I submitted a RSS reader app, but it just got rejected from the App Store, with this cited:
8.5: Apps may not use protected third party material such as trademarks, copyrights, patents or violate 3rd party terms of use. Authorization to use such material must be provided upon request
We found that your app contains features that may infringe on rights owned by various news and media outlets.
Specifically, we found that your app provides users with a news feed generated from them.
Please provide documentary evidence of your rights to use this content.
Acceptable documentation includes a copy of your contract with the copyright holder or a detailed authorization letter from the copyright holder to your company. Please make sure the documentation you provide specifies the rights for commercial use as the App Store is considered a commercial environment, even if you choose to offer your app for free.
I'm wondering how all of the other many many RSS reader apps got approved, so that I can figure out what to do to get mine approved too.
My app just generates a feed based on interests you select. And that feed pulls from RSS.
Would greatly appreciate any help at all, thanks!!
Best Answer
What Apple are saying is that the content your App would be pulling through is the property of the news / media outlets who produce it. As to not infringe on their copyright, you need to get approval from these news outlets that you can then show Apple to get your app approved.
Getting the news outlets to agree might depend largely on how you pose it to them, you want them to perceive being included in your app as beneficial to them. I don't know how the app is structured but maybe if you pull through teaser content for example and have links through to more content then that's where you can present a benefit to the news outlets. You need to contact someone in upper management in the first instance, someone who has the authority to authorise your use of the content, and maybe pitch it to them as follows:
Hi _________
My name is __________, I'm the head of ________ Software. I'm contacting you because of your role at ____________. My company has recently produced an app that aggregates news stories and provides links through to the media outlets who produced them, we're now looking for strategic relationships we can develop with key content producers to ensure our service always has the best array of content. We don't intend charging news outlets for displaying their content as we plan to monetize the app through other means, which means this service provides free promotion of your content. I believe that your organisation might be a really good fit for this service and was hoping we could have a phone conversation to discuss the matter further.
Please let me know when would be a good time for me to give you a call and I look forward to telling you more about our application.
Regards,
Hopefully that gets you started...