BBC Slaps Cease-And-Desist On Unofficial App Maker; More To Come?

Now that the BBC is finally due to develop more of its own mobile apps, it looks like it’s starting to put its foot down to third-party developers that have been using its content to make unsanctioned, unofficial versions.

Camiloo, the developer that was working on and promoting a BBC iPlayer app for the iPhone, has been served with a cease-and-desist order from the BBC, Camiloo tells paidContent:UK.

“We have just received a cease-and-desist from the BBC, and have had to comply,” Mark Newby, the MD of Camiloo, tells us in an email. “Naturally, we are very disappointed that the BBC has chosen not to allow our project to continue, but we vow to bounce back immediately with new and interesting apps.”

Though commercial counterpart BBC Worldwide has released mobile apps, the BBC’s main UK public service wing has, until now, remained on the sidelines of the apps boom. Unsanctioned apps carrying the BBC name and BBC content are already on app stores like iTunes.

Some of these are proving to be very popular, which may prove to be a thorn in the BBC’s side. A blog post today from Erik Huggers, the BBC’s director of future media and technology, who had broken the apps news today, had as its first comment: “How does the BBC feel about the currently awesome BeepPlayer app on Android?”

But some of these other “rogue” BBC apps appear to be closing up shop. One app simply called “BBC Sport” that we wrote about last May is no longer indexed in iTunes, and its developer, Relaxaler, now has a blank page when you navigate to its site. But with apps stores like Apple’s at 150,000 apps and counting, how easy is it for illicit apps to hide in there anyway?

These third-party apps are all paid-for, whereas the BBC apps will all be free of charge, and will come accompanied by ads outside the UK. (In the UK, the apps are subsidized by the license fee.) The BBC says that the one exception will be iPlayer apps, which will not be accessible outside the UK.