Velocity Reviews - Facebook bans app that does what something they paid $1.4 billion for does

BBC:

25 February 2013 Last updated at 11:16 ET
Facebook blocks Vintage Camera app
By Zoe Kleinman Technology reporter, BBC News

The developers of an application called Vintage Camera say Facebook
has unjustly banned users from uploading their photos to the social
network.

The app, which works on Apple devices, provides various effects to
make pictures look dated.

French studio Presselite, which developed the app, says it has more
than eight million users worldwide.

Facebook told the developers the decision had been made following
negative feedback from account holders.

After Presselight appealed against the ban, Facebook sent the company
an email saying: "We've checked out the circumstances of your app's
restriction, and we found that your app received strong negative
feedback from users and their friends.

"Unfortunately, we will not be able to restore your app's
functionality."

But Presselite co-founder Antoine Morcos said that, according to
administration data provided by Facebook itself, there had been about
one negative report per 1,000 images shared via the app, which he
believed had been due to "inappropriate use".

"We don't understand how Facebook could block the access to millions
of users of the Vintage Camera application who want to share their
photos on Facebook, only because of a few negative feedback reports,"
Mr Morcos wrote in a press statement.

"As you all know, Facebook has acquired the Instagram photo-sharing
application, and we hope this acquisition is not influencing this kind
of access limitation for other photo applications."

After being contacted by the BBC, Facebook said that Presselite had
received warnings about the app before it was blocked.

"While we provide an open platform, every application on Platform is
required to meet our policies. We take both automated and manual steps
to detect violations and ensure compliance," the firm said.

"Pending on the violation, we give developers an opportunity to come
into compliance via a warning system. In the case of this application,
the application was not in compliance with our platform policies and
had received three warnings prior to our systems taking action on the
application."

The app has a four-star average rating on the Apple store, although
some users have written in reviews it does not always work and others
complain it is too similar to Instagram,

In 2010, Presselite accused London-based developer Q Mapps of
infringing its copyright, after both firms released an app called
Paris Metro for Apple devices.

Presselite asked Apple to remove the Q Mapps app from its store but
was found to have had its trademark application rejected by the US
Patent and Trademark Office.