Apple Bans Developer with 800+ Apps from App Store

[MacRumors]

MobileCrunch has reported that Apple has banned developer Khalid Shaikh from the App Store and removed all 800+ of his apps that were being sold in the App Store. Apple's "Notice of Termination" e-mail to Shaikh describes that third-party intellectual property complaints are the impetus behind the banning:

Pursuant to Section 3.2(d) of the iDP Agreement, you agreed that "to the best of Your knowledge and belief, Your Application and Licensed Application Information do not and will not violate, misappropriate, or infringe any Apple or third party copyrights, trademarks, rights of privacy and publicity, trade secrets, patents, or other proprietary or legal rights (e.g. musical composition or performance rights, video rights, photography or image rights, logo rights, third party data rights, etc. for content and materials that may be included in Your Application)." Apple has informed you of numerous third party intellectual property complaints concerning over 100 of your Applications and reminded you of your obligations to obtain the necessary rights prior to submission of your Applications. Nevertheless, we continue to receive the same or similar types of complaints regarding your Applications despite our repeated notices to you. The persistent nature of such complaints has led us to conclude that you are entering into the representations and warranties in the iDP Agreement in bad faith by misrepresenting that you have all the necessary rights for your submissions.

As the MobileCrunch article points out, a search at AppShopper.com shows 854 apps by Shaikh. The majority of Shaikh's apps seemed to be data on a specific subject simply pulled from the web without providing any other original or unique content. Most apps were priced at $4.99 and this banishment could represent lost sales of thousands of dollars per day. Shaikh reportedly has admitted that the goal was not to produce valuable apps but to focus on monetization instead. All of Shaikh's apps have already been removed from the App Store and can no longer be purchased.

The App Store policies and approval process have been under quite a bit of fire lately, most notably with the rejection of the official Google Voice app, as well as the removal of 3rd-party Google Voice apps from the App Store in recent weeks. Apple has been tight-lipped with the public about such rejections though some affected developers have publicized their communications with Apple and spoken openly of their opinions of App Store practices.

Article Link: Apple Bans Developer with 800+ Apps from App Store

[jessica.]

Farewell Shaikh. I guess my phone is useless without your wonderful contribution such as Top Sex Ladies <insert some hot chick's name here>.

I never liked the $5 apps that polled from the web and offered no unique content. Of course people will be up in arms but I for one find this to be a nice move on Apple's part. Google voice ... not so much, Shaikh going down, a ok by me!

In summary ... GOOD!

[Snide]

Good Job Apple - now if only we could do something about Jody Sanders...

[-aggie-]

Originally Posted by jessica.

Farewell Shaikh. I guess my phone is useless without your wonderful contribution such as Top Sex Ladies <insert some hot chick's name here>.

I never liked the $5 apps that polled from the web and offered no unique content. Of course people will be up in arms but I for one find this to be a nice move on Apple's part. Google voice ... not so much, Shaikh going down, a ok by me!

In summary ... GOOD!

But you loved the Top Sex Guys <insert some hot stud here>.

And I'll be glad to see him go as well, but you know someone will take his place.

[Unspoken Demise]

WEAR I GON GET SXY PR0N WIMINZ NAO?

Good move Apple.

[celticpride678]

I wonder how long it took for him to develop all those applications.

[TheOrioles33]

I agree with all of the above. His apps were crap. Who would pay $4.99 of any of those anyways?

[Diode]

My guess was copy right violation for the images in his "top sexy" programs.

[CTYankee]

Originally Posted by celticpride678

I wonder how long it took for him to develop all those applications.

slave labor: 26 employees, 12 hour days, 6 days a week for very low pay. OK, not slave labor, but certainly does show where his priorities were. Profit.

[SFStateStudent]

Isn't windows and palmpre looking for developers?

[admanimal]

I think Apple should find some way of limiting how many apps the average single developer can submit. There is no way one person can create and support even 10-15 truly high-quality apps. Apple needs to encourage quality over quantity to prevent the App Store from being even more of a crap warehouse than it currently is.

[uberamd]

Good. Any dev that can push 800+ apps into the store (which is a large overall percentage for a lone dev) deserves the boot. Its obvious his apps are of little value.

[BPresley321]

Makes me wonder if he actually made any decent money off of that crap...

[Eraserhead]

This is a good move, pulling some of the other apps doesn't look so good.

[FreeState]

Originally Posted by celticpride678

I wonder how long it took for him to develop all those applications.

Templates - all he has to do is slightly modify the logo and the content (10 to 15 minutes each). There is another developer doing similar with Buddhist apps as well (they are free online books he packages for $.99 and just changes the icon - they all are bad IMO).

[Achiever]

Originally Posted by CTYankee

certainly does show where his priorities were. Profit.

Oh my God! It's one of "them", Hon! It's a CAPITALIST!!!!!!!

What in the hell is wrong with making a profit and when, exactly, did Americans finally start drinking the socialism Kool-Aid?

Look people, if his apps were crap, they wouldn't be purchased and he would lose money and stop making them. If he was making money, then people were finding them useful. If Apple wants to pull the apps for terms of use violations then fine, those are their rules and everyone knew them going in, but I don't begrudge a small business owner who has committed no crime and whose sole motivation is making money. To anyone who does begrudge him of this I issue the following challenge: march straight into your boss' office and demand that they pay you less money. You know, since it's not about "profit".

I didn't think so.

[QCassidy352]

I don't think MR should have tried to tie this article in to the GV controversy. The tenuous connection of "app store restrictions" is not enough. This guy was (allegedly) stealing intellectual property and violating the terms of the agreement he had with Apple. Bringing up GV again is just trying to fan the flames of an unrelated controversy.

[javaGuru]

If all of his apps violated the terms of agreement for being an iPhone app developer how in the heck did they all get approved in the first place..while apps like google voice and other worthy apps are rejected?

[G4R2]

Unlike other dubious apps, this is a clear cut example of someone who was gaming the system.

Well done Apple.

[dasmb]

Originally Posted by admanimal

I think Apple should find some way of limiting how many apps the average single developer can submit. There is no way one person can create and support even 10-15 truly high-quality apps. Apple needs to encourage quality over quantity to prevent the App Store from being even more of a crap warehouse than it currently is.

Well, the EAs and Googles of the world could kick out a hundred strong apps no issue. But you have a point -- some means of encouraging developers to focus on quality is paramount.

Perhaps your iPhone developer's kit only gives you access to market a handful of apps -- say, 5. Your sixth app would cost a listing fee -- say, a few hundred dollars -- and in exchange, Apple would grant you their cut of the fees until you surpassed a certain sales mark. The incentive to monetize an inferior app based on rich, curious suckers is diminished when you have to bank on a minimum number of these suckers to make the scam work...and the net effect on truly prodigious, quality minded developers is neutral.

Eventually, Apple will need to introduce the concept of a money back guarantee -- one click to remove Khalid's apps from your machine and credit your account. After that, all you need is a way to "vote apps off the island" so it were, and you have a very consumer friendly app store. Again -- the net effect on quality minded developers is minimal, but carpet baggers will have to seek greener pastures.

[Chris Rogers]

Would be interesting to see what they do with his earnings...I'll take them

[earnjam]

Originally Posted by Achiever

Oh my God! It's one of "them", Hon! It's a CAPITALIST!!!!!!!

What in the hell is wrong with making a profit and when, exactly, did Americans finally start drinking the socialism Kool-Aid?

Look people, if his apps were crap, they wouldn't be purchased and he would lose money and stop making them. If he was making money, then people were finding them useful. If Apple wants to pull the apps for terms of use violations then fine, those are their rules and everyone knew them going in, but I don't begrudge a small business owner who has committed no crime and whose sole motivation is making money. To anyone who does begrudge him of this I issue the following challenge: march straight into your boss' office and demand that they pay you less money. You know, since it's not about "profit".

I didn't think so.

You hit the nail on the head. People shouldn't be getting up in arms about the profits...seems Americans are doing that in every other industry though (banking, oil, etc). Apple did the right thing because he was violating the terms.

Originally Posted by javaGuru

If all of his apps violated the terms of agreement for being an iPhone app developer how in the heck did they all get approved in the first place..while apps like google voice and other worthy apps are rejected?

This is the REAL question here. Why can't they just a grip on this darn system?

[javaGuru]

Originally Posted by Achiever

Oh my God! It's one of "them", Hon! It's a CAPITALIST!!!!!!!

What in the hell is wrong with making a profit and when, exactly, did Americans finally start drinking the socialism Kool-Aid?

Look people, if his apps were crap, they wouldn't be purchased and he would lose money and stop making them. If he was making money, then people were finding them useful. If Apple wants to pull the apps for terms of use violations then fine, those are their rules and everyone knew them going in, but I don't begrudge a small business owner who has committed no crime and whose sole motivation is making money. To anyone who does begrudge him of this I issue the following challenge: march straight into your boss' office and demand that they pay you less money. You know, since it's not about "profit".



I didn't think so.

Mega dittos! I totally agree with this statement. It seems like we are now living in a society where it's bad and somehow evil to want to better yourself by making a profit. Success and achievement are definitely under attack in the country. Somehow it has become evil and immoral to want to make large profits.

As this relates to this developer who was banned. If he was indeed violating Apple's terms of agreement for submitting apps to the iTunes app store then he should have been banned. I don't think he was banned because he merely wanted to make a profit. He was banned because the content of his apps were not original etc. If banning developers for merely wanting to make a profit there would be no developers left.

[bw300]

I agree-- Apple needs to develop a scheme to separate the well-designed, useful apps from the crap. Most of the apps are poorly written.

In some cases, I've even seen some the Apple sample code pawned off as original apps (Earthquakes, a metronome app, etc.).

[dasmb]

Originally Posted by Achiever

I don't begrudge a small business owner who has committed no crime and whose sole motivation is making money.

And I don't begrudge a retailer (Apple) for wanting to clear their shelves of inferior products that decrease public trust in their marketplace. This is one of the reasons why you choose a managed app store over the anarchy of the internet -- there's somebody out there to protect the curious consumer from applications that offer no real value.

Arguments to pure Capitalism fail when you realize this isn't a case of somebody offering an inferior product to a well informed populace with the ability to make cautious decisions. Since you can't evaluate apps before purchasing, every app purchase is an exercise in trust. It's like buying a car based solely on the dealer's description and the sticker price -- only while that is a stupid way to buy cars and there are laws to protect you even if you did, there is no other way to buy apps and your only protection is Apple.

In short: I support Khalid's right to make terrible applications. But even more, I support Apple's right to remove them. The threat of summary removal should be a cue to all developers: write good software, fix your bugs, define your space, service your market and charge a fair price if you want to do business on the iPhone. If you aren't comfortable doing good work for fair pay, this isn't a monopoly: there are many other cell phones you can write terrible software for.

To anyone who does begrudge him of this I issue the following challenge: march straight into your boss' office and demand that they pay you less money.

Lots of people leave high paying jobs that are no longer intellectually or morally rewarding. I myself have done this twice.