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[Chris Z]

Yet another case of Apple careless approving games without doing a simple cross-check on the internets and (even worse) THEIR OWN STORE and being slow to respond.

http://blog.wolfire.com/2011/02/Counterfeit-Lugaru-on-Apple-s-App-Store-developing

This case is more interesting because of the thief falsely claiming it was ok because the game is open source.

[Blademasterbobo]

They weren't slow to respond when it was Tim Langdell complaining.  

[Paul Eres]

this is p bad but 'a few days' isn't really 'slow to respond', they need time to research it and make sure the claim is legit. it seems to take about a week generally.

[Chris Z]

The delay is understandable I suppose, they are a large corporation with a lot of developers to support.  It's still worth bringing up because Wolfire is losing sales every day the rip off is up on the App Store at a lower price and with "HD" appended to the name.  The part that I consider a hole in their process and incredibly frustrating is approving the game to begin with. 

[Skofo]

Many commenters on other sites seem to misunderstand a particular point pertaining to this issue, so I will preemptively emphasize it here: while Lugaru's code is open source, Lugaru's artistic assets are not open source, therefore Lugaru as a whole cannot be sold by other people. This is not just a case of douchebaggery, but outright illegal activity.

The delay is hardly justifiable. Apple is ridiculously careful about making sure that they themselves and their consumers are treated perfectly before accepting an app, and they should (finally) extend some of that courtesy to their developers by at least doing a simple search for duplicates before accepting an app.

[Chromeleon]

The delay is hardly justified. Apple is ridiculously careful about making sure that they themselves and their consumers are treated perfectly before accepting an app, and they should (finally) extend some of that courtesy to their developers by at least doing a simple search for duplicates before accepting an app.

It should be noted that the article you linked is two years old.  I think this recent string of thefts proves that they're being much less cautious with their review process nowadays.

[Destral]

Many commenters on other sites seem to misunderstand a particular point pertaining to this issue, so I will preemptively emphasize it here: while Lugaru's code is open source, Lugaru's artistic assets are not open source, therefore Lugaru as a whole cannot be sold by other people. This is not just a case of douchebaggery, but outright illegal activity.

I'm not 100% certain of the legalese involved, but if something is open source, doesn't it simply mean that you can check out the code, make mods, etc, as long as you're not selling it and making a profit?

In any case, from what I've read, the guy ripping off Wolfire seems pretty confident that his interpretation of what open source means allows him to do whatever he wants with it - but it sounds like your bog-standard 'there is a loophole or technicality in the laws that govern this shit that I'm taking advantage of to make a quick buck off someone else's work'.

That's just my interpretation of what he was quoted as saying, however.

[Chris Z]

It's definitely a clear violation of an established open source license, I don't think anyone but the thief doubts that.  Ultimately though, Apple will take it down but the thief will have accomplished his goal anyway by making a quick buck and Wolfire will have lost a good amount of sales.  The solution involves some change in Apple's approval process and ideally some legal crackdown on guys like this and the Chinese Flash decompiler pirates.

[tametick]

I'm not 100% certain of the legalese involved, but if something is open source, doesn't it simply mean that you can check out the code, make mods, etc, as long as you're not selling it and making a profit?

The popular open source licenses do not forbit selling or making a profit (doesn't mean you can use the assets or copyrighted names tho).

[C.A. Sinner]

It's also why Kenta Cho isn't seeing a penny from Blast Works' sales.

[eva]

needs some kind of peer review like the xblig (which seems to work in keeping ip infringing work out of the store) combined with whatever the fuck apple does

[Christian Knudsen]

I don't know how payments from sold goods on the App Store currently works, but why can't they just always be delayed by, say, a week. That way, when stuff like this happens, the payment can be withheld until the matter has been resolved... and then paid out to the actual rightsholder of the game. There'll be less risk of these kinds of pirates actually making any money from their wrong-doings then.

[Skofo]

I'm not 100% certain of the legalese involved, but if something is open source, doesn't it simply mean that you can check out the code, make mods, etc, as long as you're not selling it and making a profit?

Like tametick said, open source stuff can be freely distributed and sold. The problem is that everything but the code (i.e. the assets) is not open source, so the actual game cannot be sold. This is very similar to what was done with the first three games of the Quake series. Replacing all the art, music, characters, story, etc. in Lugaru and selling that is totally legit (as long as the source code is sold with it), but this guy is not doing that.

In any case, from what I've read, the guy ripping off Wolfire seems pretty confident that his interpretation of what open source means allows him to do whatever he wants with it - but it sounds like your bog-standard 'there is a loophole or technicality in the laws that govern this shit that I'm taking advantage of to make a quick buck off someone else's work'.

There is no loophole. The guy talks as though he assumes that everything in the game including the assets is open source, but that is clearly untrue. I'm not sure whether iCoder is doing this out of incompetence or malice, but it is kind of strange that a team that supposedly squashed bugs and plugged memory leaks in Lugaru is supposedly unfamiliar with how open source works.

[Melly]

The Aquin Coalition become more needed by the day.

[Aquin]

Yeah, I've been in "lurk mode" for the last few weeks, but this is really making me come outta my shell again.  I swear I see the "indie dev gets ripped off by assholes on Apple's store" at least once a week. 

I think maybe we should compile a list of violations and put it up as a link from the front page.  If enough of us sputter about it, maybe it'll go somewhere.