Legal Niches

id Ports Nuked Off of Android Market

By pete_gallagher

id Software and its relatively new parent company ZeniMedia have filed a Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) complaint in order to rid the Android Market of several non-id developed mobile games.

The ports in question were versions of Doom, Quake and Wolfenstein. 11 applications in all, including a Doom Soundboard, were targeted for removal. Android and Me has a clip of the fax sent by ZeniMedia to Google.

A developer of Doom for Android noted that Doom is open source, but outlined some of the mistakes he may have made in his release and is attempting to contact ZeniMedia to see if he can make any changes in order to get the app back on the marketplace. He stated:

Although the Doom source code, was open sourced, and the application was based on a port of the PrBoom engine, the application is still suspended.  My mistake was allowing the download of the Plutonia  and TNT WADs, at least that is what I suspect. Although I may not be able to distribute the application through the Market, the APK can still be downloaded and installed through the web.

This YouTube video shows off one of the versions of Doom for Android in action.

Full post as published by GamePolitics.com on December 15, 2009 (boomark / email).