<story><title>Apple countersues Epic, seeks punitive damages</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-countersues-fortnite-maker-epic-games-seeking-to-halt-in-app-payments-11599592017</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>Apple writes in their court filing: “Epic sought to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s iOS platform and related services while its ‘hotfix’ lined Epic’s pockets at Apple’s expense.”&lt;p&gt;It seems that Apple has forgotten that each iPhone user already paid Apple hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for the iPhone itself.  It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.  Meanwhile, I bought an iPhone so that I can run the software that I like.  If it costs money to develop a platform, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem that strange to just charge that upfront when someone buys an iPhone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>Traster</author><text>&amp;gt; It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.&lt;p&gt;This isn&amp;#x27;t how the software development eco-system works. There are &lt;i&gt;tonnes&lt;/i&gt; of examples of providing free development tools with restrictions on use and revenue sharing agreements. For example, there&amp;#x27;s this little known company called Epic Games which provides the Unreal Engine for free- but with the following clause:&lt;p&gt;&amp;gt; This license is free to use and incurs 5% royalties when you monetize your game or other interactive off-the-shelf product and your lifetime gross revenues from that product exceed $1,000,000 USD.&lt;p&gt;And Epic doesn&amp;#x27;t even provide quality control, a discovery mechanism, or payment processing.</text></comment>
<story><title>Apple countersues Epic, seeks punitive damages</title><url>https://www.wsj.com/articles/apple-countersues-fortnite-maker-epic-games-seeking-to-halt-in-app-payments-11599592017</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>jrockway</author><text>Apple writes in their court filing: “Epic sought to enjoy all of the benefits of Apple’s iOS platform and related services while its ‘hotfix’ lined Epic’s pockets at Apple’s expense.”&lt;p&gt;It seems that Apple has forgotten that each iPhone user already paid Apple hundreds (if not thousands) of dollars for the iPhone itself.  It is reasonable to charge developers for development tools, but if that&amp;#x27;s what you want to do, just charge them for development tools.  Meanwhile, I bought an iPhone so that I can run the software that I like.  If it costs money to develop a platform, it doesn&amp;#x27;t seem that strange to just charge that upfront when someone buys an iPhone.</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>noahtallen</author><text> &amp;gt; just charge them for development tools&lt;p&gt;Thing is, Apple still charges $100 USD per year for a developer license which lets you distribute your app, so this is already happening! :)</text></comment>