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If I put in the terms of service that I am allowed to murder somebody does that make murder legal now since it is in the TOS which the parties agreed to? TOS does not supersede state and federal laws.

That's not a very good analogy but yes, it would make you an accessory to murder since it was written and you agreed to. In such case, it would be very hard for you to prove that you were "forced" to do something.
 
It’s not my definition. It’s UK’s.
and South Korea, EU or UK don’t give an f about us monopoly laws
Each legal jurisdictions have their own antitrust laws, and not just for monopolies, it applies to duopolies, oligopolies, etc., as well.
 
That's not a very good analogy but yes, it would make you an accessory to murder since it was written and you agreed to. In such case, it would be very hard for you to prove that you were "forced" to do something.
It is a good analogy proving that contracts do not supersede state and federal laws.
 
3rd party in app purchase is what they wanted. Since they won, it's just a matter of time before Fortnite returns.
I think you should refresh your memory what Epic's claim was and what they actually asked courts to do. I won't spoon feed you information.
 
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What you are proposing is pretty much the current state of Google App Store which isn’t known for hosting quality apps or being too good with privacy and security measure especially with sideloaded apps. Epic itself was already in headlines few years back for infecting millions of people with malware from their sideloaded Fortnite in addition to having a malicious code in their payment systems. This is all historical evidence.
This could equally happen with apple App Store if apple doesn’t correctly manage their vetting process
I agree that Apple lives and dies by the App Store but you seem to forget what made the App Store the huge success that it is now. Losing control over customer experience is pretty much cripples the core value proposition for the end user. Apple needs to have ROI for them to make sense business model wise. Apple will find the way to make up for the lost revenue. That’s not what I am worried. My worry is for the App Store and iOS to look and act like Google Play Store and Android. That’s not a good thing by any means.
Indeed, but this requires flexibility and adaptability. And as we can see apple is extremely rigid and slow implementing needed changes. This is why apple is where it is because they did not adapt to the current market. You have to remember that the App Store is an investment in their iOS system. Profitability isn’t that important as it’s there to incentivize developers and users to buy their main cashcow

Epic hosts only games and they were happy to charge 60% to host other software and game developers in their brick and mortar stores in the 90s.
Great but it’s irrelevant as digital stores aren’t equivalent
I never said it’s ok just because everyone does it. Don’t forget that it is Apple - not Epic or anyone else - that reduced such fees from 60%-70% to 30% when the App Store launched. How low is low enough exactly? The cost of everything is so much higher in today’s world but despite that Apple never increased the rate. So again, how low is low enough? So far what I am seeing is a general consensus towards not paying anything but still have all the privileges.
that’s not true. Steam started long before apple even thought about an iPhone. With a 30% fee. Digital stores are extremely profitable as the cost are barely noticeable. Reviewing is the expensive part. What is a low fee? Well let people use their own payment system and incentivize by making a better iAP system developers want to use and we will see competitive results. Now apple don’t need to do anything
I would like you to give us an example which company ever changed things spontaneously without any underlying goal. You single out Apple for only responding to legal pressure. There is a market standard for everything and fees are one of them. That’s how business field works.
Apple? Ford? Epic? There are many companies that spontaneously change things for their own benefits.
I’m compla That apple doesn’t change things as a market leader before the law forces them to change. Apple implemented “spontaneously” their physical store concepts because it’s good for them and the customer, same with iTunes. Ford implemented limited work weeks and payed leave as it benefits them. Epic launched a store with 12% fee instead of 30% to compete with steam for their own benefits etc etc.
just doing the same as everyone else is how apple killed Nokia, windows phone and the entire old phone market. And the same can happen to apple if they do the same.because apple did the opposite of everyone else
 
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It is a good analogy proving that contracts do not supersede state and federal laws.
It's a terrible analogy since private disputes are resolved through the civil court system, as opposed to the criminal court system. Federal courts don't get involved in every case, my friend.
 
It's a terrible analogy since private disputes are resolved through the civil court system, as opposed to the criminal court system. Federal courts don't get involved in every case, my friend.
That is where me and you are going to disagree. I made my point by stating that contracts do not supersede law.
 
Apple has already hinted that in the event that third party payments are allowed, they would simply find another way to continue to bill developers regardless.

So even if Epic could switch to PayPal or some other payment provider, Apple would still expect them to pay 30% of IAP revenue.

An EPIC!!! solution would be for Apple will make all the payment processing FREE but sell developers I-BUCKS for custom store skins.
 
Ok. Not sure how you justify mixing up civil courts, federal courts, and state courts to one another. I mean, I am sure you wouldn't get legal advise for your divorce from an injury lawyer, would you?

Judging from your "thumbs down", I guess you would get legal advice for your divorce from an injury lawyer. Not a wise thing but that's your choice :)
 
Epic Games basically got greedy thought the rules didn’t apply to them because they so big Apple would cave in , everyone play by the same rule regardless and if they disagreed with Apple they should of complied with the current rules while challenged it in court, that’s grounds of having your developer account banned regardless of future rules and Epic may now find them permanently banned from the App Store as they see their competitors doing what they did to get banned tho now allowed as they followed the rules poetic justice small time developers have to follow the rules and epic has learned the hard way regardless how big you are you will be treated no different it’s called being treated as equal no privilege has any place in the App Store why it’s great 👍
 
Although I agree Apple should introduce distribution fee, which is fair because services like Netflix and Spotify aren’t paying Apple anything right now, I can see Epic then sues again for third party App Store.

Maybe, but that's a much harder argument. Apple has no obligation to make their products interoperable.
 
Citation needed on profitability of Epic Games Store.
Epic still exist, and their own statement
Apple and steam have a markup of 300-400% compared to costs. So epic have a 150-200% markup. This of course leaves out Epics’s insane investments of buying game rights and studios
Also the effect of the stores for all consoles and multiple stores for android phones.
Nope, you can only buy iOS apps on App Store, you can buy Xbox games close to anywhere. I can buy physical copies, I can buy a game key provided by the developers or on any other random website that accepts them.
Android what I know allow you to install an app from anywhere legit or not
with consistent rules.
Consistent? How? Fortnite costs apple exactly the same amount of money to host as Netflix or Amazon kindle costs to host.
no practical difference outside arbitrary lines irrespective how things are payed for

The small business program and 15% subscription revenue after the first year were made without legal pressure.
It was made exactly because of legal pressure as EU, Korea, Japan, USA etc have started anti competitive investigations with findings and laws heavily seeming to be against apple
Unfortunately when you have active legal proceedings you can't second-guess what the court might like. E.g. Apple can't drop revenue collection to 15% across the board knowing that would still cover their infrastructure costs, then have someone like South Korea mandate that
Apple support terabytes of downloads for someone like Epic for $99/yr.
You don’t need to second guess anything, in apples internal documents they knew years before that their 30% won’t last forever, they even talked about lowering the crew once the store reached 1 billion profits a year.
 
Lame, you failed to prove your point.
Epic still exist, and their own statement
Apple and steam have a markup of 300-400% compared to costs. So epic have a 150-200% markup. This of course leaves out Epics’s insane investments of buying game rights and studios

Nope, you can only buy iOS apps on App Store, you can buy Xbox games close to anywhere. I can buy physical copies, I can buy a game key provided by the developers or on any other random website that accepts them.
Android what I know allow you to install an app from anywhere legit or not

Consistent? How? Fortnite costs apple exactly the same amount of money to host as Netflix or Amazon kindle costs to host.
no practical difference outside arbitrary lines irrespective how things are payed for


It was made exactly because of legal pressure as EU, Korea, Japan, USA etc have started anti competitive investigations with findings and laws heavily seeming to be against apple

You don’t need to second guess anything, in apples internal documents they knew years before that their 30% won’t last forever, they even talked about lowering the crew once the store reached 1 billion profits a year.
Epic still exist, and their own statement
Apple and steam have a markup of 300-400% compared to costs. So epic have a 150-200% markup. This of course leaves out Epics’s insane investments of buying game rights and studios

Nope, you can only buy iOS apps on App Store, you can buy Xbox games close to anywhere. I can buy physical copies, I can buy a game key provided by the developers or on any other random website that accepts them.
Android what I know allow you to install an app from anywhere legit or not

Consistent? How? Fortnite costs apple exactly the same amount of money to host as Netflix or Amazon kindle costs to host.
no practical difference outside arbitrary lines irrespective how things are payed for


It was made exactly because of legal pressure as EU, Korea, Japan, USA etc have started anti competitive investigations with findings and laws heavily seeming to be against apple

You don’t need to second guess anything, in apples internal documents they knew years before that their 30% won’t last forever, they even talked about lowering the crew once the store reached 1 billion profits a year.
This could equally happen with apple App Store if apple doesn’t correctly manage their vetting process

Indeed, but this requires flexibility and adaptability. And as we can see apple is extremely rigid and slow implementing needed changes. This is why apple is where it is because they did not adapt to the current market. You have to remember that the App Store is an investment in their iOS system. Profitability isn’t that important as it’s there to incentivize developers and users to buy their main cashcow


Great but it’s irrelevant as digital stores aren’t equivalent

that’s not true. Steam started long before apple even thought about an iPhone. With a 30% fee. Digital stores are extremely profitable as the cost are barely noticeable. Reviewing is the expensive part. What is a low fee? Well let people use their own payment system and incentivize by making a better iAP system developers want to use and we will see competitive results. Now apple don’t need to do anything

Apple? Ford? Epic? There are many companies that spontaneously change things for their own benefits.
I’m compla That apple doesn’t change things as a market leader before the law forces them to change. Apple implemented “spontaneously” their store concepts because it’s good for them and the customer. Ford implemented limited work weeks and payed leave as it benefits them. Epic launched a store with 12% fee instead of 30% to compete with steam for their own benefits etc etc.
just doing the same as everyone else is how apple killed Nokia, windows phone and the entire old phone market. And the same can happen to apple if they do the same.

I would love to respond to all your points but I have no idea how to do line by line quote in here the way you did. I am new here. I appreciate your responses but you are quite off the mark with most things.
 
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Ok. Not sure how you justify mixing up civil courts, federal courts, and state courts to one another. I mean, I am sure you wouldn't get legal advise for your divorce from an injury lawyer, would you?

I am no legal expert and laws are different in all countries.

However with that said, I do agree that his analogy was fair - a TOS (or contract between two parties) cannot simply supersede law. Federal, civil or otherwise. You cannot bypass law by simply including something in a contract.

However, as with most things in life, you can sign waivers that exclude you from certain protections. For example in the UK we have working hour regulations, but, if an employee decides to, they can waive their rights to the protections in that legal act to work longer hours than would typically be permitted by the working hours regulations.

So it does get murky. No you cannot simply bypass laws by putting it in a contract or TOS, but provisions in those said contracts or TOS agreements can and may waive your rights to certain laws.
 
Thank you once again for contradicting yourself with your own words. Just like anyone can sign in here, any developer can also join App Store. Mac Rumors doesn’t prevent you from posting comments but it does serve the right to remove your comment or in extreme cases remove your account if you don’t stick to their guidelines. Same applies to App Store rules.
Just like Mac Rumors does not prevent you from posting comments in other sites, Apple also does not prevent developers from developing and distributing their apps on other platforms.

By your own definition, App Store - as well as Mac Rumors - is “perfectly competitive”.
If I may add and to support your arguments Aydo2000, regarding if the App Store is an economical market... it's not. The value of services (electricity, fuels, gas, etc.) currencies, and general quality of life of a country is not dictated by the quality and quantity of third party app developers in Apple's App Store, nor how much Apple charges them a commission fee or if they use or not their own purchase system/app stores. Girls and guys in general: Don't confuse segments with actual markets. Never saw the US dollar go down when Fortnite was expelled from Apple's App Store.
According to statistics, there are nearly 27 million of software developers in the world, and barely half a million of them work either as independent developers or work for companies that have projects related to the App Store. Judging by those numbers, Apple holds 1.8% of the developers attention around the world. Hardly a monopoly.
These companies are fighting for the flux of micro transactions that very-VERY- few apps and services generate, and Epic is just trying to influence the flow of that money stream to their advantage. In my opinion, these government involvements around the globe are unnecessary and a waste of tax-payers money only to benefit a few, and not the consumer or small/indie developer.
 
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I am no legal expert and laws are different in all countries.

However with that said, I do agree that his analogy was fair - a TOS (or contract between two parties) cannot simply supersede law. Federal, civil or otherwise. You cannot bypass law by simply including something in a contract.

However, as with most things in life, you can sign waivers that exclude you from certain protections. For example in the UK we have working hour regulations, but, if an employee decides to, they can waive their rights to the protections in that legal act to work longer hours than would typically be permitted by the working hours regulations.

So it does get murky. No you cannot simply bypass laws by putting it in a contract or TOS, but provisions in those said contracts or TOS agreements can and may waive your rights to certain laws.

I never said or claimed contracts can supersede laws. I only said his analogy neither proved his claim nor was an accurate attempt to do so. Laws are complex and contracts are part of the law and courts allow many complex clauses to be added as a waiver. This is a very complex topic and just going by pure extreme hypotheticals is not the way courts operate. You can't give a criminal offense as an example to make a point what "contracts" are. That's like saying clouds float, therefore there is no gravity.
 
If I may add and to support your arguments Aydo2000, regarding if the App Store is an economical market... it's not. The value of services (electricity, fuels, gas, etc.) currencies, and general quality of life of a country is not dictated by the quality and quantity of third party app developers in Apple's App Store, nor how much Apple charges them a commission fee or if they use or not their own purchase system/app stores. Girls and guys in general: Don't confuse segments with actual markets. Never saw the US dollar go down when Fortnite was expelled from Apple's App Store.
According to statistics, there are nearly 27 million of software developers in the world, and barely half a million of them work either as independent developers or work for companies that have projects related to the App Store. Judging by those numbers, Apple holds 1.8% of the developers attention around the world. Hardly a monopoly.
These companies are fighting for the flux of micro transactions that very-VERY- few apps and services generate, and Epic is just trying to influence the flow of that money stream to their advantage. In my opinion, these government involvements around the globe are unnecessary and a waste of tax-payers money only to benefit a few, and not the consumer or small/indie developer.
Thank you for your reply and support but if I may add that the “value” of the App Store is judged by the revenue generation abilities of the platform rather than it’s operational cost to Apple to maintain the platform itself. App Store has been a major reason for the app economy to exist and thrive. Many of the apps and services that you see these days rely on users who use these mobile devices and platforms. Just considering the job creation in each market - regardless of their size and status - it has been a great contributor for small and big developers to create and monetize opportunities with minimal upfront cost and risk on their end. Concept of startups is mostly reliant on innovations in mobile space driven by the APIs Apple creates for developers of any kind and size.

You are absolutely right: Apple is not a monopoly. Far from it, in fact. With just over 24% of global mobile market place and like you said, only 1.8% of the total developer attention, Apple does not dominate nor monopolize any markets. Having said that, that’s not what matters to developers. What matters is despite the small market share, Apple’s App Store generates twice the revenue than Google’s Play Store despite the fact that Google has majority of the global market share. In addition, there is the cost, effort and support considerations these developers look at when picking their platforms to dedicate most attention to. At any given time, on average one developer needs to support around 3,000 Android devices at a time to keep the app active and running. That’s hell a lot of resources and fragmentation to deal with. In comparison, iOS developer only needs to support handful of devices to keep the app active and running. Porting to other platforms like Mac OS is very easy and most importantly, there is a bigger “paying” customer base than Google’s Android OS.

In conclusion, is Apple a monopoly? No, and we both agree on that. Is the App Store an economical market? Absolutely yes. The whole Silicon Valley runs on app economy and the types of innovations these developers are attributing to directly correlates to innovation lead each government heavily focuses on. Think about it. Is US happy about China being a bigger leader with their innovation drive? I doubt it. Huawei and other Chinese companies are very good at what they do and they are very focused on their mission. All the while in the US, courts are filled with either big multi billion dollar companies like Epic acting like hero to small players. It’s sad that it strikes the right tone with today’s entitled generation so they go along with it.

If we keep being the cry-babies of the world, China will eat our lunch while we are too distracted discussing if Apple is fair to “want-it-all-for-the-cost-of-nothing” generation.
 
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Ah good point.

But couldn't I buy VBucks elsewhere and have them show up in the iOS app?

Forgive me as I've only played Fortnite on the PC. And not very much. :)

I just know that you can buy VBucks giftcards at the freakin' grocery store... so you can obviously buy VBucks in places other than in the app. Clearly Apple's IAP isn't the only way to buy this digital currency.

That's why I was wondering why Epic didn't just let people buy VBucks from their own website or store or whatever.

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Not much to do with what you posted but god... it sickens me gaming is now becoming more and more like this... "Freemium" games.. People must profit so damn much from these games.. All you have to do is make a game that appeals to that "FOMO" with costumes and power ups and you reel in the cash like crazy. You don't have to put in much work but iron out a few bugs every now and again... and you just make so much money. THe meritocracy is a lie, I know, and this is proof of it... but still...

Why make good, substantial games that leave an impact on the audience anymore when you can just profit so much off of crap like this? Makes me sad.
 
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That is where me and you are going to disagree. I made my point by stating that contracts do not supersede law.
If you haven't noticed, I never disagreed with you on that. To make it super clear for you, yes, contracts do not supersede law.

What I was trying to say to you is law is very complex and so are the contracts which are part of law. There are tons of factors to consider before you could simplify it with a very bad analogy.

Not trying to be jerk but your analogy was almost like saying "Clouds float, therefore gravity does not exist".

I hope I am being clear about it now...
 
As we've said all along, we would welcome Epic’s return to the App Store if they agree to play by the same rules as everyone else. Epic has admitted to breach of contract and as of now, there’s no legitimate basis for the reinstatement of their developer account.

Plus, Sweeney said they wouldn't return unless all their demands are met, which ain't happenin, so not sure why Epic asked anyway. Are they ready to apologize for the errors of their ways?
 
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