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Yes.

31 (86.1%)

No.

5 (13.9%)

Total Members Voted: 36

[Samio]

Allow me to just use 2 emoticons to explain my emotions: 
Now here's why: http://blog.wolfire.com/2011/02/Counterfeit-Lugaru-on-Apple-s-App-Store-developing

This made have a particularly sad stomach churning groan of empathetic agony.

[Farseer]

If Apple don't do something about this, they'll lose a lot of respect from m-

Ah, who am I kidding? I hate Apple and they aren't going to do shit.

[Carrion]

I am not surprised.  Who is surprised?  Why?

[Pnx]

Unfortunately this kind of thing has happened before... I don't remember exactly what game it was, but I seem to recall seeing the same thing happen to another game...

Then there's the whole Harvest: Massive Encounter, issue... There was a guy who ripped off their game with a flash game then effectively laughed about it to their faces.

[Tilla]

Going by the Wolfire forums, the counterfeit is now gone from the app store.

[Sowelu]

How am I the only person who doesn't think Apple should be held responsible?

It's like suing Google for copyright violation if a torrent site happens to show up on a search.  Someone's at fault, and that someone is...oh...maybe the guys who counterfeited the game?

[Carrion]

How am I the only person who doesn't think Apple should be held responsible?

It's like suing Google for copyright violation if a torrent site happens to show up on a search.  Someone's at fault, and that someone is...oh...maybe the guys who counterfeited the game?

Because Apple reviews the submitted applications, if I am not mistaken.

[Sowelu]

If the submitter says "Yes indeedly do, I do have the rights to publish this", then Apple is actually kind of off the hook.  Not their fault the guy lied.  Maybe he misrepresented himself as the original publishers even--how much due diligence do you think Apple is really responsible for, how many man-hours should they put into tracking down everyone who seems responsible, and how much burden do they need to put on legitimate app sellers?

[Samio]

If the submitter says "Yes indeedly do, I do have the rights to publish this", then Apple is actually kind of off the hook.  Not their fault the guy lied.  Maybe he misrepresented himself as the original publishers even--how much due diligence do you think Apple is really responsible for, how many man-hours should they put into tracking down everyone who seems responsible, and how much burden do they need to put on legitimate app sellers?

Here's the problem: Lugaru was ALREADY on the app store, under the name of Lugaru HD.

[Flare]

If the submitter says "Yes indeedly do, I do have the rights to publish this", then Apple is actually kind of off the hook.  Not their fault the guy lied.  Maybe he misrepresented himself as the original publishers even--how much due diligence do you think Apple is really responsible for, how many man-hours should they put into tracking down everyone who seems responsible, and how much burden do they need to put on legitimate app sellers?

If a worker died in a construction company due to unsafe working conditions, should the blame also fall upon the department or union that was supposed to check them? I'd think so. Regardless of what degree of strictness Apple defines in the term "review", what they failed to do is supposedly the minimal in the definition of what reviewing something stands for, that is to say, make sure it's not fraud.
Apple may not be entirely to blame, but I think they do have to shoulder a bit of the burden due to them publicizing their standards of reviewing things before letting them go in store. Not only is this expectation expected to be upheld for consumers, it is also expected that it be upheld for the third party sellers who made the decision to host their product in the store as well due to this promise of security.
I'm not sure whether Apple followed through with this part or not, but at the very least, reimburse Lugaru with the sales of the fraudulent link.

[nenjin]

If Apple is doing so well, the least they can do is verify the authenticity of ownership before they start collecting their micro-transactions.

Put another way, had this not been acted on by the game's makers, Apple would have happily gone on making money.

When you force users to all use your official app store, you'd better well be running it to the highest ethical and business standards. Otherwise it looks like you force others to develop and purchase in a predatory environment, all while waving your hands going "oh it's not my problem." When you're the person that has created the entire situation, and allowed it go on.

[Carrion]

My experience with Apple has mostly been through trying to sell music and from that experience I can say that if they put as much emphasis on preventing this type of thing from happening with software as they do with music, we wouldn't be discussing this.  As Samio stated, the names of the two games are extremely similar and any simple text search would reveal this.  Furthermore, the gentlemen at Wolfire notified Apple of the situation and despite this, the situation was not immediately rectified as it should have been. 

Obviously this doppelganger has misrepresented himself and, sure, that can't be blamed on Apple.  However, Apple, being in the position to make profit off of whatever is sold through its online store, should be more than ready and able to prevent and combat any sort of illegal activities, especially when such activities are brought to their attention.

At least torrent sites don't blatantly sell their torrent files.

[PenguinOverlord]

Old news, man, it was already pulled.
Rabbits fighting in spandex never really piqued my interest, though, so I've barely played Lugaru since I got the HIB2.

[de5me7]

if a high street shop, even with out knowing, sold counterfeit material, they would be culpable under copyright laws in the UK.

[Vel]

How am I the only person who doesn't think Apple should be held responsible?

Yes, you pretty much are the only one who thinks they shouldn't be held liable. They make money off of this and are by that virtue liable no matter what. That'd be like me going around selling pirated DVDs because 'the guy who supplied me with him said he totally had the rights to them!'