App suspend, but similar apps exists.

i made a few soundboards from some of my favorite games and published them on google play.

i made sure that there were similar apps like mine (just lower quality). i attempted not to use any copyright images or phrases, but google just suspended my app.

and 1 hour later i get an email from google about my portal and archer soundboards, both at the exact same time suspended, then account closed after 2 years of no issues.

but there are at-least 5 other apps that are still on the store that have similar content. some just outright use copyrighted images, and nothing has happened to those apps.

is there something i am missing that’s causing google to flag me down?

thanks.

what kind of sound board it was? I mean what was the theme?

it was just a regular soundboard with pages for each character, and buttons for sounds. the theme was whatever it based for, for example the portal one was based on the portal video game.

this was their reason.
“REASON FOR REMOVAL: Violation of the intellectual property and impersonation or deceptive behavior provisions of the Content Policy. Please refer to the IP infringement and impersonation policy help article for more information.”

Doesn’t matter if there are like apps, those apps get a free pass until google “the man” cleans house, don’t take the chance people, sorry for your loss man

what do you mean “cleans house”?

and these apps have been on the market since 2008-2011, and that’s why i assumed i would be safe.

That’s the only reason those apps are safe and yours were not, new apps seem to go through a quality control process now.

if this is true, the google is seriously ****ed up. my apps are better then the other ones, graphically, UI ,compatibility and content.

Some one report your app, till now Google only check manual reported.

that’s is the reason. Google by itself doesn’t look at IP infringement. They don’t hire people to look for IP infringement but take action when some legal issue is raised by the owner of that copyright.

I am assuming your app was on top list somewhere and hence was caught by the copyright owner. Catching apps like that is not feasible with 1Billion+ apps. Only top apps get caught easily for IP infringement.

After closer examination, i found out that some of my apps have an issue only on specific devices (did not have one of those specific devices to test on).

this issue was causing an interstitial ad to constantly keep showing up as soon as the app was opened, it would be a constant loop of ads. maybe regular users who were annoyed reported me, and google though it would be easier to ban me for IP infringement then shitty coding.

could it have been the interstitial ad?

post the similar apps, so we can take a look

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.stemerdink_it.android.soundboard.mortal_kombat

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.jamesarchuleta.PortalSoundBoard
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.ocdtrekkie.sc.portal1

My app also was suspended because of copyright issues after ~2 years. As it was stated above, they only check if someone reports it. Just try to open a new account, somehow, and then publish your app again (of course, by redesigning / changing the code and so on). This is the only way to deal with google these days.

being banned because of copyright issues is not the fault of google - they don’t care (as stated before) - they just react when someone files a DMCA to them. They have to by law.

I also guess, they do no deep investigation if the DMCA is right or not. If a big company is filing the DMCA -> ban hammer and there is nothing you can do about it

Sorry for your loss.
But put yourself in the companies that have the property of the sounds your app is based on. If you don’t pay them or don’t get an authorization from them to use their sounds and make money of it, they will ban you.
If you make a soundboard with sounds you have recorded yourself or music you have composed yourself, you will never get banned.
If there are other apps that were similar, just report them

if you use content created by yourself (in terms of IP … so drawind the coke logo by yourself is still illegal) or with permission be sure to state that fact in your app description. No one will ask you prior to the DMCA, so be sure to state it clearly.

how do you suggest i report them? just go to the appstore and report the app saying this is not the rightfull owner of the IP?

i have seen google emails that are DMCA related, they usually have a giant list of apps, i did not receive any email like that. it just was “IP” and "impersonation policy ". can i assume that the app was not taken down to due to a DMCA complaint, but maybe because it was flagged by another dev or the interstitial AD loop that caused users to report my app?

I don’t think you can assume anything. In the end, google is not interested to let you know exactly what you’ve done, because than it would be too easy to find any loopholes. It’s a obfuscation strategy - pretty similar to the reason, why the army searches for “charlie” and the police may seek for an “3321”

You can’t report dmca if you don’t own the copyrighted content, u have to be copyright holder to report anything and you will have to sign the form digitally and agree to be prosecuted if you’re not the copyright holder, in all other cases google will give you a runaround

well i got a new IP, used a friends CC/info to create a new dev account. used a new eclipse and keystore and new project for the apps, i was able to upload 4 apps from my old account (apps were never banned) and left it alone for a week, today i uploaded the mortal kombat one and within hours they linked my accounts and closed my new one.i have no idea how i was able to upload those other apps, and then get suspended for the mortal kombat one, it seems like mortal kombat has a red flag and forces them to check it manually.

similar situation here with dota 2 apps, some apps banned others not. not distinction between why some apps are banned while others are safe, what shame google is like this.