Andreas Kuster : An arrogant developer ripping off other people’s work on Android Market

I really wish I didn’t have to waste my time writing this.

Yesterday while browsing through the Android Market ‘Just in’ category I stumbled across something that took me by surprise. One of my games that I worked incredibly hard to make has been been ‘published’ to the Android Marketplace. Now I’m a pretty chilled guy, but I’ve had to work extremely hard to learn my skills and just barely make a living from the games I’ve made. When someone rips my work and tries selling it to make money for themselves, it upsets me. The game is being offered for AU$1.80.

I immediately lodged a complaint through the market store and then emailed the ‘developer’ about the issue.

The listed email was ‘info@xe-media.ch’ and here’s what I wrote.

———————
Really not impressed that you have taken my game ‘Breakit 3′ and published it to the Android market. I will lodging a complaint with Google. You are obviously using other peoples games too, stop being lazy and do your own work.

Terry Paton
———————

It was late at night when I found the game and sent the email. When I woke this morning in my inbox was this …

———————
from Andreas Kuster andreas.kuster@xe-media.ch

I only hyperlinks to the game. this is legal …
Andy
———————

I’m not even going to justify his argument by contesting it.

What this implies to me is that this guy may be loading a game swf into the app at run time, which due to the nature of Flash, is incredibly easy. It also reveals one of the problems with Android Market over Apple’s system – it’s not curated, or policed. So freedom has it’s price it would seem.

Unfortunately I didn’t photograph or buy the application and it looks like my game has been removed from the Marketplace this morning as I can no longer find it. BUT Due to Android apps automatically being added to various website around the web I have been able to capture this screenshot from http://www.appbrain.com (how long this will stay live I don’t know).

The classic thing is the game still contains my ‘© 2007 – www.terrypaton.com’ message (though you can’t see it in the screenshot).

Instead I’ve bought (then refunded) ‘Totem Destroyer’, another one of the games this ‘Andreas Kuster’ (andreas.kuster@xe-media.ch) has published. This game is one published by Armor Games and obviously not by this guy (I checked the credit in the game just to be sure).
You can see the original game here

Here’s a video showing the application running. Obviously very poorly done.

Totem Destroyer ripped off on Android Market from Terry Paton on Vimeo.

The developer has over 150 applications in the Android Marketplace and given his response it makes me doubt that any of them are his original work, here’s a screenshot showing a few (with my Breakit 3 game listed) …

If you have any Flash games online then I would highly recommend you check this guys catalog and make sure that he’s not ripping you off too. Browse through the application listed on this page http://www.androidzoom.com/android_developer/xemedia_lkmp.html

Lodge a complaint, send him an email or visit his house.

Here’s his sites who.is information …
http://whois.domaintools.com/xe-media.ch

Andreas Kuster you are a lazy scumbag, do your own work and stop ripping off other peoples.

Posted Monday, November 15th, 2010 under News.

Tags: , ,

  • http://twitter.com/brunofonzi Bruno Fonzi

    You have all the rights to be upset and did the right thing to make this post public.
    If Andreas Kuster from xe-media does this as his normal practice, he should be banned by the Android market no questions!

    As you pointed out, this is actually a bigger issue:

    “What this implies to me is that this guy may be loading a game swf into the app at run time, which due to the nature of Flash, is incredibly easy. It also reveals one of the problems with Android Market over Apple’s system – it’s not curated, or policed. So freedom has it’s price it would seem.”

    The good side of the Android Market being open is that Andreas Kuster and other people like him that adopt similar practices have their reputation diminished and I do not think it is worth for anyone to take that risk.

    Thanks for sharing this with us!

  • http://twitter.com/derekobrien Derek O’Brien

    Disgusted..

    Andreas Kuster, I pity you for being the talentless, brainless idiot you are.

  • PhotonStorm

    This is really nasty, but don’t for a second think Apple’s AppStore is any better! We have had several games ripped off on there, and I know of lots of devs who have had their Flash games illegally ported and sold. And it took Apple a good while to remove them too.

  • Anonymous

    I haven’t tried this, so consider it more a hypothetical, but can you not place some check/gate in your constructors looking for certain information on the embed or instantiation. Maybe one that would hit a domain of yours to check for a green light or something?

    Anyways, I’m really sorry that people are out there doing this crap. You can only take it as so much of a compliment, :) .

  • http://twitter.com/doctorschwa Doctor Schwa
  • http://www.terrypaton.com Terry Paton

    Yeah I’d found that too. I think so.

  • Beanpoo

    Hyperlinks my ass! I’ve never seen a hyperlink that you had to pay for and download as an app before. You lazy bastard Andreas Kuster trying to make money off other peoples hard work and initiative. I hope he gets fully exposed for all Dev’s sake.

    GET THE WORD OUT FELLOW DEV’S! Watch out for Andreas Kuster (http://www.xe-media.ch/)
    Fraud Extraordinaire

  • http://twitter.com/AdamHarte Adam Harte

    This is shocking behaviour! Any suggestions of how to protect your SWF’s from hotlinking? Or practical advice?

  • http://swfjunkie.com Sandro

    As a person of swiss nationality and as a flash developer i am shocked and appalled that we apparently have scum like this in our midst!

    I did a little research and it seems that throughout the board this guy is a ripoff in every way. As the co-manager of the Swiss Flash User Group i’ll be damned if i will let a guy like this get away. I’ll definitely use my channels to make sure this guys reputation gets a well deserved smack upside the head. Even if all it does is warn other people from doing business, that’s good enough. He doesn’t deserve a cent of whatever he makes.

    I hope for him he doesn’t decide to come to one of our open meetings ..

  • http://twitter.com/jansensan Mat Janson Blanchet

    I don’t know exactly how he made his stuff (is it just opening the game in a browser window, or is he loading the Flash file?). In any sense, I think that now more than ever, Flash game devs should look into the cross domains, security policies and content domains:

    - senocular: http://www.senocular.com/flash/tutorials/contentdomains/?page=1
    - adobe: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/articles/crossdomain_policy_file_spec.html

  • Philippe

    Shouldn’t this be reported to google?

    Google can take actions against developers and remove apps if they are dangerous and probably if they break any copyright.

  • Tiago Dias

    Someone like that can’t even be called a developer, it’s outrageous, and I think we should do something against it. Best would be right now to make sure that the origingal game developers get informed about it, there are a few big names like capcom as well. Tweet & Post whatever you can to stop this guy. I’m with you on this one.

  • Mario Vieira

    Absurd, he should be selling class A drugs, same lack of morals.
    Annoying it’s, try this: http://www.ripoffreport.com/
    we won’t forget that name!

  • HSD

    Wow yeah I know the developers of a TON of those games and they aren’t this Andreas Kuster jerk. Thanks for posting this!

  • Andrew

    This is in fact illegal. Even though I may be able to listen to a song linked from a different website, I am still illegally listening to it. Furthermore, if I attempt to make money off of this then I may be entitled to pay the copyright holder.

    I say: Explain that to the guy and threaten to take it to court. Demand he refunds everybody as well or you will court order his profits to be given to you.

  • Steve Ancell

    Sounds like this Andreas Kuster is a right “ships-anchor”.

  • http://billy.wenge-murphy.com/ Billy Wenge-Murphy

    Looks like the guy’s still going. Did you ever resolve this? Did you make a complaint directly to Google, and if so, what was their response?

  • http://www.terrypaton.com Terry Paton

    I didn’t pursue it directly but unfortunately it seems that Google’s leaving it in the hands of developers at the moment. Anyone affected by this guys ‘work’ needs to complain to both him and Google. :(