RIP Redneck Jokes and More

Spoiler warning: Redneck Jokes and More is no longer available.

Jokes are great!  They can be a great way to break the ice, start the day, introduce yourself to someone new, get made fun of, or in Ninth Division’s case get yourself in unwanted trouble.  Do you remember the Redneck Jokes application we made back in Spring of this year?  Of course you do.  Sadly, as of Monday, it is no longer available and here is why…

Surprise! Late on Thursday of last week I had received a not so exciting email from Apple’s iTunes Music Marketing and IP Legal department (App Store Notifications).

Dear Sir or Madam,We received a written notice from Jeff Foxworthy (“Mr. Foxworthy”) that Mr. Foxworthy believes your application named “Redneck Jokes and more” infringes Mr. Foxworthy’s rights.  A copy of the notice is attached

My first thought was, “woa, Jeff Foxworthy even noticed me.  AWESOME.”  Then of course I read the whole thing was just a bit speechless.

Background

Redneck Jokes and More was an app we built for some fun and to learn about the iTunes App Store. I would not call Redneck Jokes and More a flagship application for Ninth Division. It was built as a good way to learn the App Store and the (so called) science in purchased apps. I even wrote about why it was a great idea. It was a lot of fun to make and it was intended to be a learning tool for the business. I think it has gone full circle as a learning app as you will read.

The law firm

Fox Law Group (the representation for Jeff Foxworthy) sent the cease and desist order to Apple directly on August 27, 2009.  The law firm sent it to Apple and not Ninth Division (or the other ‘offending’ parties).  The reason for that is, as long as the application is on Apple’s App Store they are responsible for their apps that they sell.  Apple, Inc. is identified as the Copyright Agent.  Just like if I were to upload an episode of Dexter to youtube.com.  YouTube.com is responsible to take that down, other legal issues could arise if I did that.  However, in this analogy Showtime would contact YouTube first and not myself.

… Our client is the rightful owner of all copyright and trademark rights to his name and certain phrases, including, but not limed to “You Might Be a Redneck If…”  It as recently come to our attention that the Apple iPhone site is exhibiting for sale several applications which include the voice, name and/or other copyrighted or trademark works belonging to our client and/or works that are confusingly similar to those owned by our client.  We have good faith belief that such sales have not been authorized by our client.

The law firm also claims trademark and ownership to You Might Be a Redneck If… which is actually true and true (if that doesn’t go here: search section and search “redneck”).  The proof can be found at United States Patent and Trademark Office website.  I used their search section called Trademark Electronic Search System (TESS) of the site which is really tough to find normally.

The letter mentioned another six other “companies” which are offenders.  After doing a quick search on the App Store for those apps, its pretty obvious most of them are offenders.  Two were just called Jeff Foxworthy quotes.  Another was “You Might Be A Redneck If…” app.  And none of the ones that I saw looked like there was any thought put into them.

Apple App Store

I received Apple’s notice on Thursday October 22, 2009.  One thing that was weird to me, is that the letter sent to Apple from the law firm was dated August 27, 2009.  However there was a scribble up top of the scan that looks like a note saying that Apple might have read it Sept 24, 2009.  I am pretty sure they are inundated with all sorts of stuff, but this could sure have made things confusing (to say the least) if they moved forward to individually notifying each company on the list.

The notice from Apple was pretty short and sweet.  The final paragraph is what stayed in mind and I think is important for the iPhone development community to be aware of.

Please remember that pursuant to your agreement with Apple, you are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim that your application infringes another party’s rights, and also that we may remove your application if we believe that doing so is prudent or necessary.  So that we don’t take unnecessary steps, such as removing your application, please let us know that this matter between you and Mr. Foxworthy has been resolved within five days of this letter.

So if I didn’t remove the application, Apple would.  Now that is good and all if I abandoned the app, but if I felt this was a growing app with tons of happy users… I am not sure what I could do there.  I suppose I could contact Apple via the email provided.  What would have happened if I submitted an update to the app?  As long as the submission instructions include references to the email so the reviewer can know or see the changes involved and compare that to the legal notice *and* consult with their legal team.  … I’m pretty sure it’d be rejected.  I honestly don’t know what else to say about this.  It still feels like to me, that if someone believes your app infringes on their copyright and lets Apple know… you will likely be pulled if you don’t pull the app yourself.

Similar situations include: PhoneSaber is now Lightsaber Unleashed and  Tris pulled from the App Store.

Why I took it down

Many folks have wondered why I took it down.  Simple: it’s not worth the trouble.  For a better answer, lets step back a bit.  This app was built as a learning tool for the App Store.  I learned tons about getting it published, how the app store users change, being noticed, not being noticed, etc and now the legal issues.  What better way to learn about all this than on a small, quickly built, yet fun and fairly well received app.

Surprising it still makes money even after the first week it was released; I only expected this to make a few bucks the first week it came out.  Heck it has a hard time reaching more than $100 a month.  Given all that, it wasn’t worth fighting to keep it alive as a Ninth Division app.

So I politely responded to both Apple and the legal firm that I removed app.  Heck I even included a screenshot of iTunes Connect to indicate that the app was “removed from sale by developer”.

What I learned

As I said, I have learned a ton on the little experiment called Redneck Jokes and More.  Since the legal debacle of the last week, I have more to add.

Research a lot before you release a product.

Your saying right now “Obvious statement of the day!”  With the age of: if you have a website you’re a startup or you have an iPhone app so you have a product is upon us.  To me, these statements couldn’t be farther from the truth.  A product is so much more than code.  It is everything that goes into the marketing, the buzz your app creates, the community of users, the support you provide, and so much more.

If you are going to take a project to the product level, then you want to be sure there is no copyrights that can take you down later in the game.  Maybe that is your logo, tag line, name of the product, or its technology base.  Think of it this way – if you were to release a brand new line of couches, you would want to make sure your awesome name: LazyBoy hasn’t been taken already.  Or that there isn’t a patent on the way you manufacture your couches.  Same rules apply to your applications that you want to make a product.

Even if you put your own spin on things, you have a chance to be an offender.

It’s hard to not have heard of Jeff Foxworthy and his routines about “You might be a redneck if…” When we built the Redneck Jokes and More app it was a concern that it could be in Jeff Foxworthys radar.  So we did what we thought was right to put our own spin on things.  Like using the phrase: “You know yer’ a redneck when…” and using what we found to be public domain jokes.  Heck we even reworded them a bit so they fit.

No matter what we did it still showed up as a possible copyright infringement.

I am offended by that, because we spent time on Redneck Jokes and More to give it a design, our own spin on the public domain jokes we used and wanted something funny to feel like it was on its own.  Now don’t get me wrong, we didn’t spent weeks on this thing but we didn’t just slap it together to make a buck.

Apple’s Rights

I wanted to point out to fellow iPhone developers the obvious issue that your app could be pulled too.  Do your research and be confident that you own the copyright to all the material in your app.  Apple has the right to pull it if they believe otherwise.  You signed the agreements that allow this.  It’s not much different then the rest of the content sharing sites out there.  They have more practice with it I would think since they deal with movies, music, and more.

In Summary

Thanks to all those who bought the app.  It was fun.  Heck it was the only app I could take home and without explaining it everyone knew what i did.

… On to more important apps products.

1. Why a jokes app?
2. Latest Apple rejection message
3. Redneck Jokes for the iPhone