Small developer bullied off the iPhone store

[dejo]

I have been requested to retract any libelous comments...

By who?

 

[Dimwhit]

I have not had any reply from Vista Publishing, and they have still not provided me with any information regarding the copyright holder they claim to be acting on behalf of, their right to act on behalf of this copyright holder, or the specifics of the supposedly infringing puzzles, or evidence of their puzzles that they claim they infringe upon.

Any advice as to what my next step should be? I have asked twice for this information, and apart from the original letter I have received nothing from them. I'm tempted to just stick the game back up.

Personally, I'd put your game back on the store until they can prove copyright. Especially if it's a game that's been around for centuries.

Not that I recommend that, of course. I'm not a lawyer, so I don't know what the risk it. Maybe tell them that if you don't receive the information you've requested within XX number of days, your app goes back up on the store.

 

[Castle]

By who?

By the people threatening to sue me. As I've said, I have no motivation to fight this. They've demonstrated prior examples of some of the puzzles, and provided they demonstrate they own/act on behalf of the owner of the copyright there's not really anything to fight. I thought I was creating puzzles, but instead I was re-creating existing ones. To fight this I would need to argue that rebus puzzles cannot be copyrighted. I'm not interested in pursuing something like that. I'll just remove the puzzles they've now highlighted and then look at my options from there. There's not much motivation to continue with it, though.

 

[Fonzijr1964]

I have been requested to retract any libelous comments made in this thread. I do not believe I made any, but have retracted any made that could possibly be construed to be so.

hahah

get a load take them to court just do it

u are small they will back off if u do that

 

[GoCubsGo]

Damn I hate when the OP removes their original posting. It makes for a very confusing thread.

 

[pilotError]

By the people threatening to sue me. As I've said, I have no motivation to fight this. They've demonstrated prior examples of some of the puzzles, and provided they demonstrate they own/act on behalf of the owner of the copyright there's not really anything to fight. I thought I was creating puzzles, but instead I was re-creating existing ones. To fight this I would need to argue that rebus puzzles cannot be copyrighted. I'm not interested in pursuing something like that. I'll just remove the puzzles they've now highlighted and then look at my options from there. There's not much motivation to continue with it, though.

And so they win...

If you can come up with prior art to their copyright filing, you can pretty easily invalidate their copyright. In fact, you can probably get a form from the copyright office to submit prior art.

Did you ever contact the EFF?