Ventis Media, Inc. Response to Notification of Google Play Developer Terms Violation Feb. 3, 2015

This document is provided in reference to the following notice from the Google Play Store on Jan. 28, 2015:

This is a notification that your application, MediaMonkey Beta, with package ID com.ventismedia.android.mediamonkeybeta, is currently in violation of our developer terms.

REASON FOR WARNING: Potential violation of the Impersonation or Deceptive behavior and/or intellectual property provisions of the Content Policy.

Your app and/or elements of its listing on Google Play, including title, description, icon(s), or promotional screenshots, have been flagged for potential unauthorized usage of protected works belonging to a third party. Protected work could typically include product names, brands, images, logos, music, and similar works. This is a policy warning of impending removal.

Ventis Media, Inc. (“Ventis”) have since reviewed MediaMonkey for Android for any possible such violations and have made several changes in response:

1. 
   Added the License to the ‘About’ dialog so that it is accessible at any time (not just at startup)
   
2. 
   Updated the License with attribution for several components that were previously missing
   

• 
  Android SDK
  
• 
  Android icon packs - Creative Commons Attribution 2.5 Generic License
  
• 
  https://github.com/bauerca/drag-sort-listview - Apache license 2.0
  
• 
  https://github.com/cesards/ForegroundViews - Apache license 2.0
  
• 
  Amazon Fire SDK - Program Materials License Agreement
  

3. 
   Corrected license for http://4thline.org/projects/cling/ to indicate use of CDDL (not LGPL)
   
4. 
   Removed the Amazon SDK from build of MediaMonkey for Android that appears in the Google Play store in case it violates section 3.4 of the terms of use:
   

5. 
   Replaced the UPnP icon (which had previously contained a copyrighted logo).
   
6. 
   Modified the store description
   
   • 
     Made it unambiguously clear that it is the beta version of MediaMonkey and that it is a Trial limited to 15 days.
     
   • 
     Blurred copyrighted Album Art images and songs in case this was the root of the potential violation.
     

Ventis is the corporation that owns the account for package ID com.ventismedia.android.mediamonkeybeta . Ventis has been in operation since 2003. Corporate details can be seen here:

The fact that Ventis Media is the publisher of MediaMonkey can be seen directly on our web site:

Russell S………. (russell@....... – the primary account holder for the product) is the VP Marketing for Ventis Media, Inc. and resides at …………………………, evidenced by:

Numerous press releases on the MediaMonkey web site: http://www.mediamonkey.com/news/2014/04/03/announcing-mediamonkey-for-android/

DNS records for mediamonkey.com and ventismedia.com:

Phone records:

MediaMonkey for Windows was launched on Windows 9x in 2003. At the time, there was no other use of the term MediaMonkey worldwide. Since then it has come to be used by a Photography Store and as the handle for a journalist, but Ventis Media was the first to use the trademark.

All marketing text associated with MediaMonkey has been written by Cindy W…….. (a company Director and employee of Ventis—see company details above) and Russell S………..

The description is an accurate representation of what the product does, and the fact that it is a Beta version of ‘MediaMonkey’ and that it is a Trial version with functionality that expires.

Icons, Logo and Artwork

All artwork associated with MediaMonkey has been developed internally by Ventis Media, Inc. by the following consultants and employees with the exceptions listed below:

Icons: created by Matej K……… & Marek P……… excepting icons from the Android icon pack which are now properly attributed in the License accessed via the About dialog and on first install.

Logo: an original logo created by Clever Starfish for Ventis Media, Inc. in 2005 and used since the 2007 launch of MediaMonkey for Windows v3.

Promotional graphics & Screen Captures: created by Frank K………… & Russell S……... Screen captures contain images of 3^rd party album art which our lawyers have indicated is acceptable ‘fair use’ since it is being used to illustrate use of the product. However, in case this is the reason for the violation, we have blurred out / shrunk all artwork images so that they are not recognizable.

Code

With the exception of code that is used with permission as described in section 2 of the MediaMonkey for Android License Agreement, all code is developed internally by:

• 
  Marek P……..
  
• 
  Martin B……..
  
• 
  Jiri H……..
  

1. 
   the offending product be removed from Google Play
   
2. 
   Ventis Media, Inc. be notified of the name of the offending product and company in order to seek legal remedy