UMS

I was looking on Google Play and noticed that if you do a search for a celebrity, eg: Lady Gaga, there are a whole bunch of apps that people have created that are essentially just wrapping up Youtube clips, twitter feeds, photo albums etc.

Does anyone know how risky that approach is in terms of copyright infringement?

Also, how strict is the approval process for Google Play?

ChristopherGabriel

Right now the risk appears minimal, and there is no approval process.

If you violate their terms in a bad way though, they will warn you or potentially ban you. I haven't had any serious problem in 500+ apps.

Cheers,
Chris

UMS

Thanks for your feedback Chris.

Given there are thousands and thousands of apps covering celebrities, music, TV, etc, I guessed it probably wasn't a big issue.

dennism70

Not a big problem yet indeed.

But why you wanne do something that "like you claim" are already in the thousands on the market places

lotsofsnow

It is a very big issue. You do that with the wrong person and you will be in very hot water quickly.

Yes, there are many people that violate copyright laws and it takes a while until the celebrities lawyers get to them but I would not risk it.

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xlfutur1

Earlier this year I did a free app for a national talk radio host (basically to use for myself) that included podcasting of the nightly show, facebook, twitter, ebay items, amazon items (his books), news items (google news), youtube channel, etc. Basically this guy's entire internet presence in one app. I posted in the Android marketplace as a free app.

Soon after I did this I got an email from the company doing the "official" app for this guy. The person writing the email said he was not an attorney but I might be in violation of copyright. So I took it down immediately thinking that I would get busted.

Then I was searching for this guy's name in Android market and an app came up that was basically the same as mine but they were charging $1.49 for their app. I emailed the guy back letting him know about this and he said they have tried to get this paid app to stop but it fell on deaf ears.

So I immediately posted mine back again in the Android market and it now has about 1000 active users and I have not heard anything more about my app violating any copyrights. I sprinkled some CPA links in the app and have made some money from that.

So it seems that picking up feeds that are freely available on the internet and making an app out of them is not something you will get sued for. This is my experience. And FYI: the talk show host that this app is based on is an attorney, so if it was not legal I'd probably be sued by now.

ChristopherGabriel

I have been contacted by many copy-write infringement companies, mostly related to EMD's, such as... Hertzcoupons.com,

It doesn't matter how big the company is, if you are not maliciously sharing their coveted information or tarnishing their reputation, then all they will do is ask you to remove it to prevent further legal actions.

You simply take it down, and that is 'usually' the end of it.

I don't think he wanted to put up the exact applications, but just wanted some insight on whether he should be worried about pursuing this type of application.

Using trademarked content isn't the wisest thing to do, but I wanted to give you a realistic perspective of how it works; and the normal results that come out of it.

You post the content > they ask you to take it down > you take it down.

That is the general idea, if you pursue such a thing.

Matus

I had a letter from "Taylor Swift lawyers" when I used her name. It look like a real company, except the website name did not match with WHOIS. So I did some investigation to find out who the layer is, and then later asked for the phone number that my lawyer could contact them too. Newer heard from them again. So sometime you get some guys who just try to mess up with you. But you newer know.

ChristopherGabriel

Haha, that is hilarious! Nice response you gave them

weapon949

what about with copyright stuff like "spiderman" i was doing a spider man Live wallpaper , got 10k+ installs in 3 days and got my account banned. I was charging them 1.65 for the download. Any tips on how to avoid bans while still being able to use stuff like batman, or super hero's in general?

maxlinks

do not use any copywriter material, you could be in for a nasty surprise,

MobiDev

No approval process at all – as soon as you send the app to the Google Play it becomes available for the users. Regarding the app for celebrities – I guess there is a small possibility that you will have problems with the lawyers, especially if you develop an Android app. If you’re developing apps for iOS only, keep in mint that Apple is committed to copyright and has done a good job at protecting the eco-system.

networkempire

It's better to avoid celebrities. If you violate the copyrights they could sue you for millions.

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kellyyarnsbro

Depending on which celebrity you featured on your app. If it's Justin Bieber then it's very risky that even your bestfriend will turn their backs on you, LOL.