HTC Sends LevelUp Studio C&D For Beautiful Widgets
HTC Sense is HTC’s pride and joy in the Android world so it isn’t surprising they’re trying to protect it. But the developer at LevelUp Studio, creator of Beautiful Widgets, Beautiful Silence Widgets, and Beautiful Widgets: Pack 2, was probably surprised when he received a Cease & Desist order from HTC. He tweeted about the C&D earlier today:
His applications quite obviously mimic the familiar HTC widgets that come with HTC Sense.
They say imitation is the best form of flattery but it doesn’t seem like HTC was very flattered. The most obvious factor that plays into all this is that LevelUp Studio was SELLING the applications… although I’m sure there would have been a problem if they were free as well, this probably escalated concerns at HTC.
Visiting any LevelUp Studio application from Android Market now yields the following description:
*PEOPLE BACKUP BEAUTIFUL WIDGETS*
HTC sent me a C&D, I have to remove the widgets from the market soon, so please back it up if you want to keep it, using appmanager or ASTRO file manager.
Commendable that he is letting his customers know… but I wonder what HTC thinks about that. I’m also wondering what would happen if his customers were to file a complaint with Google and ask for a refund – could Google be forced to grant it and the developer end up getting charged back lots and lots of monies?
These are the sticky details you get involved with when you tread in grey areas. But yeah, if you’ve purchased a Beautiful Widgets application from LevelUp Studios you’re going to want to back it up… because it won’t be available much longer.
[Thanks Michael]