BlackBerry® World™ Development

[Andiamo]

Hi there,

Around the 18th of February, I submitted my converted Android app to the App World for review.  It's been about 10 days now and I was slightly concerned that something might be wrong, since many people here on these forums say that it takes about a week.  But I wasn't too worried about it.

Today, however, I noticed a post on my app's Facebook page from a user who said that they're loving the app on their PlayBook.  Confused, I checked my email and RIM's vendor portal, but I haven't received anything from RIM and my app is still "Pending review."  So I did a quick search on the App World, and sure enough, someone has "helpfully" converted my app's APK and uploaded it under the same name and icon.

Funnily enough, they listed the app under their real name, which I was able to use to find their Twitter feed.  It seems they did indeed receive their free PlayBook, courtesy of my app.

Quite frankly, I don't really care about that.  If RIM bills them $200 for the tablet, it'd be funny, but that's not what I'm really after.  I'm much more concerned that RIM is going to reject my submission thinking that it is a duplicate or (haha) a stolen/plagarized work.

I wasn't able to find any way to submit a ticket or followup to my app submission via the Vendor Portal, so I instead sent RIM a message via their developer contact us form, but that doesn't link to my vendor account so I don't know if whoever's reviewing the app will notice it in time.  Is there a way to modify the ticket where my app is "pending review" to add a note there?  Also, to get an app removed, will I have to send a full-blown DMCA?

Any advice would be appreciated.

[Acenet]

whooo... quite shocking... I'd use the word "stole" instead of "uploaded"...

I'd say an official request to RIM as you did would lead to the removal of the "other" app., and the approval of your "real" app. submission.

(I think you can add a comment in your TIcket History in Vendor portal, but a direct email is best I think...) 

I'd like to know the end of the story if you don't mind.

[JSanders Resident Expert]

Hey don't be shy, what's the name of the disreputable company/developer who stole your app.

Make sure at least some of us don't buy it.

[mapleleafs90]

If they got a free playbook out of your app I would be raging. RIM should really ban the vendor, revoke their playbook, and give it to you. 

That is just terrible on RIM's part.

[smiley]

Contact RIM or appworld support and have the app removed. also contact Alex and tell him the exact problem.

You are not the first one I read about.  Seems Handster is doing the samething.

[Andiamo]

Well, a few minutes after making this post, I went and tweeted Alec Saunders (@asaunders) and he replied shortly after that asking me to send an email and his team would deal with it immediately. 

https://twitter.com/#!/asaunders/status/174506874278920192

So I've sent the email, and now it's up to them.  We'll see how it goes.

I won't post the person's name here, since they seem to be young (one of their tweets asked if there was a minimum age to submit apps to the App World) though it'd be pretty easy to find using the tweet above.

[JSanders Resident Expert]

You should also let the user posting at CrackBerry, that it's not his app to distribute.

http://forums.crackberry.com/playbook-apps-games-f243/manga-now-app-world-702737/

[peter9477]

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smiley wrote:
You are not the first one I read about.  Seems Handster is doing the samething.

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If you read the terms of the agreements developers sign with Handster, you'll see that they probably have full rights granted by the developer to do this sort of thing. 

While there may be one or two cases where a mistake was made, it appears as though anyone with an active agreement with them probably has no say in the matter, short of terminating the agreement (which, I might add, the terms allow them to do at basically any time).

[falo]

Has anyone checked this in the Handster t&cs? I thought I read last year that they were informing developers this was going to happen so there was an opportunity to opt out.

[smiley]

then developers should remove their listing from handster.