I got the following email from Katherine Falk:
Sure looks that way to me! Go to the app store, go to the books category, and then click the “Release Date” column. You’ll see several titles from “vpoint”, including “Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy” and “Bridget Jones Diary”, neither of which are likely to be in the public domain for (checks watch) centuries.
Vpoint appears to be a developer based in Vietnam.
I am ASTOUNDED that apple let this one slip by them, especially with the rumored tablet about to launch, though perhaps I shouldn’t be.
Oh, and the formatting kinda sucks, based on the screenshots, anyway.
I checked the Store and they do have those books, along with The Golden Compass, The Hobbit and some other major works. The screenshot, above, shows how they don’t have the title of the Guide right. The books are selling for $0.99.
Are these licensed by the publishers?
One theory behind the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy is that it has been in the public domain for the last 400 years due to an event that’s sure to occur at some point in the far future when the book becomes public domain wherein the book is sent back in time and republished before the year 1923, thus giving any publisher the rights to publish the book as they would like.
As for the title, the title has officially been published as The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, The Hitch-Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, and The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Universe (as was found on the spine of some copies of the graphic novel adaptation).
Though, considering that there is an official app for the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, I’m rather certain this is not an authorized release. This has been available for quite a while now and I’m quite surprised it has lasted this long.
They all look fairly recent — most of the obvious ones (From this vPoint) are dated this week. With misspelled or mangled titles.
And the link to the vPoint “support site” seems to be nonexistent. Which should have gotten them rejected by the App Store gatekeepers before things got this far.
Of course, finding an e-mail address to complain to is a bit hard.
Maybe they’re all legal – in Vietnam?? Did anyone ask the Tolkien estate (The Hobbit is one of the books) about this?
Remember that Apple does not confirm that you have the rights to the materials that you are publishing. This is the developer’s responsibility.
Currently, here is how you get rich on the App Store:
1. Steal Content. Build an App to display it.
2. Get Apple to publish it.
3. Make as much money as you can until the Content owners get wind of it and tell Apple to take it down.
4. Disappear in some foreign country so that the content owners will never find you (not that difficult, considering that all Apple has is an e-mail address for a developer).
5. Go to step 1.
Needless to say, Apple doesn’t complain too loudly because they get a 30% cut of every App sold. “We’re just distributors,” they’ll say. “Go after the guy who sold it!” Of course, when you ask Apple who the developer is, they’ll say, “Gee, we only know him as crookedfu@hotmail.com. But good luck getting your money back.”
Apple makes money. Developer makes money. Rightsholder gets stuck.
Can confirm that at least one of the vpoint books on the app store was completely unauthorised – was one of the books published by the company I work for. We got them to remove it.