iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

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kehaar
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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by kehaar » Thu Feb 03, 2011 4:30 pm

It'd be nice if ol' iCoder could be outed personally, his/their real name(s), addresses, etc, all over the web. Might make getting a coding job difficult in the future, or just be nice and humiliating anywhere he goes on the net.

I'd be very surprised if Wolfire could get any money out of him, but there would be a little taste of interwebz community justice.

Hopefully the Mac Apps store hasn't cut him any checks yet. Or stopped payments to him after the first few $$ he took out of it. I bet they look a little closer at apps they sell from now on. His using the same graphics in his ad was clever; the folks managing the Apps Store probably barely glanced at it, of just assumed it was coming from their real client, Wolfire.

EDIT: just searched for Lugaru on the Mac Apps Store, 1pm Feb 3rd, and it's entirely gone. Hopefully they'll put it back up when they straighten it out.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Jacktheawesome » Thu Feb 03, 2011 6:58 pm

I just sent iCoder a little email :wink: Doubt it will have much effect, but it was a good way to vent :)

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by elZorro » Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:46 pm

The counterfeit Lugaru is now #163 on the paid apps list in the US. That is despicable.
All I can say is that iCoder had better not get a cent from those sales.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Madd the Sane » Thu Feb 03, 2011 8:53 pm

The news is making the rounds. It is completely possible that Apple will pull it due to shame.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Renegade_Turner » Thu Feb 03, 2011 10:43 pm

rudel_ic wrote:Most of all, there's not much money in this kind of behavior, and they're pretty much destroying their own reputation with this. So it's one of the most idiotic things a developer can do. They'll never get any positive vibe from anyone who's aware of this fiasco. The whole indie scene hates their guts. Kotaku has them in the crosshairs, they have a lot of readers. Multiple developers will take them as a referential bad example in the future. They're raping the opensource idea. It's pretty much professional suicide. And that for no good reason.

Plus, they can't remedy this. They won't get rich. So why do it?

iCoder, eh? Welcome to your five minutes. I guess any publicity is good publicity. Hooray for you and the 500 bucks you made. If it even reaches your banking account.
You said all I wanted to say in the words that I wished I could say it in.
Jacktheawesome wrote:I just sent iCoder a little email :wink: Doubt it will have much effect, but it was a good way to vent :)
Ditto. I wasn't abusive or anything. Just ominous.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Tonjevic » Fri Feb 04, 2011 8:19 am

elZorro wrote:The counterfeit Lugaru is now #163 on the paid apps list in the US. That is despicable.
All I can say is that iCoder had better not get a cent from those sales.
I've been wondering if there wasn't a positive effect for iCoder from all this publicity. It might be that tons of gamers are seeing this news and figuring they'll download the cheap Lugaru while they have the chance, in case it gets taken down.

I do wonder why Apple is being so slow on this matter. Maybe they're examining their approval policies closely or something. Hopefully they're not just being officious and bureaucratic.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Chibiabos » Sat Feb 05, 2011 3:32 am

I noted the counterfeit sales on Wikipedia's article on the Mac App Store here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mac_App_St ... rfeit_Apps

And on the article about Lugaru here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lugaru#Cou ... _App_store

My writing and wiki editing skills are a bit weak and rusty, so if anyone could polish it up a bit, I'd appreciate it. I decided to reference the destructoid article instead of the Kotaku article, because the destructoid article is less ambiguous about the legality of the counterfeit app, but there are other news articles to pick from.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by kehaar » Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:26 pm

Thanks for doing that, Chibiados.

Anyone Know the latest on this? Both the real and the fake are down from the apps store website.

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Anton
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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Anton » Mon Feb 07, 2011 5:43 pm

kehaar wrote:Thanks for doing that, Chibiados.

Anyone Know the latest on this? Both the real and the fake are down from the apps store website.

It looks like only the real version is on the app store now.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Tonjevic » Mon Feb 07, 2011 6:00 pm

Good news!

Hopefully apple takes some action to tighten up their review process, and/or introduces some punishment and restitution systems.

I doubt it though.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by kehaar » Mon Feb 07, 2011 10:16 pm

Yay, that's good to get straightened out.

I imagine the people who work there at the App store are pretty annoyed that iCoder sneaked that past them and caused a ruckus. It's an embarrassment for them to miss a scam, and a bunch of extra work, apologies and irritating discussions with their bosses, and I bet they have the same disgust for douches like iThiever that we all do.

At any rate, I'm guessing they'll try to avoid getting burned again. Hopefully they didn't release much money to them before freezing it, or better yet that they'll drop a nice "Return Our Money or Our Attorneys Will Sodomize You and Throw You In Jail" letter.

Of course, iCrapper is probably the Romanian Mafia in Bucharest, just bouncing their project off a Canadian IP. :|

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Cadrega » Fri Feb 11, 2011 7:00 am

Making it so that various gaming sites covered this was a good thing:
1) it damaged iCoder's image, thus making it harder for him to carry on with his scams
2) was great for Wolfire's already good image, and increased the public awareness of Overgrowth

Admittedly, some sort of legal (and tangible) repercussions would have been preferred, but I'd say that this is a good outcome.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Bellerophon » Fri Feb 11, 2011 11:36 am

Yeah, I'm really curious as to what happened. I mean, the app store was acting as a publisher who published stolen and copyright-infringing material, and legally I'd think Wolfire would be entitled to a settlement of lost revenue; I'm wondering how things are actually playing out.
Last edited by Bellerophon on Sun Feb 13, 2011 11:33 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Tonjevic » Sat Feb 12, 2011 6:35 am

A follow-up article on kotaku indicated that Apple didn't take the copy off the app store. They quoted iCoder as saying that they voluntarily removed it.

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Re: iCoder: Aren't they just a delightful bunch?

Post by Cadrega » Sat Feb 12, 2011 2:33 pm

Tonjevic wrote:A follow-up article on kotaku indicated that Apple didn't take the copy off the app store. They quoted iCoder as saying that they voluntarily removed it.
Well, I'm going to guess that iCoder decision to remove it was because of the amount of bad press this stunt caused them. :roll:

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