Page 1 of 1
Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Wed Aug 06, 2014 10:15 pm
by rednoah
Dear oss,
I am currently in the process of publishing my open-source application FileBot (registered as FileBot with the API) on the Mac AppStore. As a method funding the project I plan on publishing FileBot as paid application (which is the same as the free version that can be downloaded on SourceForge.net minus the code-signing and sandboxing).
Now what is OpenSubtitles stance on "commercial" usage of the OpenSubtitles API? I suppose I need official permission from OpenSubtitles that I am allowed, maybe this project specifically, or all apps in general, to freely use the API even in commercial software.
Here's the original message for context:
5.5
The app contains copyrighted materials, namely downloading subtitles (screenshot2) that may infringe on rights owned by third-parties.
Please remember that pursuant to your agreement with Apple, you represent and warrant that your application does not infringe the rights of another party, and that you are responsible for any liability to Apple because of a claim that your application infringes another party's rights. Moreover, we may reject or remove your application for any reason, in our sole discretion.
Please provide documentary evidence that you have the rights to use this content to ensure compliance with the Mac Developer Program License Agreement. Once Legal has reviewed your documentation and confirms its validity, we will proceed with your application review. Be aware that while your iTunes Connect Application State is displayed as Rejected, it is not necessary to upload a new binary in this particular case. However, if your application is not in compliance, and you are able to make the necessary changes, we encourage you to do so and resubmit your binary for review.
Let me know what you think, and see if we can work out some agreement.
Cheers,
Reinhard
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 6:34 am
by oss
we are discussing this in PM.
For Filebot application you can use our API even commercially, but this doesn't meant all other commercial APPS can use our API.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Mon Aug 11, 2014 7:13 am
by rednoah
Perfect! Thank you very much!
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Sat Sep 13, 2014 10:11 pm
by eduo
Perfect! Thank you very much!
Hi there. Was Filebot approved? I know it's not just for subs, but subs apps have been rejected in the past by the MAS. My own SolEol was summarily rejected once.
Also, with sandboxing, you'll have to add behaviour to add folders and keep temporary bookmarks for them.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:12 pm
by oss
I jsut fireup app store, for opensubtitles search it gets: subtitles wizard for 8.99 EUR (!), for searching filebot is for 4.49 EUR, so it seems it pass. congratulations! I hope you will add magic word "opensubtitles" there too
EDIT: opensubtitles is in description, if they use some tags, maybe good to add there, otherwise it is not reindexed (?), but I see, it was added in 27th August...
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Thu Oct 16, 2014 5:31 pm
by eduo
I jsut fireup app store, for opensubtitles search it gets: subtitles wizard for 8.99 EUR (!), for searching filebot is for 4.49 EUR, so it seems it pass. congratulations! I hope you will add magic word "opensubtitles" there too
EDIT: opensubtitles is in description, if they use some tags, maybe good to add there, otherwise it is not reindexed (?), but I see, it was added in 27th August...
Mine was rejected. It depends on the reviewer probably. I think subtitlesapp was rejected too.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2014 12:52 pm
by oss
I agree with you, Eduo.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:04 pm
by rednoah
For me it was a bit of a back-and-forth. Took over a month (after being rejected first as well) but with the "written and signed" documentation I got from oss it go through in the end.
They were initially VERY vague in their wording. So I had them make clear, if they meant "permission from all movie owners required" or "permission from just the opensubtitles api owner required". It seems that the latter is just fine.
FileBot on the App Store:
https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/filebot/id905384638
I'm currently still working out the kinds though. There's lots of random issues caused by app sandboxing and lack of filesystem access.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:14 pm
by eduo
I'm currently still working out the kinds though. There's lots of random issues caused by app sandboxing and lack of filesystem access.
In the end these limitations due to sandboxing made me stop trying. My app relies on being able to drop whole disks and folders for processing. But entitlements don't allow you to write in subdirectories.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 12:50 pm
by rednoah
Actually, if the users drop a folder that's the best-case scenario. The com.apple.security.files.user-selected.read-write will give you access to whatever the users selects via the native File Dialog, and whatever folder/files the user drops onto you application.
If the user drops a folder you get access to the folder and everything that's inside, the whole hierarchy. Perfect! But if the user drops only a single movie file, then you're screwed, because you'll have only access to that file, not the folder, so you won't be able to write the subtitle file.
I solved this issue by having my own "Grant Permissions" dialog that'll ask users to drop folders I need access to. Once a folder is dropped once you have full access in this process, and you can use security-scoped bookmarks to be able to access these folders on subsequent runs.
All in all it's ALOT of extra work (especially if it's not an Xcode / Objective-C project) that will not make your application any better, so that's why I charge for the App Store version, even though you can get it for free as well via brew cask or SourceForge.
Re: Publishing on the Mac AppStore
Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2014 1:00 pm
by oss
rednoah, I wrote you PM, did you get it ? It was about xml-rpc imdb integration...