iPhone App as it could be used to Infringe Third Party Rights
Folks at Maza Digital who had submitted their iPhone app
, Drivetrain which is a remote control app for Transmission, a BitTorrent client for Mac OS X and other platforms are reporting that their iPhone app has got rejected by Apple.
They have received an email from Apple stating that “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”
A brief description of Drivetrain from Maza Digital’s website:
Drivetrain lets you check on and manage your Transmission BitTorrent downloads. It provides all the details of the web interface in a native iPhone app that’s easy to use.
You can checkout some of the screenshots of the iPhone app below:
Maza Digital is calling the rejection “ridiculous” and point out that “a BitTorrent client or the BitTorrent protocol are not illegal (and does not infringe on third party rights),” and notes that Drivetrain itself doesn’t even download anything directly but just acts as a controller.
Mashable points out:
According to Maza Digital the rejection seems to indicate that Apple has decided to reject any BitTorrent related iPhone app as it ‘is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights’. But iLounge is reporting that:
Trackr, currently available on the App Store, also lets users remotely queue torrents
to start downloading to a computer running uTorrent or Transmission—functionality similar to what Apple rejected in DriveTrain. Trackr sells for $2.99.
Though the blogosphere
(including us) have been saying that Apple needs to get their act together and figure out a way to fix the approval process, I can’t think of a quick fix to the problem (as they say it’s easier said than done).
Age-based parental controls which is expected to be released in iPhone OS 3.0 is a step in the right direction when it comes to handling apps with “objectionable content” to avoid iPhone apps like NIN: Access and Tweetie from getting rejected for ridiculous reasons.
I also think that the least Apple should do is publish a comprehensive set of guidelines on the types of iPhone apps that will be rejected or banned or removed from the App Store. I’m sure there will be some rules (like no BitTorrent related iPhone apps) that will be controversial, but at least they will avoid the current situation where iPhone developers end up spending time and money developing apps only to find out that their iPhone app has got rejected.
What do you think Apple should do to fix the approval process? We would love to hear your thoughts in the comments section below.
[via iLounge]
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