Is the app that I want to make against Play Store's Terms and Conditions?

Kreator Camp Google Play
#1

So, first things first, we are a group of 4 people running a Greek meme page on Instagram. Each day we upload several videos to our Instagram Story and receive lots of messages asking for them.

We think that having an app where the user will be able to download any video that they like would be very time-saving for us and more convenient for them.

The videos available for download will be hosted on Google Drive or some other cloud service.

Most of these videos are not created by us. They are taken from various sources (which 99% of the times don’t own the material).

This raises the following question:
Is it “safe” to upload such an app on Play Store or could our Google Developer Account be suspended?

I have read parts of Play Store’s documentation, including the section about Intellectual property. But I’m not quite sure if this app is following the rules or not.

Thanks in advance!

#2

If it is not your content, then the owner of it must give you the permission.

If you dont make money with the app you will get possible not much trouble.

But if you make money and it is not your content and you have no permission by the owner to use it you can get much trouble.

If your app will be a suspend candidate? Maybe but not for sure.

#3

If you don’t own the content you are infringing the rights of the owner and so Google Play’s Terms and Conditions. If you will have problems with that one day or not is impossible to tell.

Probably not until the app has a good number of downloads or someone flag the app.

#4

There’s one problem though. They’re memes. They have been shared many times and most of the times the original creator is unknown:/

I guess we’ll have to share the app without the use of Google Play Store.

#5

Just use the kodular store.

#6

what if we get a kodular store app similar to playstore concept. i think its a good idea to reach more users.

#7

We already have one

1 Like
#8

I think he wants an app for Android phones. Just like Play Store has a web version and an app version for mobile devices.

#9

What if it is user-generated content? There are apps like 9GAG that are famous, contain lots of copyrighted material but have no trouble with Terms & Conditions. :thinking:

#10

No matter who posted it. If the content is not authorized and you host it or even embed or link to it then you may have problems.

I have no doubt 9gag had and still has many problems because of this. But nowadays they probably have a good team and have partnership with a lot of big media and music companies to avoid dmca. But even so they have a form where people can flag content posted without permission.

You can risk it and not have problems for a long time? Yes.
But if you want to make what is totally legal and totally acording to Google Play’s rules, don’t.

1 Like
#11

So it’s been a while but I’m back. I was wondering, if I create this app and host videos for 1-7 days (most of which is not original content) and just share it with others via the Kodular Store, will it be fine or is it forbidden?
And also, will adding ads later on (when it reaches a certain audience) be acceptable?

#12

Better make a little change & you will be able to update that app on playstore

#13

What kind of change? The hosted videos is the purpose of the app. Without them the app has no reason to exist.

#14

ya but all the videos are from Instagram page so make it hashtag app.

#15

What is a hashtag app?

#16

you don’t know hashtags ?

#17

I know what hashtags are, I just didn’t understand what do you mean by “Hashtag App”.