The updated YouTube app for Windows Phone turned out to be too nice for its own good. Google just issued a cease and desist order to Microsoft over the new app’s contravention of the YouTube API terms of service.
At issue at hand is the lack of pre-roll ad support, which is required for all official and third-party YouTube apps. The Windows Phone app also allows users to download videos, another restricted feature of the copyright-friendly YouTube service. Third, the app allows all Windows Phone users to watch any video, regardless of whether it has been restricted by Google’s partners from being watched on mobile.
“Content creators make money on YouTube by monetizing their content through advertising. Unfortunately, by blocking advertising and allowing downloads of videos, your application cuts off a valuable ongoing revenue source for creators, and causes harm to the thriving content ecosystem on YouTube. In addition, your application overrides specific decisions made by some content creators to keep their content from displaying on certain types of devices, which in many cases are due to exclusive distribution arrangements those content creators have with third parties. YouTube’s agreements with creators give them choices in how their content is presented and distributed, and your application takes away that control.”
Microsoft has responded to Google’s legal outburst with claims that the search company has denied it access to the necessary APIs to allow for ads and other limitations.
“YouTube is consistently one of the top apps downloaded by smartphone users on all platforms, but Google has refused to work with us to develop an app on par with other platforms. Since we updated the YouTube app to ensure our mutual customers a similar YouTube experience, ratings and feedback have been overwhelmingly positive. We’d be more than happy to include advertising but need Google to provide us access to the necessary APIs. In light of Larry Page’s comments today calling for more interoperability and less negativity, we look forward to solving this matter together for our mutual customers.”
You’ll be able to download the app until May 22nd, which is the date Google has given Microsoft as a deadline for removing the app from the Windows Store. Hopefully this is dealt with before then.
Via: The Verge
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