society. Frequently people who get caught for theft on the workplace are not even fired, let alone prosecuted: they can't be replaced because new ones will steal, too.

As for developers, there is still 'we vs they' mentality, fraud against Westerners is commonly looked upon as almost a patriotic act. While same kind of action against Russian devs may have bad consequences and few would dare to try (while this last may not work for Eastern Europe outside ex-Soviet Union because they never looked upon Westerners as 'they' - rather, Soviets were 'they').

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#47

Post by mhurron »

true_religion wrote: post #34
Steko wrote: post #4

"On August 22nd, 2013..." "We were under the impression that Apple would protect us from being in a situation like this. " Frankly it sounds like you were under the impression that Apple is able to universally and fairly adjudicate all claims in less than 24 hours. That's silly. What if the fraudster complained about you and Apple acted too quickly and tossed your app? I mean sure your app was there first but in lots…

I think you're a being a bit disingenuous here. Within 24 hours, Apple did respond.... but in the negative. A quote from the article: > The next day we finally received a response which indicated that Apple had no intention of helping us with this situation. They asked that we communicate with the developer and keep them apprised of our progress I'm not certain of the contents of the email from Apple, but it readily…

> because Apple isn't going to help you without legally being forced into it.

As it should be. People don't like Apple being judge, jury and executioner, until they want it done for them.

There are proper ways to do what they need to do, Apple is not one of them. This is a legal complaint with the other developer, handle it through those means.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#48

Post by dhimes »

honzzz wrote: post #44

If the guys from Flipagram are reading this - why would you contact Apple about this? Eastern European countries have lawyers and courts too. And not only can hiring a good lawyer in some Eastern European country be much (much!) cheaper than in the US but if you win the lawsuit the other party will probably have to pay reasonable part (if not all) of your legal expenses. And it might be helpful to try to understand t…

It strikes me as absolutely insane that Apple doesn't have a way to verify that the submitter of an app is from the company that submitted the app before. This seems like a no-brainer. Like the OP, I would also go to Apple in this case and be absolutely furious if they didn't respond.

IANAL, but I would be pretty surprised if there wasn't some recourse towards Apple for this. If I bring counterfeit 'Tide' (a laundry detergent made by Proctor and Gamble) to my local shopping store and Proctor and Gamble points this out, I think the grocery store has to remove the product.

Re: Someone's stealing our identity on Apple's App Store

#49

Post by victorantos »

honzzz wrote: post #44

If the guys from Flipagram are reading this - why would you contact Apple about this? Eastern European countries have lawyers and courts too. And not only can hiring a good lawyer in some Eastern European country be much (much!) cheaper than in the US but if you win the lawsuit the other party will probably have to pay reasonable part (if not all) of your legal expenses. And it might be helpful to try to understand t…

I did google the guy who put the fake app. He seems to be from the same country I am, Moldova. I doubt there is any company behind this app, maybe he is just a lonely hacker with lots of free time...

I found also a list of 23 apps he has done http://www.appdata.com/ios_apps/devs/3706221-petru-plesca

and his linkedin www.linkedin.com/pub/petru-plesca/55/13a/380

Post reply on HN