Google suspended my application and now my google play account is terminated | Hacker News Reader

Google suspended my application and now my google play account is terminated

14 pointsnikolavp6 comments

I just got my account in google play store terminated. Is it just me or their process is just ridiculous: 1) You submit your application along with apk and screenshots 2) If you violate any of their long rules you get you application suspended and the auto generated reason for suspension doesn't include the place you are violating their rules(in my case, they claim that I am violating "Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy") 3) Here are the things that I wrote(description along with screenshots from my application and the apk https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lac0js8z648ini5/AACToioyJsHrwJEKt001t9bTa?dl=0#/ although it is too late now, reason follows 4) You can of course "appeal" their decision but don't expect much - I got an auto generated email stating "After further review, we are unable to reinstate your application. You can find out more information under Reason for Removal in the initial removal notification from Google Play.", so helpful, thanks.

P.S. I am glad that I didn't lose more time with this application - it was built during the holidays. I am also glad that I am not relying on making money from that because let's face it, you might be violating something without knowing it and their is not a single warning, they just act and suspend your application without stating the place of violation

I had the same happen to me (albeit no account suspension but just the application). The application[0] was in the store for 11 months, I then updated for Material Design/Lolipop and puff, app suspended.

I'm using the TMDb.org API for displaying actor and movie images which--in my understanding--is allowed if I attribute TMDb as the source. I did that in the settings/copyright section. There are also a bunch of other apps that use the same API yet they are still in the Play Store. I didn't make a single dime off of it and spent roughly 250h on it with all the fine tuning and third party integrations.

I responded and asked what exactly the issue is and got another generic response. At this point I was too afraid to write any more emails since I don't want to endanger my account.

[0]: http://faactors.schilter.me/

According to the screenshots you are using copied artwork from League of Legends. This is a pretty obvious copyright violation. How could you even expect this application to be successful?

This is not a problem according to http://www.riotgames.com/legal-jibber-jabber. I am only not allowed to use the logos and must include the paragraph.

Still should get a warning and discussion with a human about it. And the chance to fix it. And not the entire account suspended.

I know of several people that had their account suspended that way (because they used copyright-infringing artwork or music or whatever).

From what they told me, it's a "three strikes" policy, very much like what the original poster said: they warn you once, very vaguely, that your software infringes a section of their policies.

If you try a second time, they refer to some subsection of the policies (still pretty vague, but pointing in that direction).

And if by the third time you don't clean up your act, suspension.

It would be nice if they said "you're using copyrighted material" or something to the effect, but that's Google for you :( . It actually seems in the poster's case they were a bit more specific.

There are still plenty of apps using copyrighted material out there, I guess it depends on the copyright holder and/or their lawyers.

Edit: that (alleged) three strikes policy is per account, not per app, so if he had 2 previous rejections, and only one for that app, they're unforgiving.

Something similar has happened to a friend of mine, and he wasn't allowed to appeal. In his case, it was because someone else did something bad on an account only associated with his, so Google suspended his account indefinitely as a result.

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