Copyright claim from developer of Luxor sparks marble-popping row.
Indie developer Codeminion has criticised Apple after its StoneLoops! of Jurassica game was removed from the App Store - allegedly at the behest of a rival.
The game - which is also available on PC and Mac - is in the marble-popping genre, similar to Luxor and Zuma. And it's Luxor's developer, Mumbo Jumbo, which sparked the row according to Codeminion.
In a blog post, co-founder Maciej Biedrzycki claims that Mumbo Jumbo complained formally to Apple three weeks ago, citing copyright infringement and customer confusion.
Codeminion submitted its response, but on Friday its game was removed from the App Store.
"It was also quite a shock to learn that the final decision was actually made by MumboJumbo as apparently Apple asked them if our response was satisfactory," writes Biedrzycki.
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"Of course MumboJumbo replied that they still want StoneLoops! removed. After all if you were to decide whether your direct competition will be allowed to sell products or not, would you allow them?"
This is only one side of the story, of course. Such copyright disputes are unavoidable when maintaining an App Store with more than 100,000 apps. However, the legal basis for such removals needs to be rock-solid to avoid further complications.
It remains to be seen how this particular row will be resolved, particularly if - as Biedrzycki points out - other marble-popping games like Zuma are released for iPhone.
