Hmmm
"...infect devices or simply fail to do much of anything once purchased and installed."
Hard to tell from the real thing.
Security firm Kaspersky Lab is warning users following the discovery of a set of mobile malware apps that impersonate its products. The firm said that unknown malware writers have been crafting applications that bill themselves as being Kaspersky products but instead infect devices or simply fail to do much of anything once …
The various App store owners need to crack down on abuse of other companies' names and trademarks. I've seen loads of apps that 'borrow' other people's logos and use names that are far too similar / familiar.
I know software patenting can go way too far, but I think just misleading customers like that by using a name and logo that's designed to mimic someone else is really unfair.
The various App store owners need to provide quality applications and not act as legal guardians of other peoples property.
Do you have any idea about how many trademarks/logos etc there are out there? They all have different rules of use ranging from "use if you want to" to "we will own your first-born".
It has always been the trademark/logo owners who have the responsibility of protecting their property and it sometimes takes a court case to resolve issues such as one logo being too similar to another.
What should exist is a mechanism for companies to inform the App Stores that an infringing product is in their store and should be removed. You could call this mechanism a take down request and back it up with European and US law.
If an an app store accepts an app called Kaspersky*** that wasn't made by Kaspersky, we can safely conclude that said store's filtering & approval process is shit.
My next phone will probably use a Firefox OS . Or at least Cyanogenmod + a permissions control app.