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Game was cloned(graphics changed). What to do? — Gideros Forum
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    Game was cloned(graphics changed). What to do?

    unlyingunlying Guru
    edited January 2014 in User experience
    Hello.
    Recently i found my game developed by Gideros more than year ago was cloned. They changed resources of the game, but do not changed code.
    Original game: http://www.amazon.com/Shchedukhin-Pavel-Ricky-Monkey-Runner/dp/B009T9Q53E/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1389823265&sr=1-1&keywords=runner+ricky
    Clones:
    http://www.amazon.com/DonkeyKino-Apps-Runner/dp/B00HARZ4MU/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1389823153&sr=1-1&keywords=runner
    http://www.amazon.com/DonkeyKino-Apps-Explorer-The-Adventure/dp/B00H8Z2F80/ref=sr_1_5?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1389823180&sr=1-5
    http://www.amazon.com/DonkeyKino-Apps-Jake-Runner/dp/B00HQRDYTY/ref=sr_1_3?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1389823180&sr=1-3
    http://www.amazon.com/DonkeyKino-Apps-Sonny-Runner/dp/B00H032Y7C/ref=sr_1_1?s=mobile-apps&ie=UTF8&qid=1389823180&sr=1-1

    I found it because game has about in options and in about users can write on my email. And they do from all of that games. I found it only on amazon now, but i'm sure that it was placed in some other stores too. I receive about 20-30 mails per day from these games.

    So. What should i do?
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    Comments

    • jdbcjdbc Member
      edited January 2014
      I have seen they also use copyright images of movies.

      Send a email to Amazon about it, sure all apps will be deleted.

      It seems DonkeyKIno has two hacked apps.
      JDBC Games on Google Play
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    • ArtLeeAppsArtLeeApps Member
      ...or we form an angry mob, and hunt the cloner with torches and pitch forks :)
      Likes: Gideros Mobile, Maltesers, Portal Devices
      http://artleeapps.com/
      Bubble Adventure - Colors
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    • ar2rsawseenar2rsawseen Maintainer
      edited January 2014
      Wow, the level of insolence
      I bet they don't even own the trademarks used in their apps (Descipable me, Dore the Explorer, Peter Pen , Sonic)
      If amazon is as half as Apple, they will be out in no time.

      But yes I think you need to contact amazon on this one
      or in worst case the holders of trademarks
      http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile
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    • unlyingunlying Guru
      Thank you for notifying us of an alleged intellectual property rights violation within the Amazon Mobile App Distribution Program.

      Based on your declaration, we have removed the application listed below from our store. We have also notified the application developer of your claim and provided them with your contact information. The developer’s contact information is included below. We trust this will bring this matter to a close.

      Application suppressed from Distribution Program:

      · Jake Runner

      · Sonny Runner

      · Explorer The Adventure

      · Runner

      Likes: SinisterSoft

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    • ar2rsawseenar2rsawseen Maintainer
      Wow, cool, that was fast :)
      http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile
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    • loucsamloucsam Member
      What if the people doing the cloning got in first, and complained to Amazon?

      What did Amazon do to ensure you were the copyright holder?

      (First in best dressed? But what if it was stolen from one platform and run on another? you wouldn't necessarily be the first on Amazon? Just curious about their actions. )
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    • jdbcjdbc Member
      Copyright violation was clear in this case, not only they have hacked one Gideros app, they also use copyright images of movies.
      JDBC Games on Google Play
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    • HarrisonHarrison Member
      Just out of curiosity: do you think this is a result of code not being encrypted? Or was it encrypted?
      “ The first 90% of the code accounts for the first 90% of the development time. The remaining 10% of the code accounts for the other 90% of the development time. ” - Tom Cargill
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    • ar2rsawseenar2rsawseen Maintainer
      @Harrison in this case, not the code encryption, but asset encryption should help
      And asset encryption was not available more than a year ago, so definitely this app did not have one :)
      http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile
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    • jdbcjdbc Member
      I assume to hack this Gideros app they just changed those images and icons on a new generated APK file.
      JDBC Games on Google Play
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    • hgvyas123hgvyas123 Guru
      @ar2rsawseen

      what happens if someone download my game apk extract it and simply take asset folder and use Gideros exported project to generate new apk or ipa by replacing asset folder ? does this work?
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    • ar2rsawseenar2rsawseen Maintainer
      edited January 2014
      Theoretically is should work.
      But
      1) Only with Gideros
      2) knowing logical dimensions, scaling mode and AIR settings of your game (which they can't know)
      3) knowing sizes of images (which they can't know if your assets are encrypted)
      http://appcodingeasy.com/Gideros-Mobile
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    • OZAppsOZApps Guru
      @ar2rsawseen, what happens if someone download my game apk extract it and simply take asset folder and use Gideros exported project to generate new apk or ipa by replacing asset folder ? does this work?
      Resigning an APK or creating an IPA from an APK is not a big deal (even on a non-jailbroken iOS device)

      If the assets from your game were replaced with changed graphics of the same dimension, then yes, it could work. They do not need to know anything about code (unless you also create graphics/assets from code). Your app will look for a graphic image called "wallie.png" which is 120x68 then changing it from a horse to a dog, will now display a dog in the new app.

      However, just my observation, either the person makes changes like making a horse a dog, or blue buttons to green, etc BUT if the person changes the graphics and makes your stick figure graphics look realistic, then well, that is exactly what should happen.

      Having said that, I have also been in that sense "ripped", The sample in the book was published as is (code) just the graphics were changed. Then there was a tutorial for the beerSDK that was published recently on making a helicopter game ;)

      I would say that it is ok for others to make apps/tutes inspired by other apps, etc. However they should do the following

      1. They should acknowledge the original author or owner. Like one would when referencing a journal article or a published paper.
      2. If they are generating revenues and eating into the revenues of the original owner/author, then you should without fail, send a portion to the author of the original app/tute, etc

      By not doing so, we have issues where to protect their IP, the authors of the apps go as far as trademarking (safeguarding their franchise) which gets ridiculous and can be managed.

      Likes: hgvyas123

      twitter: @ozapps | http://www.oz-apps.com | http://howto.oz-apps.com | http://reviewme.oz-apps.com
      Author of Learn Lua for iOS Game Development from Apress ( http://www.apress.com/9781430246626 )
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