Bruttissima storia che mostra il potere censorio del monopsonio di Play store

With bots performing all sorts of intellectual property policing these days, fair use considerations are completely off the table. Nuances that can't be handled by a bot should theoretically be turned over to a human being in disputed cases. Unfortunately, dispute processes are often handled in an automated fashion, leading to even more problems.

Tolriq Yatse, the developer of a popular Xbox Media Center (XMBC) remote control app for Android phones, ran into this very problem with Google's Play Store, which suddenly dumped his app over "intellectual property violations" after more than 2 years of trouble-free listing. This might have been a quick fix if Google had been more forthcoming with details, but all Yatse received was a brief notice as his app was removed from the Play store.

Nothing was changed at all apart filling the new forced content rating form and suddenly lost all my revenues.

I hope someone human answer with details soon, but I'm joining the anger from all developers around about how #Google treat devs, take 30% share without problem but certainly do not do support or act as human when killing someone.

His complaints reached his fans and customers, who then made their presence felt. This finally prompted a Google human to give Yatse the details he needed so he could fix his app and get it relisted.

Hi Tolriq,

Thank you for your additional comments.

As previously explained, your promotional images include content that you do not appear to have permission to distribute. For example, images related to films are most likely protected by the various studios that produced and released them. It is reasonable to assume that these would not be made legally available in public domain or via Creative Commons as most studios are extremely protective of their intellectual property. The same could be said of images from various TV series…

This part of Google's response refers to screenshots used in the app's listing. They used to look something like this…

The images used here are only indicative of the app's capabilities. Even if (obviously) unlicensed, the app doesn't promise anything more than control of XBMC content. It doesn't promise access to studios' offerings or otherwise act as a movie/TV show portal. In this context, the movie posters displayed in the screenshots would appear to fall under "fair use." Google's response to Yatse indicates that, even with a human now involved, the Play Store won't tolerate the use of unlicensed images in "promotional" screenshots.

In fact, fair use isn't even discussed. Instead, Google asked Yatse to prove ownership of the disputed artwork before the app could be relisted.

If you are able to prove otherwise, either via direct authorization from a studio representative or the location where you sourced these images (public domain and/or Creative Commons), we could review that information and reconsider the merits of this case.

The motivating factor for this non-consideration is potential litigation, according to the Google Play Team.

via www.techdirt.com

Comments

[Scritto da: Massimo]

Le innovazioni così restrittive ci costringono all'uso di nuovi termini in economia :-)
Propongo di cambiare il termine "monopsonio" con "Monòxeno", ossia unico soggetto che ospita.

[Scritto da: Bubbo Bubboni]

Propongo di spostare il problema dal piano economico a quello del ragionamento.

Infatti l'intervento dell'umano ha permesso di capire da fuori cosa stava succedendo ma è palese che nessuno, umano o meno, ha mai acceso il cervello.
E questo capita sia se ci sono tante società come se ce ne sono poche nel mercato considerato.

Quindi il termine greco che mi pare indicato è quello del segmento di mercato polimikroképhalos (se lo spazio competitivo è affollato ma composto da enti che "ragionano" tutti allo stesso modo) o monomikroképhalos se il numero di organizzazioni (composte da umani o algoritmiche) è unitario.

Del resto analoghi attacchi brainless sono documentati anche in relazione a note società di pagamento online, di telecomunicazioni o di riscossione crediti e questi settori sono belli pieni di allegri competitor tutti funzionanti in modo identico.
Il tratto comunune a queste situziazioni non è sul piano economico ma sull'esigenza di automatizzare i contatti con il pubblico, contenere la quantità di personale umano, difficoltà di dotare il personale di un minimo di potere decisionale, internazionalizzazione e multirazzismo, ecc. ecc.