Since yesterday, Android Market developers have received a not so happy email, at least not happy for many of them I would think. You see, Google has just made a few changes to the distribution agreement for the Android Market. According to Google, the new changes on the agreement have to be accepted by all developers, if they want their applications to be distributed through the Android Market.
Android Market Developers will have to accept the new agreement, yes, every single one of them. If they want to keep on making Android applications, they must agree with the new changes within the following 30 days. So it looks like December 11th is the last day. And if devs do not comply, Google says that it plans to remove their apps from the Android Market.
Below is the email that Android Market Developers have received from Google’s Android Market Team:
You are receiving this email because you have applications published in Android Market.
We’d like to let you know that there is a new Developer Distribution Agreement (DDA) for Android Market. The next time you sign in to the Android Market publisher website, you’ll be asked to agree to these new terms before continuing. If you have not accepted the new DDA by Friday, December 11, 2009 12:00:00 AM Pacific Standard Time, your application(s) will be unpublished from the Android Market.
You can view and accept the new agreement by visiting http://market.android.com/publish/ddaUpdate. Please do not reply to this message.
Thanks,
The Android Market Team
What I don't like is that Google doesn't bother to outline for you what's changed; you have to re-read the whole agreement. I've got better things to do with my time.
I found a discussion of the changes here: http://groups.google.com/group/andro...8f370d3ea6ca75
I couldn't find the article to read the new dda but eh the devs are already hating new Android phones and this isn't gonna excite anyone either.
In the new agreement 7.2 states;
"If you remove a Product from the Market pursuant to clauses (i), (ii), (iii) or (iv) of this Section 7.1, and an end user purchased such Product within a year before the date of takedown, at Google’s request, you must refund to the affected end user all amounts paid by such end user for such affected Product, less the portion of the Transaction Fee specifically allocated to the credit card/payment processing for the associated transaction."
And in 7.2 the one year of sales rule pops up again;
"In the event that your Product is involuntarily removed because it is defective, malicious, infringes intellectual property rights of another person, defames, violates a third party’s right of publicity or privacy, or does not comply with applicable law, and an end user purchased such Product within a year before the date of takedown,
Corporate is corporate...
Developers already know this, we got our emails yesterday.
..and it's of little or no consequence to the end users.
Anyway,.. i don't think there's anything too earth shattering in there. It seems they *may* have extended the refund period to 2 days(i believe it was 1 before), made a no refund rule for things like ringtones(again, this may have been there before), and perhaps raised awareness that they might use your promo images in the new market header.
Nothing too exciting, basic legal stuff.
Yes, a lot of devs may get upset at more legal stuff, but if Google realizes that 100K apps is just a advertisement and not a sign of quality and usability and that agreement updates result in a more cleaner appstore and less crap apps (i.e. really kick out the fluff devs unfortunately, or fortunately?) that's good thing in the long run.
In order for the google appstore to be better (aside from the lower $25 fee) than anything out there: they need a quicker way to remove apps that really shouldn't be there (dups, crap, etc..)