Moon+ Reader taken down


As I mentioned in a previous hangout, I use a reader app called Moon+ Reader for all my ebook reading needs. I loved it because it was able to sync up my position between different devices using dropbox, and allowed me to have my favourite page turning animation. It was also one of the most full featured reader apps on the market, allowing you to access several different markets (including Project Gutenburg), or to add your own OPDS catalog. Well, it seems that was the very feature that Google took offence to.

I first noticed it missing yesterday when I tried to re-install the app after a factory reset of my Nexus 7. When I tried to re-download it, it sent me to a "Does not exist" page. I thought it odd, so I posted on Google+. This morning, checked the developers website and found a note from the developer:
A nasty thing happened, Moon+ Reader and Moon+ Reader Pro have been removed from Google Play since 2:00PM 2013/1/31 (UTC-8 Time) because a request email from a Russia company "litres.ru" to Google Play team, Google didn't make any investigation and confirmation, they just removed my reader from the Play directly.
The only reason from litres.ru is, after several steps, a user can download books from my reader, they own the copyright of some books. (the orginal text in Russian: Электронные книги популярных авторов. Например, книги Дарьи Донцовой. Также доступно приложение, в котором по умолчанию встроены пиратские сайты. Бесплатные книги доступны в два клика. )
My opinions:
1. the reader can access OPDS web sites just like that a web browser can access html web sites with standard protocol, if they think any book site has problem, they should contact the web server provider to stop the services, a web browser can't know if a web site is illegal.
2. if they think there is a url link in my reader that a user can access a book site which they think it has problem, they can contact me to remove the link, like remove dynamic links from a web browser, all the additional opds URLs in the reader are provided by our warm-heart users, the reader hasn't any book site servies by itself, it only works like a web browser.
-
The litres has its own reader app in Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ru.litres.android, it's an unfair play.

I still get no reply from Google, the last message I got from litres is "I will use my personal contacts in Google to speed up the recovery process, but now the speed of recovery process depends only on Google (unfortunately it's Friday now).", another very bad message is a comment from another user "Google will return your program to the market in about a month after recieving their letter. That's the procedure."
-

I'm a weak personal developer, I devote myself to this project for years; I and my family live on the revenue from the reader only, here I thank so many warm-heart users, you help me to improve the product, it gets 5,000,000-10,000,000 downloads in Google Play today, and has up to 40 locale languages support, I'm proud for you.

It'll be appreciated if anyone could help me, for anything related to this matter, accuse this type of thing, or contact google for someone who may be helpful to speed up the recovery of my application.


Regards
Seany
 It sounds like something we have heard before. A random person files a copyright complaint over an app, and Google just straight takes it down without any notice. Unfortunately, the developer is the one who suffers in the end.

Seany is still offering the standard and pro version on his site until this all boils over. If you have purchased the pro version already (like I did), you can download from that link. If you haven't yet, I encourage you to pay via paypal. Seany needs to eat after all.

Maybe if we bombard +Google Play online, they will have to take notice. This is not the way to treat developers. This isn't just about Seany after all, but the precedence that will be set for this sort of thing. Innocent until proven guilty is sounding pretty good right about now. For all the good Google talks about them doing, they really should be treating their developers better.

Update: It seems that litres.ru has issued an statement apologizing for the take down of Moon+ Reader and have filed a request with Google Play to restore the app. It seems it was the case that litres.ru did not like how OPDS files could be added, but did acknowledge that this is no different than a web browser. The down side to all this is it may still take Google Play 3-4 weeks to restore the app. It's unfortuate that something that can be done so easily can take so long to be undone. This should not be the case on a matured platform, such as the Google Play Store. Anyone know of a quicker way to get it back?

Update 2: Looks like Google Restored the app to the Play Store. To celebrate it's restoration, you can get it for 50% here! If you paid via paypal, Seany will refund the amount for it and you can get it from the play store.

Source: Moon+ Reader Pro

Comments

  1. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment