Is Apple not worried about unlicensed iPhone lyric apps?
We noticed a funny thing today when browsing our RSS feed of new iPhone music apps. A company called Apptism has released a bunch of apps called ‘Sing Along With…’, except not with the actual artist names in the app title. They offer collections of lyrics from the stars’ back catalogues.
For example, ‘Sing Along With the Canadian Country Star’ has loads of Shania Twain lyrics. Others include:
‘Sing along with the Caribbean Queen’ (Rihanna)
‘Sing along with the Genesis star’ (Phil Collins)
‘Sing along with Curly and the boys’ (N-Sync – we like this title especially)
‘Sing along with the Poker Face singer’ (Lady Gaga)
‘Sing along with the ‘Rockstar’ band’ (Nickelback)
And so on. The correct band/singer names are all in the App Store blurbs for these apps, it’s just the titles they’ve been not-so hidden in. Whether this is a cunning plan to avoid the copyright police is unclear – the app blurbs make it clear that they’re not officially connected (and thus presumably not officially licensed) with the artists.
It’s not just Apptism though – there are lots of companies punting lyrics apps for iPhone, most of which seem to be unlicensed. It makes us wonder what Apple’s policy is on this area, and how these apps are making it through the approvals process onto the App Store. Is the company relying on rightsowners alerting it to apps that infringe songwriters’ copyrights?
It seems like a recipe for dischord with Apple’s music industry partners to us. It’s possible that the apps above are fully licensed, of course, but we wonder if rightsowners need to start scanning the App Store’s virtual shelves more carefully, in the same way that they’ve monitored unlicensed lyrics websites in the past.
November 27th, 2009 at 10:44 am
[...] 1 votes vote Is Apple not worried about unlicensed iPhone lyric apps? We noticed a funny thing today when browsing our RSS feed of new iPhone music apps. A company [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 11:02 am
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by intradink_feed, eMusic Talk. eMusic Talk said: Is Apple not worried about unlicensed iPhone lyric apps?: We noticed a funny thing today when browsing our RSS feed… http://bit.ly/69H6rx [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 6:50 pm
[...] Music Ally] Tweet This!Share this on FacebookShare this on del.icio.usAdd this to Google BookmarksDigg [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 7:05 pm
[...] is that developers Apptism have developed a range of “Sing Along With” apps, which download lyrics to popular songs on your iPhone. They only refer to artists euphemistically, [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 10:04 pm
[...] “Genesis star” e così via. Se volete approfondire il discorso ecco il link a musically. [...]
November 27th, 2009 at 11:49 pm
“Is the company relying on rightsowners alerting it to apps that infringe songwriters’ copyrights?”
Yes. Apple’s agreement with developers explicitly states that developers are responsible for securing rights to all content that they display.
See, here’s the business plan:
1. Create and have Apple approve the App.
2. Make money–Profit!
3. When the rightsholders find out what you’re doing, Apple will pull the App and notify you.
4. Disappear.
5. Repeat.
Also, Apple keeps the money that they didn’t send you yet when they pull the App (and the 30% that they got from each sale). So you get money. Apple gets money. Rightsholders are left with nothing but a puff of smoke when they try to go after the company that made the App (since all you have to provide Apple with is an e-mail contact). Apple says, “We’re not responsible–we’re just the middleman!”
November 28th, 2009 at 8:10 am
Are we really going to now start complaining that Apple is not being responsible because it is too easy to get an App published? Do you want to get egged by the software developer community.
The last thing we want is for Apple to be responsible to somehow vette that ALL content in all applications is licensed by the proper copyrightholders. They already try to do this. The truth is that Apple should NOT be restricting based on content, period. No store checks the trademarks and copyrights of all their goods before selling. If a copyrightholder comes a long and announces that there was violation, they do exactly the same thing, they pull the product.
I have enough problems with Apple’s restrictive policies based on content.
November 30th, 2009 at 10:02 am
[...] bereitstellen? Was blüht iPhone Apps, die Songtexte bereitstellen? Diese Frage geht man bei Musically auf den Grund. Obwohl es rechtliche Probleme mit solchen Apps wie “Sing Along With… [...]
December 1st, 2009 at 3:37 am
[...] So what do you think? Are these various lyric apps seen around the app store really using licensed content or is Apple just dropping the ball? Speaking for myself, I am leaning with a mix of both to be honest. [...]
December 10th, 2009 at 2:03 pm
[...] case in point from Music Ally this morning – a new series of 99-cent ‘Sing Along With’ Apps from developer, [...]
January 13th, 2010 at 11:46 am
Anyone grabbed an unlocked iphone off ebay? That means i can use it on any network right?
February 7th, 2010 at 8:48 pm
i can’t imagine apple will become too strict, it would cost a fortune to review all apps. unless they set the prices high, or impose fines (but how would it be implemented?).