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[mewse]

I agree that "continued diligence on behalf of the original creators" isn't a tenable position.

But from my point of view, Apple can't verify legal ownership of published materials.  They simply don't have the manpower to do it (no distributor does!), and couldn't afford to do it even if they did have the manpower, without vastly increasing their cut of the sales.  The only way I can see to fix this in a sane manner would be for Apple to somehow verify the identity of the people in its developer program prior to releasing things on the app store, so that legal proceedings could be brought against those people in case of a dispute.

Right now they do this identity verification through:  credit card used to purchase developer program membership, email address associated with developer account, and payment details for app store sales.  But the first and third can be fraudulent (or otherwise shady), and there's no shortage of throw-away anonymous e-mail addresses available on the Internet.  Clearly these have been shown to be ineffective.  But in terms of offering concrete suggestions, I'm not sure what more rigorous and fraud-proof identity verification is available.

[Aquin]

Well, if you really think Apple is making a concerted effort to fix these sorts of issues, then it's probably likely due to volume.  ie. there are *so many* thieves, that of course some are bound to make it through the system (especially on unknown indie works.)

Perhaps the biggest problem is their response time?  But that might be fine as well.  If there's really no room for improvement on Apple's side of the fence, then I'm afraid we're completely helpless to prevent such egregious damage to our community members.

That sucks, but it sounds like it's beyond our ability to change.

[mewse]

Well, if you really think Apple is making a concerted effort to fix these sorts of issues, then it's probably likely due to volume.

I didn't say that at all;  based on the evidence I'd be surprised if they were making any particular effort at the moment.

What I was saying is that I'm not sure what effort they could make to fix things.  Yes, faster response times would help in this situation, but Apple was recently criticised over responding to claims too quickly, during the whole Edge fiasco.  It seems like whichever way they set the policy (fast response vs. slow response), someone will be able to take advantage of the policy to screw indie developers. 

It sucks, but I don't see how anyone can fix the problem of people being bastards and gaming the system to get things they don't deserve.  It's like the various solutions proposed for the piracy problem;  the people doing these things will probably keep doing them no matter how you try to stop them, and in the end, only the honest people are seriously inconvenienced by these attempts. 

I'd be thrilled to hear ideas about practical solutions to this counterfeiting problem, though.  I just don't have any myself, right now, which don't also destroy the iOS App Store for everybody who's being honest. 

[Chris Z]

Those Wolfire dudes are classy:
http://blog.wolfire.com/2011/02/Counterfeit-Lugaru-has-been-removed-from-the-App-Store

tl;dr: They are giving away the legit Lugaru and the Steam version to anyone who bought the fake one.

[Aquin]

They definitely have serious class.  But would you expect anything less from the humble bundle people?  I'll probably buy Overgrowth based on their reputation alone, even if I don't ever play it. 

[Gimym TILBERT]

Wolfire are really the best, They are also the best influence in the community.

[iffi]

That's pretty awesome. I still wonder, though, if it was Apple that took it down or the counterfeiter, and whether the counterfeiter will be receiving the sales money. :\

[Eric McQuiggan]

KoTaco had a piece on it saying that it was the other 'developers' iCoder

http://kotaku.com/#!5756116/and-then-there-was-only-one-fighting-rabbit-game-on-apples-mac-store

[moi]

Apple doesn't care, poeple should call it "the ripp store"

[iffi]

iRip Store?

[mcc]

....huh.

As long as we're on the subject, notice anything... odd here?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jumpman/id413034146?mt=8

Reported it already but...

[Μarkham]

I don't know, you're talking about someone with a treasure-trove of rock-solid apps here.

[Hayden Scott-Baron]

Those Wolfire dudes are classy:
http://blog.wolfire.com/2011/02/Counterfeit-Lugaru-has-been-removed-from-the-App-Store

tl;dr: They are giving away the legit Lugaru and the Steam version to anyone who bought the fake one.

It's a very smart thing to do. You wouldn't get many sales from those customers anyway, and at leas this way you get some free press and it raises your public image.

[Christian Knudsen]

Yeah, those people already "bought" the game. It's not like Wolfire is losing sales doing that. I'd say it's more smart than classy. Not that the Wolfire guys aren't classy, though.


Unrelated, I wonder how long it'll be before a developer submits a fake pirated copy of their own game to the App Store to drum up attention...

[RabTom]

....huh.

As long as we're on the subject, notice anything... odd here?

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jumpman/id413034146?mt=8

Reported it already but...

I love how you can still see "semi secret" in one of the preview images