iPad
Man sues iBird developer, Apple for copyright infringement
By Jim DalrympleJune 19, 2010, 11:23 am PT
Martyn Stewart filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against iPhone developer Mitch Waite and Apple.
Stewart records nature sounds for a living, and has done so for more than 35 years, according to the lawsuit. He claims in the lawsuit that Mitch Waite included his copyrighted sounds in his iBird applications for sale on Apple’s App Store, without permission.
Stewart says he has more than 3,500 bird sounds in their natural settings covered by a federal copyright registration.
Waite apparently contacted Stewart in 2007 to license his bird sounds for a Palm Pilot app he was developing. While an agreement between the two was never reached, Waite included the sounds in his iBird apps for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the lawsuit claims.
There is little doubt that the sounds in the app are Stewart’s — Waite gave him credit on the About page of the apps as being the “Recordist.”
Apple is being included in the lawsuit because it used iBird to help promote the iPhone in national commercials, according to the lawsuit.
Stewart is asking the court for damages and “any profits of the Defendants attributable to the infringing acts.” He’s also asking the court to stop the sale of the app.
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Man sues iBird developer, Apple for copyright infringement
By Jim DalrympleJune 19, 2010, 11:23 am PT
Martyn Stewart filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against iPhone developer Mitch Waite and Apple.
Stewart records nature sounds for a living, and has done so for more than 35 years, according to the lawsuit. He claims in the lawsuit that Mitch Waite included his copyrighted sounds in his iBird applications for sale on Apple’s App Store, without permission.
Stewart says he has more than 3,500 bird sounds in their natural settings covered by a federal copyright registration.
Waite apparently contacted Stewart in 2007 to license his bird sounds for a Palm Pilot app he was developing. While an agreement between the two was never reached, Waite included the sounds in his iBird apps for the iPhone, iPod touch and iPad, the lawsuit claims.
There is little doubt that the sounds in the app are Stewart’s — Waite gave him credit on the About page of the apps as being the “Recordist.”
Apple is being included in the lawsuit because it used iBird to help promote the iPhone in national commercials, according to the lawsuit.
Stewart is asking the court for damages and “any profits of the Defendants attributable to the infringing acts.” He’s also asking the court to stop the sale of the app.
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Discussion 8 comments so far
8 Responses to “Man sues iBird developer, Apple for copyright infringement”
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This scenario (seen before) brings me to ask the same question: unless there's more info we're not privy to, why has Stewart waited this long before initiating the suit? Oft times I wonder if these folks wait for the $$$ to roll in and then hit hard with a lawsuit.
That could very well be the case.
I know Martyn Stewart. His lifetime work has been recording nature sounds, all over the globe. Then he finds that his lifetime work has been used without his permission, nor any royaltys He has been trying to negotiate a solution to this for over a year.
So, no, ‘these folks’ don’t ‘wait for the $$$ to roll in and then hit hard with a lawsuit.’
Ask why those other folks (iBird) ever thought they could just take a person’s life work, and use it for free!
Everyone blasts Apple for being a walled garden, but this is why Apple needs to tightly control the app approval process. Although it is the developer who has wrongly used copyrighted material, it is Apple (the guys with the money) that are ultimately being sued.
What’s with that really bad image of the about page? Was it taken with another camera, instead of doing a screenshot with the iphone itself?
Power button and home button on the iphone, together, to take a screenshot. Looks way nicer.
That’s what was included in the court docs.
Maybe it took time for him to raise the funds, find a decent lawyer, or to even discover what his full rights were in the matter (recordings of nature seem quite different from creating, and copyrighting, a song!). He also might not even be tuned into Apple and the iPhone and only more recently learned of all of its use.
If true, I am quite troubled that the iBird guy, after failing to negotiate a license for the recordings for a Palm program, still went ahead anyway and used them!
It all makes me suspect that there's more to the story. This sounds as if it came from the Recordist– what did the counter filing discuss or content?
Thanks for the insight Pepper. It certainly looks like he has a good case.