App is suddenly not in my region?!

[helios16v]

I used to play this game Origins of Mafia back on my iPhone 3G but now that I wanna download it on my iPhone 4 it's telling me it's not in my region and I can't download it via iTunes or iPhone. I don't have the existing IPA on my old 3G anymore either so I have no way to download this app again?!

What am I to do about this? I paid $2.99 for this app and now I can't even use it on my iPhone 4..

 

[0007776]

Probably the developer decided to restrict the regions it's available in, so I don't think you can do much about it. It's one of the problems of downloading everything and relying on the cloud for backup.

 

[robbieduncan]

Could be linked to European developers leaving the North American markets due to patent trolls. Note that software patents are not valid in Europe so we don't have this problem here.

For many developers this risk means it's simply not worth selling in North America any more.

 

[psonice]

Software patents ARE valid in europe. We just have more of a sane patent system from what I understand of it, so for example amazon's ridiculous '1-click' patent got rejected.

It could be the patent issue causing the developer to withdraw the app though, certainly. If I had an app that used in-app purchase just now, it wouldn't be available in the US. Not sure about Canada. I actually dropped plans for in-app purchase features from one of my apps for this very reason.

Put simply, if we sell apps with certain features in the US there's a fair chance we'll get sued. If that happens, court fees are a minimum $50k, and usually run a LOT higher. The companies suing ask for a percentage of all our sales, plus TRIPLE damages (damages as in we've damaged the value of their patent by using it unlicensed). The end result is that we either roll over and hand over all our cash (regardless of whether the patent is valid or if we even infringe it!) or we get bankrupted.

 

[iStudentUK]

Software patents ARE valid in europe. We just have more of a sane patent system from what I understand of it, so for example amazon's ridiculous '1-click' patent got rejected.

It's actually halfway between being valid and not. The European Patent Convention states Computer Programmes are not patentable. However, this legislation has been interpreted to allow software that solves a technical problem to be patented.

 

[psonice]

It's actually halfway between being valid and not. The European Patent Convention states Computer Programmes are not patentable. However, this legislation has been interpreted to allow software that solves a technical problem to be patented.

Yes, but don't pretty much *ALL* software patents solve a technical problem? The ones I know about (lodsys + macrosolve) would fit that description. And amazon's patent was rejected on grounds of being obvious, based on prior art.