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Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

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Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#601
post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Your comment makes it sound it sound like Apple is breaking the law. Epic could have brought on this lawsuit while still complying with the App Store rules, in fact the judge suggested they do that so their users aren't impacted. They wouldn't be getting kicked off right now and the Sign-in with Apple button wouldn't be getting disabled. They chose to break the app store rules, which they did agreed to, AND they also…

> Your comment makes it sound it sound like Apple is breaking the law. Epic is alleging that Apple is breaking the law. That's the whole point of the antitrust lawsuit, to decide if they are or are not. > Epic could have brought on this lawsuit while still complying with the App Store rules No they could not. They needed standing to sue. "Apple is doing what the contract says and we don't like it" does not establish…

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected. They already "suffered harm", they did not need to do anything further in order to sue.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#602

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's exactly what they're fighting. Surely Epic winning will mean a court order to reinstate Fortnite and other of Epic's games onto the App Store. They should have sued and never have done their "pay direct" thing if they wanted to stay operational on Apple platforms during the lawsuit. Apple couldn't retaliate at that point since any termination attempt would be reversed by a court order.

> They should have sued and never have done their "pay direct" thing If they did that, any court hearing the lawsuit would throw it out because Epic would not have standing. Epic had to do it this way to have any hope of a court hearing their case.

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#603
post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epic went this route to inflict maximum PR damage, they could've sued without willfully violating their contract which hurt their legal case as they've now entered into the lawsuit with unclean hands which was one of the considerations used to deny their injunction for Fortnite.

They needed to do it this way to ensure they had standing to bring a suit as they can now non-hypothetically prove they've been harmed.

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected. They can already show harm and can sue to get those fees back. They did not need to do anything else.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#604

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your comment makes it sound it sound like Apple is breaking the law. Epic is alleging that Apple is breaking the law. That's the whole point of the antitrust lawsuit, to decide if they are or are not. > Epic could have brought on this lawsuit while still complying with the App Store rules No they could not. They needed standing to sue. "Apple is doing what the contract says and we don't like it" does not establish…

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected. They already "suffered harm", they did not need to do anything further in order to sue.

The harm was unfair anti-competitive practices, namely being prevented from operating their own payment processor. Until Epic got kicked off the App Store for operating their own payment processor, there was no harm.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#605
post #574

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I agree, it's just like when I put in a contract with my employees that they're not allowed to talk about their salaries. If they talk about their salaries then boom! Fired! Or when I put in the contract tips go straight to the business. You don't put your tips in at the end of the night, Boom! Fired! You can't expect me to keep you employed if you don't follow the contract. Hell I've even had some of them come up to…

You can also make the exaggerated example if you look at someone the wrong way you get fired for harassment. The point is your analogies is not even close to what is happening in the Apple vs Epic case

[deleted]

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#606

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Console ecosystems are already open-by-law, based on past cases from the 80s and 90s. I'm curious what cases you think actually established this precedent? Keep in mind that a court saying "reverse engineering is not copyright infringement" is not the same thing as a court saying "a hardware manufacturer is legally obligated to permit the distribution of third-party software on its hardware" . > You can already pub…

> I'm certainly not aware of any games that have been published in physical stores without the publisher having signed a publishing agreement with Nintendo or Sony. They did put commercial unlicensed software into US retailers, without any agreement from Nintendo or Sony. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sega_v._Accolade (1992) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lewis_Galoob_Toys,_Inc._v._Nin... . (1992) (TL/DR: you are allo…

As I previously said, those cases are about whether reverse engineering constitutes copyright infringement, which the courts have ruled it does not.

But it doesn't mean those platforms are "open", otherwise under that definition the iOS platform is "open" too because you can legally jailbreak your phone and distribute jailbroken apps. I don't think that's what people mean when they say a platform is "open".

> This is how GameSharks/ActionReplays/etc were legally sold

I was more curious if any actual games had been sold this way.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#607

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected. They already "suffered harm", they did not need to do anything further in order to sue.

The harm was unfair anti-competitive practices, namely being prevented from operating their own payment processor. Until Epic got kicked off the App Store for operating their own payment processor, there was no harm.

By being "forced" to use Apple's payment system instead of their own, Epic has already "suffered harm" due to the $300 million in fees they otherwise would not have paid. There was no need to get kicked off the App Store in addition to that. The judge literally recommended Epic undo their "hotfix" and cure the breach of contract while the case continued in court. If for some reason you still do not believe this, I recommend checking with your lawyer.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#608

Games are often very low margin products, so it makes completely sense that Apple's one-size-fits all 30% fee wouldn't be suitable for a lot of companies. What doesn't make sense is how Apple got away with it for so long. The ad '1984' by Apple has become the biggest, most hypocritical piece of propaganda every created.

> Games are often very low margin products Yeah, so, did you check how much Epic earns with fortnite? I wont call this 'low margin' at all.

Profit margin is about the percentage they make after costs have been factored in. Their profit margin is indeed low; 12% of the revenue... compared to Apple who takes 30%. See https://gamerant.com/epic-games-store-revenue-split-explaine....

So my point is absolutely valid and it is shocking that Apple makes almost 3 times more money from Fortnight than Epic makes.

Imagine spending years building an app and then someone else ends up making 3 times more money from it than you do...

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#609

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Your comment makes it sound it sound like Apple is breaking the law. Epic is alleging that Apple is breaking the law. That's the whole point of the antitrust lawsuit, to decide if they are or are not. > Epic could have brought on this lawsuit while still complying with the App Store rules No they could not. They needed standing to sue. "Apple is doing what the contract says and we don't like it" does not establish…

Epic already had standing to sue from the $300 million in Fortnite IAP fees Apple has collected. They already "suffered harm", they did not need to do anything further in order to sue.

You are fixated on this because of my imprecise use of the legal term "standing", but it's not really relevant. Standing to bring a suit that will probably get thrown out on summary judgement is not useful. What's relevant is that there is harm to consumers here and Epic needed to specifically demonstrate it to have a real chance of prevailing in an antitrust case. An allegedly illegal contract should not restrain them from doing so.

Re: Apple Disabling 'Sign in with Apple' for Epic Games on September 11

#610

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wish Mozilla would join them by publishing a Firefox for iOS with their own renderer and Javascript (which they have been prevented from doing). Get booted and join the lawsuit. That's the activist Mozilla I can get behind.

You think Mozilla still has it in them? As a long time Apple user, and open software advocate I'd literally cry tears of joy. I'd also have to throw Zuck a bone if FB joined. I really just want Apple to separate their code signing (Developer) service with their advertising and distribution service (App Store).

> I'd also have to throw Zuck a bone if FB joined.

As a user, it’s appalling to see developers taking the side of user-hostile companies in order to take down a company trying to protect users.

It makes me want to avoid any products from such companies and developers.

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