Apps available on this burgeoning forum apparently go through little or no review process. Google, who administers the Android Market and polices its content, has decided the sea is wide open to anyone who wishes to sail on it. Honest businessman? Welcome! Rogue dealer? Hello! It's an incredibly problematic approach that has yielded a sea with many pirates. Some of these pirates are presenting trademarked or copyrighted work as theirs to distribute and are profiting from that deception. Others are wrongly facilitating users to steal materials — or make use of stolen materials — that were illegally copied and distributed. All of these swindlers are committing rampant intellectual property theft as freely as you would change socks. Consider the following examples:• Harry Potter 1-7 Collection, a free app that presents all seven volumes in "eBook" format
• Pokemon ROM Pokedex, a 99¢ app that includes "15 Pokémon ROMs for game boy and gameboy advance!"
• Rom Buddy, a $2.99 app that is used to "download Roms for all your favorite systems for use on popular emulator apps"
• The legend of ZELDA, a free app that accepts "donations" in return for a copy of the classic Nintendo game
• Star Wars IV Theme Ringtone, a 99¢ app that gives buyers a "free ringtone after purchase!"
Hundreds of copyright violations like these exist on the Android Market. Google makes it clear in its Content Policy for Developers that "violations of intellectual property rights" will "result in account termination." But it's a policy that's not enforced. Or at least not enforced enough. Google needs to step up the enforcement. Today.I'm not the first one to complain about this problem. Far from it. Google, however, continues to insist on letting every ship onto the sea. Sure, it will track down and eliminate a few pirates here and there, but that's a weak, reactive solution that gives developers little incentive to work with Google on legitimate Android Market ventures. What's needed is an approach that's stronger and more proactive.
Does this mean Google should follow Apple's example and effectively check the papers of every ship before it's allowed to set sail? I don't know. I'm open to reasonable suggestions and I imagine there's a happy medium here somewhere. But the "open sea" approach has produced illegal, untenable results that cannot be ignored. It's time for Google to acknowledge its mistake and make right.
4 comments:
It is up to rights owners to notify Google. How does Google know definitively that an app is stepping on some rights owner's toes? The overhead for such a process would be huge I think. For each app that comes in, should Google send a message to each an every owner of any type of copyrighted material?
Sure Harry Potter, Pokemon, Zelda, and Star Wars are well known, but Google cannot assume that they must be intellectual property owned by someone else.
Again, I argue that it is up to intellectual property rights owners to let Google know that a certain app is potentially in violation of copyrights they own. Then Google should follow up and request documentation to support the alleged violation, patent number etc.
I think we're going to have to agree to disagree on this point, fresh. To my mind, Google's continued silence and general inaction on this matter makes them complicit in this illegal profiteering. They know better and they should do better.
I acknowledge that the "overhead" for some kind of ownership verification process is not insubstantial, but in this instance, I see it as part of the cost of doing business. Apple and Google are roughly equivalent in terms of scale and resources, and Apple has found a way to ensure the vast majority of their transactions are fully legal. I question why Google hasn't been able to do the same.
Is it because they want to quickly increase the sheer number of apps in Android Market for competitive or advertising reasons? Is it because they want to look like the ascending star that can dethrone the iPhone?
Or is it because their silence allows them to continue to profit from these illegal transactions? I wonder if Google makes a profit percentage from each illegal transaction. If so, how much? And what happens to that money if or when the offending app is removed? Additionally, how many people are buying Android OS phones to easily run illegal apps, such as ROM players? To do so on an iPhone, you have to jailbreak it and void your warranty. Not so with an Android phone.
As noted in the post, I'm open to reasonable suggestions on the matter, but I don't consider passing the buck and burying one's head in the sand a reasonable solution. Sorry.
It would not surprise me in the least to know that Google is seeing at least some small percentage of every app on the marketplace you pay for. (Pro Tip: never pay for anything pirated kids!) If this is the case, where they are getting money from Apps that have copyright material, then yes, this should be stomped down on, and Google brought to term on it. This would be a case of Google and Android deliberately going out to make money on pirated material.
However for those apps that Google is not potentially making money off of (or if they don't get a cut of the app market sales, which just doesn't seem to make sense but could be the case), I think that Fresh has a point. It is up to the copyright holders to inform Google of copyright infringements. Google should also respond to these rapidly and efficiently. Google has chosen to pursue a more free form market for their Apps as much to encourage new and unique apps, steal developers away from the Apple camps, and almost undoubtedly pad their number of Apps for advertising reasons.
Besides, Piracy helps fight global warming. You want to fight global warming, right Josh? RAmen
Sales on the Android Market are a 70/30 split between the developer and Google.
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