ubuntu-appstore-developers team mailing list archive

[Daniel Holbach <daniel.holbach@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Hello,

On 19.09.2013 10:53, David Barth wrote:
> Rightfully so, you noted in the review process that a similar 
> app/wrapper existed. And I feel that this manual control provision is 
> what should safeguard the store.

While being clear and fair and having unique names sound like a good
idea, I can see a lot of devils in the details.

Let's say somebody uploads an relatively simple "Solitaire" to the store
very early on and goes AWOL. Now a more active solitaire hacker comes up
who produces a much nicer app. How will they have to name their app?
Will we drop the old one?

Will "Solitaire" and "SOLITAIRE" be the same thing? What about "★
Solitaire ★"?

What would the decision making process of the reviewer be like? What
will we suggest to app developers? Will this scale once we have lots and
lots apps coming in?


>> I think we should have a mechanism to block out trademarked names upon
>> request and proof of ownership, and let the rest sort itself out by
>> user ratings & reviews (may the best solitaire win!). Otherwise we'll
>> have a gold rush to scoop up popular app names, and I don't think
>> that'll benefit anyone.
> I think the Developer Programme Agreement already contains the 
> provisions to request and enforce sound practices. You may want to add 
> more checks and automation to the review process, but that's another 
> question.

I'm not quite sure which checks based on the app name we could
implement. Do you have any suggestions?


> So in summary, I fell that you are right to consider the review process 
> as the main mechanism to safeguard the content of the click store. 
> Technically enforcing app name unicity would not a silver bullet.

One thing we could do, in an attempt to provide a bit more transparency
to the user, would be to display the use of non-default namespaces
(com.twitter, com.facebook, etc.) in the app details somewhere. So
"owners" of the trademark/company/product would stand out a bit more.

Have a great day,
 Daniel

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