If I ran Apple or Google (and was running with the "customer safety" angle):
If you want to run a third-party app store, okay. But you have to play by Apple/Google's rules and standards.
Just like they have guidelines for their own store's apps, have the same guidelines for third-party stores. It puts the onus on third-party stores to make sure they're just as stringent as the parent store/platform. If you fail to be compliant per a specific set of rules (not ambiguous), your store gets booted.
If it's a purely a money concern, charge a "store developer" fee on an annual basis and tier it out based on number of sales/customers.
> If you want to run a third-party app store, okay. But you have to play by Apple/Google's rules and standards.
Defeats the purpose of third party app stores. The only reason I even have one installed (F-droid) is for apps that don't play by Google's rules and standards.
"Yes, you can have multiple app stores as long as they're all exactly the same."
> If you want to run a third-party app store, okay. But you have to play by Apple/Google's rules and standards.
I am not sure if you even posted on the right comment or if you even read the article.
This whole post is about how actually those rules are illegal and therefore we don't have to follow them.
The whole point is that actually we can use the law to force Google or Apple to change their rules, or forcibly allow developers to not follow them.
> your store gets booted.
If Google or Apple doesn't follow the law then they will be forced to do so by the government, and fined large amounts of money.
The rules of the US government overrule the rules of companies.
> If I ran Apple or Google (and was running with the "customer safety" angle):
I don't think you understand.
Your whole post is basically just saying "these are the rules".
Yes, those are the rules. But those rules can be illegal.
Just saying "yep. These are the rules" is a vacuous statement that is unrelated to the crux of the argument, which is that those rules can be illegal and the government can force Apple or Google to change them.
I should have added a caveat that they couldn't police content, only high-level concerns like security (e.g., want to have a porn app store, go nuts, but make sure it's secure).
If you want to run a third-party app store, okay. But you have to play by Apple/Google's rules and standards.
Just like they have guidelines for their own store's apps, have the same guidelines for third-party stores. It puts the onus on third-party stores to make sure they're just as stringent as the parent store/platform. If you fail to be compliant per a specific set of rules (not ambiguous), your store gets booted.
If it's a purely a money concern, charge a "store developer" fee on an annual basis and tier it out based on number of sales/customers.