Do Two Digital Rights Make a Wrong?
In today's fast-paced digital marketplace there are plenty of opportunities for shady fly-by-nights to make a buck -- especially on iTunes. But usually there's some ambiguity to it! Is the Transformers Jiggsaw app using all the Ben Procter art legit? ...probably, even though it has the 'feel' of a cheap knockoff (no TF fonts, for one) but I'm pretty sure the Transformers Wallpaper app isn't... It looks slicker than the Jigsaw, but it also has Gundam pictures.
(They're really nice Gundam pictures! I have one as my wallpaper!)
But those are all free apps supported by advertising. There’s a sort of innocent hucksterism to them... Paid apps on the other hand...
Universal Meganizer caught my eye. It’s a fun 'play' app that wraps the user’s picture in a generic sort of 'morpher' like the one from Mighty Morphin Power Rangers. It’s highly generic and is probably 'legal' in that it's not really worth the trouble to C&D. A fun play app.
And then I realized that though the default image they use to advertise the app is a Copyright-dodging generic, it also contains alternate skins which are an exact match for the original Power Rangers morpher. Also the Autobot Matrix of Leadership. And... A Bajoran orb casing? Seriously?
I ponder... where lies my obligation to report this? Also -- most of these apps apps suck, making money while hurting the brand, but this one got 4 1/2 stars, it's actually good! Does that decrease my obligation to report it, or increase it? I don't want to be That Guy.
Oh well. Maybe I'll just angst about it on my blog or something. (It's a good thing I don't know any reasonably well-networked TF or PR fans who read this or they might think I was shoving the problem off to them! And I don't want to be That Guy.)