Daily Archives: August 25, 2020

Apple Has Finally Gotten Too Big for Its Britches – and even Kinja group is pissed off now

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What started out as a battle between Apple and Epic over direct in-app purchases in Fortnite has evolved into an ill-advised, petty revenge scheme. On Sunday, Epic filed a new motion to bar Apple from revoking iOS and macOS support for its Unreal Engine while its other beef is ongoing.

To back up a bit, Apple and Epic have been sniping at each other since August 13, when Epic launched its own in-app direct payments system that skirted Apple’s famous 30% fee. Apple then struck back by removing Fortnite from the App Store. Epic countered with a spicy video and an anti-trust lawsuit—a timely barb given heightened scrutiny around Apple being a control freak over its App Store. Apple then responded saying Epic had been trying to get preferential treatment via a special deal—a claim Epic CEO publicly refuted. In the midst of this legal spat, Apple decided that this coming Friday, it would delete all of Epic’s developer accounts and cut off access to the Apple SDK, effectively shutting down third-party access to Epic’s Unreal Engine.

Epic’s latest filing is aimed at temporarily halting Apple from screwing over developers while they duke it out in court. Its argument is that not only is axing the developer accounts unnecessarily harsh, but pulling SDK support also hurts third-parties who have built on the Unreal Engine and have no skin in the legal games Apple and Epic are playing. (And, honestly, Epic doesn’t want to lose out on that money stream.)

Adding to the dogpile, Microsoft also filed a statement supporting Epic in which it echoed those sentiments. Microsoft’s Kevin Gammill, general manager of gaming developer experiences, writes, “Epic Games’ Unreal Engine is critical technology for numerous game creators, including Microsoft.” He goes on to explain that while some larger game companies might have the means to create their own proprietary game engines, most don’t and for them, licensing third-party engines is how they do their thing. “As a result,” Gammill writes, “Epic’s Unreal Engine is one of the most popular third-party engines available to game creators, and in Microsoft’s view there are very few other options available for creators to license with as many features and as much functionality as Unreal Engine across multiple platforms, including iOS.”

Now Microsoft isn’t being purely altruistic in sticking up for the little guy here. It’s got a stake in gaming, as well as its own ax to grind with Apple over cloud gaming. But also, it has an extremely valid point about the damage Apple is potentially doing to users and developers just so it can clap back at Epic. If Apple succeeds in cutting support to the Apple SDK, it’s not just Epic that gets fucked. Any game developer who’s made significant progress in building their stuff out on Unreal Engine faces the conundrum of not only losing lots of time and effort, but they’d also have to calculate whether to start all over on a new engine, leave out iOS and macOS users entirely, or just throw in the towel. It also means games that have already been released on iOS and macOS won’t receive critical security updates or bug fixes.

Let’s be real. Apple has little justification for this other than flexing on Epic for daring to challenge the App Store status quo. Oh, you want to change how we do things around here? You want to call us out for our 30% commission rate? You don’t know who you’re fucking with because whoops, what if we just… cripple your ability to license Unreal Engine, a pretty big chunk of your revenue stream? Oh, you don’t want us to do that? How ‘bout you learn your place and back down?

It’s a game of legal chicken, but it’s also baffling on Apple’s part considering it’s under fire for its alleged anti-trust tendencies. Whatever you think about its ongoing spat with Epic, Unreal Engine is a different, unrelated thing. Epic’s decision to introduce direct in-app purchases in Fortnite arguably does flout Apple’s App Store guidelines. It might even have a point that Epic decided to say “fuck you” in the flashiest and most clearly orchestrated way possible. Both parties deserve their day in court over it. But I must have missed how an argument over direct payment system relates to critical developer tools used by third-parties? What was Unreal Engine’s sin, other than being owned by Epic Games?

In trying to punish Epic, Apple is dangerously close to showing its entire monopolistic ass. It’s reached too far and frankly, undermined its defense that it’s not an anti-competitive asshole. In its boilerplate statement when this all began, Apple said its guidelines “create a level playing field for all developers.” It’s not creating a level playing field if you use your vast power to screw third-party developers because you want to make a point about the company they license software from. It’s hard to interpret this particular action as anything other than bullying and retaliatory.

This behavior isn’t limited to Epic Games either. Last week, Apple was threatening to block updates to the WordPress iOS app until the company enabled in-app purchases through Apple’s payment system. You know, so it could get that sweet 30% fee. At the time, WordPress promoted paid subscriptions within the app, but didn’t provide a way for users to buy those subscriptions via the app itself. Sure, Apple backed down over the weekend and even said “sorry” to WordPress. But it was an empty apology. According to CNET, Apple withdrew because WordPress removed any references in the app to outside payment options. WordPress’s Matt Mullenweg also told CNET that it had promised to build in-app purchase support within the next 30 days and then tweeted a word of warning to other developers in similar situations to do the same.

So it’s not just adding a direct payment system that will get you in Apple’s crosshairs. Even referencing that you can pay for a service but not including a means to buy within the iOS app will incur Apple’s wrath. This is arguably no longer about people violating reasonable App Store guidelines for “safety” purposes. This is about Apple hamfistedly reminding everyone to play by its rules, however, it chooses to interpret them on a given day, and always in its own favor. Apple, so used to acting with impunity, has lost all pretense of believing in fair play. If there’s any justice in the world, that’s how it’ll get the reckoning it deserves.

Source: Apple Has Finally Gotten Too Big for Its Britches

Which is quite amazing, considering that all the Kinja group websites’ reporting on this Apple incident has been heavily anti Epic and pro Apple

Apple apologises to WordPress for forcing in-app purchases and U-turns

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Apple has clarified the situation with the WordPress iOS app, apologizing for the mistake of blocking developer updates to the app until they added in-app purchases, despite the app not including any functionality involving payments.

On Friday, it was reported the lack of app updates for the WordPress app were due to it being “locked” on the App Store. After three weeks of absence, developers of the app had agreed to implement some form of in-app purchase to the app to enable updates to go through again, among other possible solutions.

In a statement provided to AppleInsider on Saturday, Apple claims the issue with the app has been “resolved” overnight.

“Since the developer removed the display of their service payment options from the app, it is now a free stand-alone app and does not have to offer in-app purchases,” states Apple. “We have informed the developer and apologize for any confusion that we have caused.”

At the time the block came to light, it was suggested the app was blocked because it was possible for users to see a page within the app’s Help Center discussing upgrades to paid plans. This is in reference to WordPress.com’s paid hosting offerings, which are managed from the website, not the app.

While the app itself doesn’t offer any monetary transaction capabilities at all, it is believed the mention in the support page for the website version was a violation of App Store review guidelines

Source: Apple didn’t force in-app purchases on WordPress | Appleinsider

How Appleinsider managed to turn the above content into the above headline is a mystery to me.

Epic move: Judge says Apple can’t revoke Unreal Engine dev tools, asks ‘Where does the 30 per cent come from?’

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A Federal US judge questioned why Apple takes a 30 per cent slice of developer revenues as she ruled that while Apple cannot cut off Epic’s access to iOS Unreal Engine development tools, she would not order the company to allow Fortnite to return to the App Store.

In the eight-page order [PDF], Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers, the Northern California district judge yesterday said that Unreal – used by hundreds of third-party devs for both console and mobile games inside and out of Apple’s App Store and dubbed by Microsoft at the weekend as a “critical technology” – was governed by a separate contract between the parties, the “Xcode and Apple [software development kits] Agreement”.

Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders

She said it was “relevant” that this was distinct from “Apple’s agreements with developers and the App Store guidelines”, which do not generally permit third-party developers to circumvent the IAP [in-app purchases] system”.

The move on 13 August that kicked this all off – the activation of “allegedly hidden code in Fortnite allowing Epic Games to collect in-app purchases directly” via its “Fortnite Mega Drop” – was described as “calculated” by the Northern California court judge.

Making that move, as we’ve previosuly mentioned, precluded Apple from taking its traditional 30 per cent cut and saw the developer booted out of the store, prompting it to fling an almost certainly pre-prepared sueball at Cupertino as the boot hit its face.

Epic’s original complaint alleged Apple is abusing its dominant position by seeking to “control markets, block competition, and stifle innovation”.

The split order was handed down late last night after some oral wrangling with Apple’s counsel over Zoom – dodging an authentication issue on the platform earlier that day.

The judge reportedly asked Apple lawyer Richard Doren at the Zoom hearing yesterday: “The question is, without competition: where does the 30 per cent (App Store commission) come from? Why isn’t it 10? 20? How is the consumer benefiting?”

To the last question, Doren, a partner at LA law firm Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP, replied that consumers could choose when deciding to buy an Android device or an iPhone.

In the written order filed late yesterday, the judge noted:

While the Court anticipates experts will opine that Apple’s 30 percent take is anti-competitive, the Court doubts that an expert would suggest a zero per cent alternative. Not even Epic Games gives away its products for free.

The order will be a relief to Epic in that it won’t be cut off from Unreal Engine development on Apple’s operating systems; the judge noted the court had to weigh up whether an “injunction is in the public interest”.

She spoke of the “potential significant damage to both the Unreal Engine platform itself, and to the gaming industry generally, including on both third-party developers and gamers”, adding that “not only has the underlying [SDK] agreement not been breached, but the economy is in dire need of increasing avenues for creativity and innovation, not eliminating them. Epic Games and Apple are at liberty to litigate against each other, but their dispute should not create havoc to bystanders.”

Source: Epic move: Judge says Apple can’t revoke Unreal Engine dev tools, asks ‘Where does the 30 per cent come from?’ • The Register

US Border Patrol Says They Can Create Central Repository Of Traveler Emails, calendar, etc, Keep Them For 75 Years

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The U.S. government has taken the opportunity during the global pandemic, when people aren’t traveling out of the country much, to roll out a new platform for storing information they believe they are entitled to take from people crossing the border. A new filing reveals how the U.S. Border Patrol will store data from traveler devices centrally, keeping it backed up and searchable for up to 75 years.

On July 30 the Department of Homeland Security published a privacy impact assessment detailing the electronic data that they may choose to collect from people crossing the border – and what happens to that data.

  • Border Patrol claims the right to search laptops, thumb drives, cell phones, and other
    devices capable of storing electronic information” and when they call it a ‘border search the can do this not just when you’re “crossing the U.S. border” in either direction (i.e. when you’re leaving, not just when you’re entering the country) but even “at the extended border” which generally means within 100 miles of the border, which encompasses where two-thirds of the U.S. population lives.
  • They needed an updated privacy impact assessment because of a new “enterprise-wide solution to manage and analyze certain types of information and metadata USBP collects from electronic devices” – and they they actually keep on file.

Border Patrol will “acquire a mirror copy of the data on the device” they take from a traveler and store it locally. Before uploading it to their network they check to make sure there’s no porn on it (so they search your devices to find porn first). Then once they’ve determined it’s “clean” they transfer the data first to an encrypted thumb drive and then to the Border Patrol-side system called PLX.

Examples of what they plan to keep from travelers’ devices include e-mails; videos and pictures; texts and chat messages; financial accounts and transactions; location history; web browser bookmarks; tasks list; calendar; call logs; contracts. Information is stored for 75 years although if it’s not related to any crime it may be deleted after 20 years.

The government emphasizes they’ve been collecting this information, what’s changed is simply that they’ll be storing it in a central system where everything “will now by accessible to a larger number of USBP agents with no nexus” to suspected illegal activity. They promise, though, to restrict access and train staff not to do anything they aren’t supposed to. And they don’t see risk to privacy because they’ve published a notice (that I’m now writing about) telling you how your privacy may be violated.

Electronic device searches have been on the rise. Between October 2008 and June 2010 6500 devices were searched. In 2016 there were 10,000 device searches, and 30,200 in 2017.

It’s not clear though that these searches are all actually legal. In November 2019 a federal judge in Boston ruled that forensic searches of cell phones require at least reasonable suspicion “that the devices contain contraband.”

Source: US Border Patrol Says They Can Create Central Repository Of Traveler Emails, Keep Them For 75 Years – View from the Wing