Apple kicks 900+ apps from App Store on copyright busting allegations

Apple has kicked its third most active developer from its App Store, citing intellectual property violations as cause.

Developer Khalid Shaikh has had his App Store license withdrawn and his over 900 applications removed from sale. Apple told the developer this was because of multiple complaints his apps infringed other people’s IP.

"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," the company told him, as revealed by TechCrunch.

Most of Shaikh’s apps cost $4.99. They tended to be aggregation applications, which gathered articles and images from websites concerning specific topics, such as stars, Top Sexy Ladies, or Soaper Stars Update (illustrated).

While these apps aren’t exactly the creme-de-la-creme, it’s understood the developer had a 26-person team and was pulling in thousands of dollars each day (TecCrunch). TechCrunch also points out that with the App Store authorising these 900 applications in the past, it wonders what oversight Apple’s approvals team has over instances of copyright abuse?

The whole sage emerges as Apple’s approval processes continue to attract criticism, with the recent denial of Google Voice generating an FCC investigation into the companies. We won’t repeat all the many instances of criticism of Apple’s App Store policies here, except to say that all of this criticism clearly underlines a need for the company to make its approval processes much more transparent.

This lack of transparency may also reflect just how quickly App Store became succesful, with the company’s processes perhaps not yet fully in place to deal with a business of this size.