Who here has had their iOS Dev account ever terminated?
Who here has had their iOS Dev account ever terminated? I'm looking for actual people who have, not just "my friend did".
And if you did have it terminated, were you paid what you were owed up until the day of your contract termination? For example, if you were terminated on Oct 29, did you still get paid for legit sales from Oct 1-28 from Apple?
Hearing rumors of this makes me quite worried. Would Apple really cancel someones account without warning?
I fear that I could make an error and get booted without even realising what I had done.
I didn't, but of course I was using other companies IP.. so thats why i didnt get paid.. in fact the company that took me down also demanded i pay the revenue i made using their name.. luckily it wa only $8000 and i never used it..
I didn't, but of course I was using other companies IP.. so thats why i didnt get paid.. in fact the company that took me down also demanded i pay the revenue i made using their name.. luckily it wa only $8000 and i never used it..
So you were owed $8000 from Apple and they never paid you??
No i didnt get paid for that month which was around $3000.. apple terminated it because i received so much notices from various companies.. and that last company decided to threatern me that i pay up my revenues made by that 1 app or else face legal action. So gave in, learned and never did it again..i think
all in all it probably depends on the reason why u got terminated... for my situation it seems reasonable i shouldnt get paid,...
No i didnt get paid for that month which was around $3000.. apple terminated it because i received so much notices from various companies.. and that last company decided to threatern me that i pay up my revenues made by that 1 app or else face legal action. So gave in, learned and never did it again..i think
all in all it probably depends on the reason why u got terminated... for my situation it seems reasonable i shouldnt get paid,...
How many notices did you get?
I don't agree with that. Yes you used someone else's IP, but apple should still pay you, then let you settle any legal action...
No i didnt get paid for that month which was around $3000.. apple terminated it because i received so much notices from various companies.. and that last company decided to threatern me that i pay up my revenues made by that 1 app or else face legal action. So gave in, learned and never did it again..i think
all in all it probably depends on the reason why u got terminated... for my situation it seems reasonable i shouldnt get paid,...
I can understand that, but my question is, what did Apple do with the money? Just keep it to themselves? Or did they give refunds to everyone?
If they kept it to themselves then that doesn't seem right to me. Then THEY are the ones making money from the sales of what they considered illegitimate gains. I'd like Apple to show me where in the contract it says they get to keep the money you earned from those products. If a court never found you guilty of infringement, then Apple should legally own you that money (at least up until the day of contract termination).
I'm in a similar situation, where one of my apps was the reason I got terminated (IP issues), but 99% of my revenue for the account was coming from non-infriging products like Package Tracker and Credit Score Tracker. One of my biggest game guides that I had up I actually had permission from Nintendo's lawyers to have up (and Apple even saw the emails from them years ago when I got initial approval).
My total for Oct 2011 was over $11,000... I just don't want Apple to take it ALL when the issue they had with my account involved just one app that made nearly nothing.
I got the notice of termination on Friday 10/28 at 9AM. I was unable to access the developer.apple.com and devforums.apple.com websites at that time. The fiscal month ended on 10/29.
My apps and iTunes Connect access was pulled on Monday 10/31 at 3PM. I was making money and sales reports up until this date still.
My hope is that I get paid for October simply because I had trackable sales for the ENTIRE month and even made sales on the first two days of the NEXT month before my apps were pulled.
I can understand that, but my question is, what did Apple do with the money? Just keep it to themselves? Or did they give refunds to everyone?
If they kept it to themselves then that doesn't seem right to me. Then THEY are the ones making money from the sales of what they considered illegitimate gains. I'd like Apple to show me where in the contract it says they get to keep the money you earned from those products. If a court never found you guilty of infringement, then Apple should legally own you that money (at least up until the day of contract termination).
I'm in a similar situation, where one of my apps was the reason I got terminated (IP issues), but 99% of my revenue for the account was coming from non-infriging products like Package Tracker and Credit Score Tracker. One of my biggest game guides that I had up I actually had permission from Nintendo's lawyers to have up (and Apple even saw the emails from them years ago when I got initial approval).
My total for Oct 2011 was over $11,000... I just don't want Apple to take it ALL when the issue they had with my account involved just one app that made nearly nothing.
i dont know what apple do with the money.. keep or refund or whatever.. i dont know.. i just didnt get paid so thats all, and all my apps at the time infringed something so i didnt bother to complain to apple..
edit: you should upload your 99% of apps to another account.. but im pretty sure you would of thought of that already..
i dont know what apple do with the money.. keep or refund or whatever.. i dont know.. i just didnt get paid so thats all, and all my apps at the time infringed something so i didnt bother to complain to apple..
Totally understand. If ALL of your apps were purposely doing that, I understand.
I guess I'm just frustrated and worried because:
1. I have always worked with Apple and their review team/lawyers to do what is right. Pull apps when needed, change them when needed, etc. I wasn't one of those guys with 8000 apps or someone who was trying to make a quick buck. I honestly felt my apps were valuable to certain people (and most of my reviews showed that) and I tried my best to make sure they WEREN'T causing issues.
2. I made $1000's off apps that were 100% perfectly legitimate, no questions about it. Real IP, created by me, making money and sales. I will be VERY upset if Apple chooses to withhold that money from me.
I guess I'm just looking to see if anyone out there is in a similar position. I HATE that Apple is acting like a court-of-law here if they intend to withhold the money.
In my opinion it's not in the contract that they can do that and also outright illegal for them to do that. But I also don't want to judge Apple until I know for sure or not whether they will pay.
I guess I'm just frustrated and worried because...
I feel for you and I agree it's not right that they've pulled your other apps.
Having said that I can also understand that there must be a punishment, and their nature is that you have to pay much more than the damage you've caused.
I've paid 100 pounds ($160) because my car was parked 1 inch outside the lines. Really 1 inch. Surely that was stupid, and I challenged it all the way, the judge agreed with me that yes the damage was maybe $0.01 but that's exactly why fines exist, if you were to pay $0.01 you'd do it every time.
While I do still not agree with my fine, and I was an still am furious at it, I sadly agree with their logic.
I'm pretty sure a similar example can be pictured in your case. And it hurts.
1. I have always worked with Apple and their review team/lawyers to do what is right. Pull apps when needed, change them when needed, etc. I wasn't one of those guys with 8000 apps or someone who was trying to make a quick buck. I honestly felt my apps were valuable to certain people (and most of my reviews showed that) and I tried my best to make sure they WEREN'T causing issues.
2. I made $1000's off apps that were 100% perfectly legitimate, no questions about it. Real IP, created by me, making money and sales. I will be VERY upset if Apple chooses to withhold that money from me.
What, then, was Apple's reason for terminating your account? If it's just one infringing app amongst lots of legitimate ones, I would have thought they would pull that specific app rather than locking you out completely.
I would agree that if you have revenues from legitimate apps, Apple would be wrong to withhold that revenue. If they do withhold it, and its a significant amount of money, you should contact a lawyer.
What, then, was Apple's reason for terminating your account? If it's just one infringing app amongst lots of legitimate ones, I would have thought they would pull that specific app rather than locking you out completely.
I would agree that if you have revenues from legitimate apps, Apple would be wrong to withhold that revenue. If they do withhold it, and its a significant amount of money, you should contact a lawyer.
11K is not a lot of money from a legal perspective. That's small claims territory. You could probably file a lawsuit in small claims court and get a default judgment.
this sucks man, unfortunately you went a dangerous road using well known IP, how many notices you got in the past before the termination ?, will you be able to reopen your account with the legit apps after a year ?
I feel for you and I agree it's not right that they've pulled your other apps.
Having said that I can also understand that there must be a punishment, and their nature is that you have to pay much more than the damage you've caused.
I've paid 100 pounds ($160) because my car was parked 1 inch outside the lines. Really 1 inch. Surely that was stupid, and I challenged it all the way, the judge agreed with me that yes the damage was maybe $0.01 but that's exactly why fines exist, if you were to pay $0.01 you'd do it every time.
While I do still not agree with my fine, and I was an still am furious at it, I sadly agree with their logic.
I'm pretty sure a similar example can be pictured in your case. And it hurts.
I understand where you are coming from, and you are correct, to an extent:
Apple's way to "punish" to me is closing my iOS Dev account. I am OK with that.
Apple does not have the right to "punish" me by withholding and keeping my rightfully earned money. That's illegal. The only way you can do that legally in the USA is via a court order.
11K is not a lot of money from a legal perspective. That's small claims territory. You could probably file a lawsuit in small claims court and get a default judgment.
Why was your account terminated in the first place? Seems a bit off you stating that everything was perfectly legit, but after the termination your only worry is to pull what money you had accumulated by that time, instead of trying to activate your account and earn more. Just saying...
Why was your account terminated in the first place? Seems a bit off you stating that everything was perfectly legit, but after the termination your only worry is to pull what money you had accumulated by that time, instead of trying to activate your account and earn more. Just saying...
My other thread lists the reason but here is why I was terminated:
A few years back (mid-2009) I listed a bunch of Video Game Guides (like how to beat a game). Most showed icons from the package of the game, but nothing more, just text and chapters for the actual app.
I went back and forth with Apple's review team to get the apps approved because I said the use of the game title and small graphic amounted to "fair use" copyright, because they were descriptive in nature of what the apps were about. All of my apps said "Unofficial guide" clearly right on the icon itself.
Some companies complained to Apple and I got legal notices. As they came in, I changed the icons to be more generic with just text and no icons. Some apps I had to pull completely, others I could change. Nintendo's lawyer, for example, actually approved my apps to be for sale if I just changed the icons to be more generic. I did and all was well.
Most of my game guides I pulled or changed. My Nintendo guides remained up, and some with the original icons remained up because I had no complaints. In the last 6 months I don't think Apple contacted me once about any legal matters with these "game guides".
Then last week, Warner Bros. contacted Apple about a game guide I hadn't yet changed the icon of called "Scribblenauts"... some stupid random game guide I was making next to $0 off of. I would have gladly pull the guide in a heartbeat but the next thing you know my account is shut down. Apple was sick of contacting me about the game guides.
The shitty thing is that my account ALSO has many legitimate apps. Package Tracker, Credit Score Tracker, and many other small apps that made very good money. And my Nintendo guides (approved by Nintendo to be online) also were making good money still.
So that's the story. I wasn't scamming anyone, I wasn't trying to screw anyone over. I honestly felt like I was following "fair use" copyright guidelines. When a complaint came in, I dealt with it professionally and quickly. AND I hadn't uploaded ANY new game guides to my account in nearly a year and half! These apps had been on the store for YEARS.
It also sucks because my account has been online with apps in it since July 2008, the month the App Store was released. I am a long-time dev. If Apple would have just said to me "take down all of your game guides now please" I would have done it in a HEARTBEAT.
I don't have experience with terminations but maybe all is not lost, contact them and see what you can do at this point.
I already have someone at Apple who says they'll get back to me shortly about this, but I'll most likely end up calling this this month anyway. I am kind of taking a wait-and-see approach because I'm not sure I want to "rock the boat" right now if I don't have to. If they pay me, great, I can be on my way. If they don't, then I think I need to drive deeper into a conversation with someone there about why I wasn't.
I would stay miles away from anything that could be seen as an infringement on someone's IP. Certainly when it's big game companies like nintendo and the like. While I do understand that it really sucks for you to have your account closed and with it lose all the money apple own's you, I still have to say that this is something that you could have prevented by not taking the risk on capitalizing on someone else's IP. To me this looks like you played a risky game and lost.
Business is hard, if you want to stay in the game play fairly.
Who here has had their iOS Dev account ever terminated?
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