Look Familiar?

Ken Pespisa Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:01 pm

I hear this dev is working on a follow-up app called iHelloWorld.

Brandon Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:06 pm

hahahaha

YYZV Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:07 pm

Don’t forget iUITableView (Y)

But seriously, that sucks. Trying to make money be selling someone else’s tutorial is ridiculous, and hopefully Apple will take it down

dw Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:19 pm

With literally millions of MacOS Touch devices out there it’s surprising anyone thought they could get away with it – unbelievable!

JD Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:40 pm

Haha, wow its a shame to see someone try to sell your great “TUTORIAL” as a game. Keep up the good work though I love reading these tutorials!

Keith Peters Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 12:53 pm

his forum, and its one post:

http://blablainctech.webs.com/apps/forums/topics/show/992914-whats-wrong-with-you-guys-

Andy Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 1:05 pm

That is funny! I just started doing some of your tutorials, trying to get used to the syntax of objective C. I appreciate your hard work on this site and look forward to learning alot from your tutorials. Hell maybe one day I can steal one of your apps and put it up! JK!

Picoman Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Apple needs to take this down now! Im outraged that he has done this.

Keep up the good work Brandon. I will support you if you need help convincing Apple to take this guy down.

iWantiPhone Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:04 pm

Are you able to contact the iTunes store and get it removed? That’s totally shameless of the bloke.

I haven’t seen the tutorial you mentioned but I’m interested in developing iPhone apps so will give it a go.

CJ Millisock Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:36 pm

HA! I used this tennis app as my very first tutorial when learning to code for iPhone. I can’t believe some joker tried to steal it!

Like Picoman said, I will support you if Apple needs convincing to take this guy down.

What a chump!

tim Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:43 pm

Apple must be sleeping – I cannot believe that they let an app through with a feature of “Almost no crashes”. That is ridiculous. I wonder how many he sold.

Jason Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:50 pm

For the record, here’s that “company”’s website:

http://blablainctech.webs.com/

They’re pretty darn proud of this application.

Emilian Bold Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:53 pm

I fail to understand how this is “stealing” or requires your permission. I assume you’ve put the tutorial online for people to learn. Also, you provided your code for people to download and use freely.

I can’t actually find any license information on this website to see how may people actually use that tutorial, but I did find a “Copyright __MyCompanyName__ 2009. All rights reserved.” in your source code. I guess __MyCompanyName__ should start and sue those trespassers ?

Really, take it as a compliment, it’s not like you lost you chance at 1 million bucks

Brandon Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 2:59 pm

@Emilian Bold – does your company name happen to be Blablainctech by any chance?

haha but you are right, I should prob have a copyright somewhere. I’m not too mad about this, just think it’s hilarious.

Will Larson Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 3:16 pm

The Lunar Lander demo from the original Apple SDK was submitted by someone else and was a top free (ok, free, not paid, I admit is slightly different…) download for at least a few weeks. I’m not sure if Apple ever took it down.

Brendan Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

This mook needs to be taken out in the alley, and learn’t some manners, old school…

Imagine going to sleep the night he submitted this, knowing you stole from the guy who runs one of the premiere iPhone programming sources on the web. Good news travels, but news of a thief among the development community will travel mighty fast. Pay back’s a bitch.

Jeremy Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 3:32 pm

These ones are all pretty much copies of your tutorial some with slight modifications. I provided Links to hopefully help you get them taken down.
Hope they helped!

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=309650624&mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=314866967&mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=317231814&mt=8

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318696679&mt=8

ivan rosina Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 4:09 pm

Wow finally I can download from AppStore !
Thanks a lot BlaBlaInc !

Eric Wilson Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 4:10 pm

What a LOSER!!!

Gregor Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 4:17 pm

haha such a pussy muahah

Oliver Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 4:19 pm

By the looks of their website (e.g. http://blablainctech.webs.com/betatesters.htm) they’re a couple of illiterate 14 year olds…

Phil Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 4:56 pm

very cheeky indeed, I was going to leave a bad review then I realised that I would need to pay for it first (I dont think so), although I did find this email address on the support site “blablaincsupport@gmail.com”

K626 Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 5:34 pm

It’s copyright infringement. Publishing it “for everyone to see” means nothing. A newspaper is published. Does that mean you can take the copy? Of course not. Software code is protected under the same laws. The question is: Did the original author put it into the public domain?

Suw Mirage Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 6:20 pm

You know what is really pathetic?

Back when the iPhone SDK 1.0 beta was out, there was a sample game in it called Lunar Lander. It was a crappy game, horrible, even.

A company called Posimotion took that game, didn’t change any of the code, just changed the graphics and the sound effects, and submitted it as Apache Lander.

The company founder goes around saying that Apache Lander is the game he is most proud of. What a f@$@$%g poser.

RalphieBot Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

HAHA. I like how the company also rates their own apps using the name blablakrap. What a fail.

AppStoreMod Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 7:05 pm

Dude !!!!! This guy is full of shit ! He made a paid fred app for $0.99 and its only a UIWebView of his youtube video. When you can go on safari http://bit.ly/1oZHkn

Mikeman118 Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 8:11 pm

@Suw Mirage

Well, I don’t know about what the guy said about Lunar Landing afterward, but I was around when this occurred, and the guy did explain that it was and Apple demo and not his, he just thought it was a fun game that someone might like. And it was free.

However, if what you said is true, that is just shameful.

Baskaran Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 9:18 pm

BlahBlah Inc is very lame and shameless. BlahBlah Inc Should file for Chapter 7.

MusicoLoco Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 10:02 pm

Hi, I’ve been following the excellent tutorial series from this blog, and just now I decided to post this comment seeing as how this is such an outrage. Other posters before me are correct, the fact that no copyright was claimed is not enough cause to take the code and publish it as your own, for profit!!! You can request this app to be taken down. Personally, if i could, I would seek the thief and have him hanged by the balls.

Andres Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 11:13 pm

hey everyone go to http://www.ManufacturingCrossing.com
they wont steal your apps ;]

DayDaySite Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 11:52 pm

Hi Brandon,

I feel shame on this guy!! I learn so much from your tutorial! After I read your tutorial, I can write a simple game running on my iPhone… Really thanks for your hard work!!

Did you compliant them to Apple? It is a shame for all developers…

rebo Says:

July 8th, 2009 at 11:59 pm

Not only should you get apple to remove it from the store you should demand compensation and all profits gained from the sale of that app.

vitaly Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 12:01 am

WOW!!!! This guy is a D**K with a capital D.
Keep up the good work man, love the tutorial.

worldsSmallestViolin Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 12:04 am

I just looked closely at that website, Im betting the owner is literally a 12 year old kid.

if that is the case simply getting an appto compile and on the store is something of an achievement.

There is a copyright issue, and the kid needs to learn about those, but dont beat him up too much either.

Bryan Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:05 am

The owner of BlaBlaIncTech is “Peter Sheen.” I paid the buck to give it 1 star and write a review. The iTunes receipt spit out that name.

Developer Steals iPhone App Code, Submits As Own | KRAPPS | a different and funny iPhone app review site Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:44 am

[...] sure to read Brandon’s firsthand account of the imposter iTennis app over at his web site. We guess our only question to Apple is … do nice guys finish last? Technorati Tags: [...]

Robert Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 6:53 am

You should sue him.

Brendan G. Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 7:31 am

Great article…nice to see the word getting around. Peter Sheen (BlaBlaIncTech), needs to do the right thing, or prepare to be made a pariah in the development community.

Painting a narrative of him as some poor dumb kid doesn’t fly. Kid, middle-aged guy, or billy goat, we are all responsible for our actions, and if he is given the space to make things right, and chooses not to, well, game, set, match.

KRAPPS Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 9:37 am

Here’s our “take” on the imposter …

Developer Steals iPhone App Code, Submits As Own –> http://krapps.com/2009/07/09/itennis-iphone-app/

WP Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 10:02 am

Thanks for taking this with humour! Whoever did this is a total hoser, taking the high road and laughing it off shows a lot of class! I salute you, sir!

lil Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 10:26 am

Well looks like the infamous Khalid Shaikh got a hold of it also http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=318696679&mt=8 and is charging $4.99 I mean after all he did change the tennis racket.

Suw Mirage Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 10:27 am

@Mikeman118,

We are talking about two different people.

You’re talking about a guy that put Lunar Lander on the App Store with no changes, for free.

I’m talking about a company called Posimotion, who took Lunar Lander, called it Apache Lander, and sell it on the App Store for up to 1.99 (it’s free this month because of a company wide sale.) The company founder likes to say it is the game he is most proud of. All they did was change the graphics and sounds.

cynik Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 11:39 am

Thanks for the tutorials, they are much appreciated.

This whole issue with the guy selling the game is pretty funny. I guess some people are creative and like to share, and other people are fixated by any possible way to make a buck.

I know which one I would rather be, so I’m inclined to say “there but for the grace of god go I”, and laugh.

A much more serious problem is modern copywrite law. Modern copywrite law has made the act of sharing a crime. It is incredibly perverse. You have these massive corporations who became incredibly rich by exploiting technology that could capture sound and images. So they made all their money because new technology arrived in the world, and they were free to take advantage of it. But then more new technology arrives, and it benefits ordinary people, and takes away the profits from the mega corporations. So the corporations change the law, to make sharing illegal, because to their point of view they are simply entitled to huge profits. They are happy for free technology to give them profits, but the squeal like hell if free technology takes the profits away.

Lia Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 12:11 pm

Haha. The first reviewer is the programmer himself/herself.

written by “blablakrap” and the hack’s name is BlaBlaInc Tech.

Aaryan Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 12:35 pm

nice one, continue with new games ….
Have you hard about Q Mahjong a China game.
if possible include in ur Forum

thanks

iWyre Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:07 pm

[...] Perils of Helping Others by admin on July 9th, 2009 Kind of a sad blog post by Brandon of iCodeBlog.com, a site with many iPhone coding tutorials. When you share information [...]

Dave M. Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

This isn’t the only case of someone copying code and selling it as their own. A while back I came across an exact copy of the Apple Metronome sample being sold for $0.99 by some developer. I emailed Apple about it, since I figured that they wouldn’t want someone making money off of their code. I must have been correct since I can’t find the $0.99 app in the AppStore anymore.

There is still the Free app Metronome that admits it’s the sample code. Since he’s giving it away and claims Apple says it should be distributed, I figured that if Apple wants it gone, they can remove it too.

If I were you, I would write to Apple letting them know that you are the copyright holder of the code being used by this app. Odds are, they won’t do anything, but they might remove it from the store. No point in someone making $100 or so with code they didn’t write. It’s only a few minutes of your time, and this scummy developer shouldn’t be allowed to sell your work.

Did you notice that there is a 5 star review by someone named ‘blablakrap’? Notice that this reviewer has giving a 5 star rating to another of this developers apps? This seems to be a trend that I hope Apple will soon put a stop to. Although how they would go about doing so is hard for me to figure out. The reviewer is either the developer or someone the developer has asked to do so.

Either way, it’s something I check on before I purchase an app these days. If there are 5 star reviews by someone who also reviews other apps from the same developer with 5 star reviews, I pretty much ignore those reviews and stick to ones that look more genuine.

Amro Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:16 pm

What a jerk.. >.<

Kevin Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:31 pm

Tempting to buy it and ask for a refund just so he is out the 30% he will owe Apple.

Bas Meijer Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 1:58 pm

Brandon,

you publish your code on the web for people to learn. This guy understood that he could earn a buck by publishing the same code in the store. So what? Next time just release your code as an app in the store and sell the source too, just like the cocos-2d guys do, and make a buck yourself. Also bear in mind that you puslished a critique of your own code in your post looks familiar?

if the code is not right, it is not right, whether you post it or someone else, on your back. the code should stand on its own, regardless of your ego issues. And when someone runs away with it, you should show grandness and applaud their effort.

Ben Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 2:07 pm

Is this blahblah trying to get a job at Psystar?

Picoman Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 2:38 pm

After thinking about this for a while… Im starting to think what the hell are the Apple approvers are up to?! I am studying hard everyday after a 10 hour shift at work in order to make some kick ass apps… but maybe i dont have to put much effort in anymore… not if this is happening…

Apple Bloog » Blog Archive » Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 7:00 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game | iPhone Firmware Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 7:46 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game | InfoFork.com Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

AppleUsers.org News » Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 7:48 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

iWyre Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 8:06 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Apple User’s Blog » Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 8:15 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

[Digg] Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 8:25 pm

iPhone game tutorial from iCodeBlog compiled and submitted to the iTunes App Store as a paid app.

AC Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 8:27 pm

Hahahaha, look at Social Butterfly. It’s 11 webapps shoved in a UITabBarController, with a thick layer of atrocious grammar on top.

The description is the best part. “The interface that your used to.” First of all, my used to? And secondly: of course it is, you moron, it’s the mobile version of the same fricking site

And there’s only one review, which seems to find the app absolutely fantastic. The fact that the reviewer’s name is blablakrap is completely unrelated

Lon Varscsak Says:

July 9th, 2009 at 9:21 pm

Now I see why Apple has been behind in approving apps! When you have 10000 tennis apps to publish, it takes time!

Lenny Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 12:02 am

Haha, I post something like shame on you and a poor bad life in their forum and got a mail a few minutes before.

Hello lny ,

Uhh Ohh it looks like you have used profanity On our site Please dont let this happen again!

3/5 warnings!

http://blablainctech.webs.com/

Regards,

blablainctech

To unsubscribe from these mailings, click here: Please unsubscribe me

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game » Shai Perednik.com Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 12:20 am

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Anon Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 1:57 am

I thought you might want to check this one out too…

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=320129469&mt=8

Dave Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 2:49 am

There are always going to be unscrupulous people out there, but I don’t think it should stop people from doing the right thing and offering examples and help. The only people who look stupid in this situation are the guys who thought they could release someone else’s tutorial code.

I doubt whether they fully understood your tutorial code anyway, otherwise they would have taken the concepts and made a different game.

I think you should turn the situation into a positive one and turn it into an open competition to see how many variations of your Tennis game can be submitted to Apple by different people (for free of course, with a link to your blog.)

Or, why not just polish up the tutorial and release it yourself for free, just to teach them a lesson ?

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game | Tech Newz Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 3:01 am

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Harishankar Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 3:03 am

You tutorials helps me and our team a lot. And you deserve a lot of thanks for that. We just figured it out that you site has some funny posts too. It was a great fun reading this post. However seems like Apple has taken down the game otherwise, I would’ve bought it…

cheers.

MusicoLoco Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 3:29 am

The game has been taken of the store. I guess Apple noticed the theft, or the brat couldn’t take the thousands of spam messages that flooded his support board and called it quits.

Peter Sheen will have a really hard time gaining back a decent reputation (if he ever had one). Let it be known, that anything that is created and distributed for free on the internet is still under copyright law protection, unless the author explicitly states it is in the public domain.

Peter Sheen and his crappy company are in my ‘Not Cool’ list from now on.

Free Tutorial code sold as 99c Tennis App on the AppStore » iPhonePulse Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 6:49 am

[...] iCodeBlog via TUAW [...]

lil Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 5:36 pm

Seriously… what’s going on here? Here’s another! http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=314866967&mt=8 Brandon, I think from here on out you have to copyright any source you hand out here.

~t

BlaBlaTechInc forum sign-up Says:

July 10th, 2009 at 7:27 pm

http://blablainctech.webs.com/apps/auth/signup?next=apps%2Fprofile

Oliver Says:

July 13th, 2009 at 3:10 am

Apart from the app, his website has also disappeared…

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game Says:

July 15th, 2009 at 7:04 pm

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Lifted tutorial code winds up in $0.99 App Store tennis game | ★ Technology News | TechCrown News Says:

July 16th, 2009 at 10:17 am

[...] revealed the theft through iCodeBlog yesterday, and Jonathan Siegel got in touch with us regarding the situation. As [...]

Tom Schulz Says:

July 18th, 2009 at 12:59 am

Don’t sweat the small stuff, I recommend. You were never going to sell that app, the thief is never going to make any money, and your *real* code/apps are beyond such people’s reach anyway.

Usually by the time biters have bitten the edge has moved onward.

Georg Odenthal Says:

July 18th, 2009 at 9:27 am

Hi,

I’m currently doing your tutorial on iTennis and read about that guy who published it in the AppStore.

I was taking a look at the AppStore to see whether the stolen App is still online, which it isn’t.

But I found a game called “iTennisGame” by some guy called Khalid Shaikh which looks strikingly similar to iTennis…

Maybe you want to double check that as well.

Oh and thanks for this great tutorial! Keep up the good work!

Cheers,
Georg aka Odiesoft

Macgasm Podcast #155 | Macgasm Says:

July 26th, 2009 at 12:02 am

[...] this episode, Josh discusses intellectual property theft on the App [...]

Werner Marinus Says:

July 30th, 2009 at 3:40 am

I can’t find the app in the store anymore, their website is “under construction”, the post and forum mentioned above is no longer available… Seems someone left town in a hurry!

And now, if you would please excuse me: I have some apps to build and sell. One is a shopping list with SQLite, another is a Twitter client, a third one is about saving users settings… Uhm, lets see, what else did Brandon teach us here that we can steal…

Keep up the good work Brandon!

iCodeBlog » Blog Archive » Look Familiar? | Techetto Says:

July 30th, 2009 at 10:23 pm

[...] iCodeBlog » Blog Archive » Look Familiar?. Bookmark and Share Techetto: [...]

anonymous Says:

July 31st, 2009 at 12:57 pm

This is really crazy. Not only does the person take your code exactly and out it on the app store, but he leaves out the splash screen . He could have given you at least a little bit of credit.

And have you seen his website??? He’s using webs.com for a free site!! And the support email is using gmail!! How could he expect to make money if his potential buyers see how much money he invested in his company (which is none).

But it is good he has taken it down now. R.I.P. for the iTennis rip-off.

Queer Bag Says:

August 9th, 2009 at 1:08 pm

Pooooor baby! me meme mmememmem memem em !

davee Says:

August 13th, 2009 at 10:00 am

Ah, the grand old Microsoft marketing model at work.

Look out Microsoft, the hounds are nipping at your heels.

lol

iPhone Programming Tutorial: Integrating Twitter Into Your iPhone Applications | iCodeBlog Says:

August 25th, 2009 at 12:04 pm

[...] There are many ways applications can be made more social by including Twitter.  For example, you could make the application auto-tweet when you unlock a special item in a game, or beat it.  This lets all of their friends know they are playing your game and in turn gets you more exposure.  You could also use this as an idea for creating your own Twitter client (don’t just submit my tutorial to the app store). [...]

xD-Dunce Says:

August 26th, 2009 at 10:43 am

http://itunes.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=322562866&mt=8

looks like another rip off.

They didn’t even change the colour of the net’s shadow. its still pink!

Just thought you might want to check them out.

Forums Are Back! | Iphone Study Blog Says:

September 4th, 2009 at 9:01 pm

[...] I will do my best to keep up with them (as I have tended to neglect them in the past).  Just, please don’t write posts like “Would you make a tutorial about creating an online craps game that allows user chat”.  I will not write your programs for you.  I guess in some users case I already have. [...]

@ColouredBoxMobi Says:

October 9th, 2009 at 4:14 am

@EMILIAN WOOD

LOL YOU NEED TO BE REMOVED FROM THIS BLOG WITH A COMMENT LIKE THAT GIRL

Brandon put time into his tutorial regardless of copyright inifringements. I think you should given him 99 cents for every iTennis download.. hahaha

Chris Sheldrick Says:

November 25th, 2009 at 10:44 am

I was looking on the app store for the company “BlaBlaIncTech” and I found three twitter apps by this “dev” all claiming to be the fastest ever. Anyway the one kind of resembled the turorial.

Andy Zimmerman Says:

December 23rd, 2009 at 10:50 am

Hi. I was wondering if I could use your coding and images but yet say in the description, comments in the code, to apple that you created the original code and images? I will make it free (unless you want it to cost money).
Tell me what you think,
Andy Zimmerman

manicaesar Says:

December 28th, 2009 at 12:36 pm

Once again someone has used your tutorial: Search for Pong MMX game… But this time it seems, that the developer added some ‘more’ funcionality

ashish Says:

January 18th, 2010 at 3:30 am

There should be some agreement before downloading the tutorial code. So that any illegal piracy or steal can be prevented and and case can filed easily against the culprit.