# Buyers held hostage - CameraMator App pulled from App Store



## Rienzphotoz (Feb 23, 2013)

I just received this email from "Planet5D"

ATTENTION: The following information may concern you because you may have previously pledged to receive a CameraMator Kickstarter project reward

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Sanho Sues Former Software Developer Partner Wooblue And Wooblue’s CEO Usman Rashid For Unlawful Removal Of CameraMator App From Apple AppStore And For Fraud And Breach Of Contract

FREMONT, CALIFORNIA (February 20, 2013) – Sanho Corporation (“Sanho”) – a leading designer and developer of electronics and electronics accessories – sued Wooblue, Inc. (“Wooblue”) and Wooblue’s CEO, Usman Rashid, for fraud, breach of contract, unfair business practices and other claims in a complaint filed today in Alameda County Superior Court.

“Sanho had no choice but to protect itself and Sanho’s customers after Wooblue and Rashid deliberately and wrongfully disabled the thousands of CameraMator products already in the hands of Sanho’s distributors and customers,” said Sanho President, Daniel Chin. No trial date has yet been set for Sanho’s complaint.

Wooblue and Rashid breached the parties’ development agreement for the CameraMator product and application, which is used with Sanho’s revolutionary Compact Universal Wireless Adapter, (“CUWA”). Sanho’s patent-pending CUWA technology allows a device with a universal serial bus (USB) port (such as a computer, camera, or music player) to communicate wirelessly with other devices, such as a mobile phone or tablet computer. Sanho’s claims arose after Wooblue and Rashid unlawfully removed the CameraMator application from the Apple AppStore and other similar markets. Sanho’s complaint alleges that Wooblue and Rashid took that action knowing that it would harm Sanho’s relationships with its customers and distributors.

After Sanho announced its CUWA technology and made application kits available for developers, Rashid approached Sanho and sought to partner on the development and sale of the CameraMator product and application. According to Sanho’s complaint, after sales of the CameraMator took off following its debut at the most recent CES and Macworld trade shows, Wooblue and Rashid tried to extort more favorable business terms from Sanho by holding Sanho’s customers hostage and taking down the CameraMator application rendering any unsold CameraMator products unusable. Further, by taking down the application, any owners of CameraMator products who did not download the application prior to Wooblue and Rashid removing the application from the AppStore will not be able to use the CameraMator product that they purchased.

Details of the Sanho vs Wooblue/Usman Rashid lawsuit can be found at: http://www.hyperblog.com/2013/02/sanho-sues-wooblue-for-pulling-of-cameramator-app/

Read more http://blog.planet5d.com/2013/02/cameramator-app-developer-pulls-app-buyers-held-hostage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Planet5dBlog+%28Planet5D+Blog%29

Bummer

Now that’s a real bummer isn’t it? While

If you read the court documents, you’ll see that the makers of CameraMator (Sanho) have spent over $185,000 marketing this device only to have the app yanked off the App Store shelves! Yikes!

The disagreement (according to paragraphs 30-34) is due to the software developer of the App “becoming greedy” and wanting to re-negotiate their deal – and when they didn’t get a new deal, they pulled the application from the App Store knowing it would totally kill all sales.

(cover photo credit: snap from the cameraMator site)

Read more http://blog.planet5d.com/2013/02/cameramator-app-developer-pulls-app-buyers-held-hostage/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Planet5dBlog+%28Planet5D+Blog%29
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For those who don't know what Camera Mator is ... here is a youtube video:
CameraMator - Wireless Tethered Photography


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## Rienzphotoz (Feb 23, 2013)

This is a user review video of Camera Mator
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXvRKf-4vNg


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## Mt Spokane Photography (Feb 24, 2013)

I would not believe everything that was in a court lawsuit filing. US lawyers tend to go far overboard in their claims and accusations in court filings. 

In any event, the buyers are definitely held hostage by one or both companies. Thats why smart companies license software and include it in the package. 

A example might be Canon Cameras and the software included with them does include patented software licensed from third parties, including MP4 codecs. Its also why you can only download updates from the Canon site. I use Nero software, and they include third party patented software which has its own software agreement and activation before you can use it to play MP4 files.

The point being that they include it, and do not subject you to having to hope to get it from a third party.


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## Rienzphotoz (Feb 24, 2013)

Mt Spokane Photography said:


> Thats why smart companies license software and include it in the package.
> 
> A example might be Canon Cameras and the software included with them does include patented software licensed from third parties, including MP4 codecs. Its also why you can only download updates from the Canon site. I use Nero software, and they include third party patented software which has its own software agreement and activation before you can use it to play MP4 files.
> 
> The point being that they include it, and do not subject you to having to hope to get it from a third party.


I suppose the problem with small start up companies is that they don't have the resources, so they depend on third parties. 
When this was a Kick Starter project, I almost invested in it ... but for some reason I did not go through with it.


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