It’s likely that we won’t see a ton of fake mobile games in the Android Market (Google Play) in the future. Nope, Google won’t introduce an app review process, but developers should now be more wary, since they could end-up paying for their deeds.
According to a BBC report, an unnamed Latvian developer who posted fake versions of popular games on the Android Market has been fined 50,000 GBP and told to repay 28,000 GBP to victims, marking the first of its kind fine in the mobile industry.
It’s important to note that the mentioned developer (we don’t have its name) has not only used infringed on the respective companies’ intellectual property, but has also hidden a malware in the software.
The apps in question were designed to look like legitimate versions of games like Angry Birds, Assassin’s Creed and Cut the Rope. However, after downloading these fake titles, customers weren’t able to open them up and were instead forced to sign up to a premium SMS line that charged 5 GBP per message received.
All of the fake apps were promptly removed from the Android Market…
[Via: PocketGamer.co.uk]