My Game has been ripped

[Pfaber11]

Well I put my games on Itch.io and they are on sale at the moment for free but they won't be in a few days . Anyway I was looking on the web and what do I find it's a site called aptoid giving my best game away . You Know what I don't mind but it is cheeky of them as in a couple of days it will no longer be on sale . Here's a link so you can see what I'm talking about . The name of my game is The awesome maze game 2 Android Edition . I also did a pc edition.
https://the-awesome-maze-game-2.rs.aptoide.com
If they were selling it I would be doing something about it but there it is .
Happy coding .

[Qube]

Has it been ripped or is it just the case of a 3rd party adding free games to their portfolio?

[Pfaber11]

Looking more closely it's a case of someone uploading it to their aptoid account . I don't really mind any advertising is better than none . At least they thought it was worth uploading so I suppose I am happy about that . It's had 46 downloads in two weeks . Hasn't exactly gone viral but I'm quite happy it's getting some attention. Aptoid looks like a good place to launch android apps . Don't know if you have to pay to put games on there but it looks very professional . Thanks for reading .

[RemiD]

fortunately this does not cause you any income loss ahahah

[Steve Elliott]

That's the problem when you don't charge for your software, people will share free software - like they're providing a service.

[Pfaber11]

Yes a free service at least it's out there . Have a nice day .

[Steve Elliott]

Very true.  People can see your name in the game credits and if they like your software look for your name again.

[Kippykip]

Ah I used aptoide a lot back in the day, it was basically a 3rd party appstore where anybody could upload APKs without having to pay a monthly dev fee (such as Google Play), and also kept track of app revisions (depending which user is uploading them).

Back in 2013 I remember it mostly being used for app piracy.

[Kryzon]

This is a violation of your intellectual property rights. 
You can find Aptoide's DMCA agent email in here (search for "DMCA"): https://co.aptoide.com/page/publisher_agreement?lang=en

Here's how you use it: https://sarafhawkins.com/how-to-file-dmca-takedown/

[Derron]

I do not understand the DCMA approach at all ...

US:
Author:"Hey I kindly inform you that you robbed me and potentially earned some money by providing it to others"
Website: "Ok, will stop that now".


Germany:
Author: "Hey someone is stealing my stuff and providing it to others earning money ... what to do now?"
Lawyer: "I will have to take care of it to prosecute your rights"
Website: "Oh, I received a letter from some lawyers ... they want me to stop hosting the product ... and the laywer asks for 560 Eur just for the letter!"


On the one hand the DCMA is good for "smaller pages" as it is a kind of cheap solution for them - but the bigger a portal/website is, the less they care of stuff: if someone blames them - put a DCMA page up and done.
Of course the "bigger of the big" pages need to do more than DCMA as they are target of governments and lawyers (US sueing system .... grants a lot of money if you achieve to score a penalty fee to make it "hurt").


If one wanted to do this now:
- check if the aptoide download leads to your "commercial" version (aka a backup of what was free for some time)
- check where aptoide is located
- if it is in your country and there it is not allowed to spread "to pay" software for free (there are surely countries allowing that!) then you might visit a lawyer who would then demand "downloadcount * normal buy price" from that website + fees of the lawyer).

But I assume you do not care so much and are prefering the "free advertisement".
Am not sure what happens to further products of you - as you would then have publically "accepted" what they (and others do). As soon as a copyright holder becomes aware of certain actions he has to do something to not loose certain rights (eg a picture trademark or similar stuff - hence the sue of all these Sonic/Mario/...remakes).


bye
Ron

[Pfaber11]

As the game was earning me no money I've decided on the free publicity approach but if I was making some money on it even just a tenner a week I would be pretty annoyed . It is nice to think they thought it good enough to put it up there . In the 2 weeks it was up there they had 46 downloads which is not bad . It has brought Aptoide to my attention as a good place to launch Android apps . Had never heard of this site before now but it seems very popular .