App consisting of only RSS feeds?
Hi guys,
I'd like to crate a few simple apps, which would be populated with RSS feeds (news, reviews, videos, etc.), and maybe a link or two to websites, that I do not own.
Do you think these kind of apps are acceptable by Google and Amazon?
Google's TOS: Do not post an app where the primary functionality is to: 1) Provide a webview of a website not owned or administered by you (unless you have permission from the website owner/administrator to do so); 2) Drive affiliate traffic to a website (which I planned to do with AirBop).
Amazon's TOS: Do not post apps with no author content.
***
Well, while writing this post, I've checked out a very popular publisher of these kind of apps (I had it bookmarked) and he has only one app left, which is not based on RSS feeds. All his apps had 100.000+ or 500.000+ downloads. I guess this answers my question. Too bad.
I'd like to crate a few simple apps, which would be populated with RSS feeds (news, reviews, videos, etc.), and maybe a link or two to websites, that I do not own.
Do you think these kind of apps are acceptable by Google and Amazon?
Google's TOS: Do not post an app where the primary functionality is to: 1) Provide a webview of a website not owned or administered by you (unless you have permission from the website owner/administrator to do so); 2) Drive affiliate traffic to a website (which I planned to do with AirBop).
Amazon's TOS: Do not post apps with no author content.
***
Well, while writing this post, I've checked out a very popular publisher of these kind of apps (I had it bookmarked) and he has only one app left, which is not based on RSS feeds. All his apps had 100.000+ or 500.000+ downloads. I guess this answers my question. Too bad.
Comments
When I have had problems it has been with copyrighted names such as motoGP or f1 which you are not allowed to use in the name of an app. I also once used a club emblem in the app icon once which didn't go down too well.
Some of the biggest apps like this, flipboard or pulse for example, or even htc sense only rehash other people's content in a clever way. As long as you acknowledge the source and don'try and pass it off as your own you should be ok.
You could always ask permission, I had permission from both f1.com and motoGP.com who were both very accommodating and only insisted on a disclaimer stating no official afilliation
I was planning to release a few Samsung Galaxy guides/news apps, a few cheat / walk-through apps for popular apps etc. I've also found this about using TM'd names in app titles:
"Yes,
you can generally do this, as long as you are also making it clear that
you are "unofficial" and not in a partnership with the original
trademark holder.
Think of the "[X] for Dummies" books, like
Microsoft Word for Dummies. There are plenty of examples. But all of
these examples make it very clear that they are not the original
company, since confusing people about that is the rule for whether it is
a trademark infringement or not."
I think this falls under the "Fair Use" of trademarks: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use_(U.S._trademark_law)
This might also help: http://chillingeffects.org/trademark/faq.cgi#QID741
However, I would not use any copyrighted images. I have my own custom icons made for gudies/games. I would use only titles and explain that the app is unofficial.
Please share your opinions and experiences. Thanks.
I will go extra conservative - I'll use only custom (generic) images and use names in titles, which are very popular, and are already around for some time (like Minecraft - they don't seem to care that much about this).
I will probably open a new account for this, tho, I don't want to
jeopardize my main account. I'll use a paid VPN to access it and a
VirtualMachine or a different computer. It's just a safety measure.
I'm about to create one such app, and I used Google News for testing the RSS feed, but mostly there were no images included (only gray question marks).
I'll try one of the other sources mentioned in another thread.
Btw, there are a lot of apps on GP, which do nothing else, but show feeds from various RSS sources. This is not encouraged by Google, but for now, everything seems to be OK. One of the bigger devs who had 99% of his apps suspended is Drippler. All their apps were only RSS feeds.
Anyway, as far as I understand, you can have RSS feeds, as long as you also provide some of your own content and that's what I plan to do.
Thanks.
Thanks.
I will look to see if we can do anything.
mark.
I'll try to create different RSS feeds in the future.