Did Kiloo just steal my game?!

Solar2D General Questions/Discussion
#1

I was doing a search for “Puzzlewood Quests” on Google and besides the usual hacked apk sites, I found it listed here:

http://amzn.com/B019U4CX5Q

That’s *MY* new Puzzlewood Quests Premium game on the Amazon App Store… Being *sold* by Kiloo (of Subway Surfers), not Downcast Systems (me).

What the hell, Kiloo?!  It’s also on amazon.com.au.  Probably others too. 

Has anyone else had this happen to them? I don’t quite know what to do about it besides leaving a review to let people know that it’s not the *real* version of the game, and tweeting to @KilooGames about it.

This is the kind of thing that makes me want to give up on app development.

Thanks,

Dave

#2

We had this happen with HoPiKo. I emailed Amazon about it with proof that it was our game and they replied saying it wasn’t enough proof!

They eventually took it down. They then tried to use it as a sales pitch to get us to put HoPiKo on their platform. We weren’t happy.

#3

I also had a .NET Interview Prep flash card app I wrote in 2011 (Sencha Touch, PhoneGap), and one day I found that a company had hacked it, then created probably 30 offshoots, for studying for various other things, or even just stupid things like flash cards of Chuck Norris facts.

The bad part was that their apps had 100,000+ downloads, but the worst part was that in the app description, it said they were willing to sell the flashcard engine to anyone who wanted it.

By the way, I knew it was mine because when I saw it, and it looked *exactly* like what I had created, I wanted to know how they did it. A short Google search later and I was able to download and hack *his* apk, and lo and behold, there are *my* comments in the code…

Dave

#4

I keep going to type something in response to this, and I go back and delete it and start over again.

Basically, this sucks. Sorry this happened, Dave. 

#5

Thanks, guys. 

Here’s what’s happened so far. I contacted Amazon about it through a normal Contact Us sort of form. They wrote me back and told me “this is important to us” and told me to contact the Developer/App Distribution folks instead. I filled out the form there, and they wrote back and said, “Intellectual Property is important to us…” and told me to go fill out an Intellectual Property Infringement form.

So I did all that, and while doing that, the links all stopped working and started returning 404s.  I don’t know if that was Amazon that did that or Kiloo…

Dave

#6

The fact that they swiped the entire thing lock, stock and app icon is what is the real slap in the face. They didn’t even take 20 minutes to try to change the outward facing graphics assets. 

I don’t know anything about Kiloo, but if this was a straight steal on their part, it doesn’t bode well for their library moving forward. Who knows what else is lifted? Is it possible that Kiloo is an unwitting component in this mess? I can’t see how that could be at all possible, but I don’t like jumping to conclusions…

#7

If you have proof that that’s your game and that they are actually stealing it you can file a complaint against whomever with the state general attorney.(Your state and others if you’d like)

–SonicX278

#8

And then talk to the ones that are stealing it and send them links of the complaints and you might come to a reason or they will lose. One way or the other.

–SonicX278

#9

Are you sure it was the real Kiloo, or maybe some fake knockoff?

#10

I don’t know. The name on Amazon was “Kiloo” and when I went to More Apps from this Developer it showed Subway Surfers and a bunch of other stuff. And Subway Surfers had 35k reviews.

#11

Dear Dave,

I am very sorry to learn that you have had this experience. I can assure you that Kiloo HAVE NOT stolen your app. It seems someone finds it amusing to put apps in the name of Kiloo.

We are working on the issue as I am writing to you now and we’re in a dialogue with Amazon as well to solve this problem.

I am sorry for the inconvenience this may have caused you and I sure do not hope this will make you give up on app-development.

Yours sincerely

Bettina Pedersen

Legal Advisor, Kiloo

#12

I got an email from Kiloo support saying this:

“There is an issue on the Amazon App Store. We have contacted Amazon App Store repeatedly to fix the issue, but there is little we can do on our end.”

So… maybe someone stole their name?

Dave

#13

We had this happen with HoPiKo. I emailed Amazon about it with proof that it was our game and they replied saying it wasn’t enough proof!

They eventually took it down. They then tried to use it as a sales pitch to get us to put HoPiKo on their platform. We weren’t happy.

#14

I also had a .NET Interview Prep flash card app I wrote in 2011 (Sencha Touch, PhoneGap), and one day I found that a company had hacked it, then created probably 30 offshoots, for studying for various other things, or even just stupid things like flash cards of Chuck Norris facts.

The bad part was that their apps had 100,000+ downloads, but the worst part was that in the app description, it said they were willing to sell the flashcard engine to anyone who wanted it.

By the way, I knew it was mine because when I saw it, and it looked *exactly* like what I had created, I wanted to know how they did it. A short Google search later and I was able to download and hack *his* apk, and lo and behold, there are *my* comments in the code…

Dave

#15

I keep going to type something in response to this, and I go back and delete it and start over again.

Basically, this sucks. Sorry this happened, Dave. 

#16

Thanks, guys. 

Here’s what’s happened so far. I contacted Amazon about it through a normal Contact Us sort of form. They wrote me back and told me “this is important to us” and told me to contact the Developer/App Distribution folks instead. I filled out the form there, and they wrote back and said, “Intellectual Property is important to us…” and told me to go fill out an Intellectual Property Infringement form.

So I did all that, and while doing that, the links all stopped working and started returning 404s.  I don’t know if that was Amazon that did that or Kiloo…

Dave

#17

The fact that they swiped the entire thing lock, stock and app icon is what is the real slap in the face. They didn’t even take 20 minutes to try to change the outward facing graphics assets. 

I don’t know anything about Kiloo, but if this was a straight steal on their part, it doesn’t bode well for their library moving forward. Who knows what else is lifted? Is it possible that Kiloo is an unwitting component in this mess? I can’t see how that could be at all possible, but I don’t like jumping to conclusions…

#18

If you have proof that that’s your game and that they are actually stealing it you can file a complaint against whomever with the state general attorney.(Your state and others if you’d like)

–SonicX278

#19

And then talk to the ones that are stealing it and send them links of the complaints and you might come to a reason or they will lose. One way or the other.

–SonicX278

#20

Are you sure it was the real Kiloo, or maybe some fake knockoff?