Hello, so first, let me explain… I managed to rack up 3 strikes in 5 years and I was banned for life several months ago. This is easier than it seems, but I digress. So check this out… my last strike was for IP infringement, and I got the standard canned message that covers almost anything. I appeal stating that all images are in public domain and provide a comprenhisive list of every image used in the app and it’s respective source and liscenece. About 12 hours later, I get a canned response denying the appeal and basically telling me to **** off.
Fast foward to yesterday… I’m republishing the same app that got suspended for ‘IP infrigement’ with the same public domain icon that it was published with 5 years ago.
This gets weird:
- App is accepted on first try
- App is rejected when trying to update the description (description only, and not images, etc)
- I scrutinize the screenshots, and remove an image that might not be PD, resubmit
- Update is rejected again citing IP infringement.
- I change the icon, which was well known public domain work
- accepted
It looks like Google does not know what public domain is, and the first person that uses a famous historical image (at least for an icon) is the only one that can do so. They will auto-ban subsequent users of the public domain icon.
Let’s talk about public domain for a bit… I’m talking about things like:
- Mona Lisa
- Abe Lincoln Portraits
- Any work taken by a U.S. service person taken or made as part of that person’s official duties
These things belong to humanity, not the first developer to use it!