アプリ: OwncastのiOS/tvOSアプリOwncastsの公開

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「役務: 分散SNSの連携情報まとめサイトFedi Docsの開始 | GNU social JP Web」サイト内で最初に登場した自己配信サービスのOwncastがiOS/tvOSアプリOwncasts (Owncasts on the App Store) を公開したとの報道があったので紹介します (Owncast releases app for iOS and tvOS – The Fediverse Report、Last Week in Fediverse – ep 52 – The Fediverse Report)。

2024-01-14に「Owncasts – A new iOS and tvOS application for viewing Owncast-powered live video streams · Gabe Kangas」で発表されていました。

著者はOwncastは配信用のサーバーソフトウェアであることに強いこだわりがあるようで、今回のアプリのようなものはおまけで、なくても問題ない、サイドプロジェクトとのことです。

以下の投稿や「Last Week in Fediverse – ep 40 – The Fediverse Report」で報道されていた通り、10月にAppleに申請した際に拒絶されていたようです。

2023-10-18T17:39:39.000Z

Gabe Kangas|gabek@social.gabekangas.com

I was going to wait to talk about this until I could actually release it, but it’s becoming unlikely that will happen.

A few months ago I built an #iOS and #tvOS app for watching #Owncast streams natively on your phone and tv. You could browse the directory, or add your own private servers that aren’t listed publicly. It would send you push notifications when your favorite streams went live and it all worked pretty well.

Apple has been unable to understand how the “rights” work in this case. I can’t get them to understand that people opt into the directory, and the Owncast project owns and runs the directory. Instead they see it as me “using content without rights” and “accessing a catalog without proper rights”. They asked me to provide the paperwork detailing the agreement I have with every Owncast server. Clearly that’s impossible. The number of servers that want to be public on the directory change every day, I couldn’t send them new documentation every day. I tried to explain that the directory is kind of like a search engine and the application is like a browser. A browser doesn’t have explicit rights to every webpage ever made, as that would be ridiculous. I also tried to compare it to a podcast client. A podcast client can play back any podcast without asking for permission, and there are tons of podcast directories.

They’ll approve the application if I don’t use the directory and don’t have any Owncast servers directly available from the application, however. But I’m not willing to do that as that kind of defeats the point of the convenience.

I contacted a handful of attorneys, and I was willing to fight this. I hoped if I could get an attorney to draft a document that explains, in legal terms, something that Apple’s legal team would understand it could be cleared up. But I haven’t been able to have a meaningful conversation with any of them, as none of them understand what I’m doing or aren’t interested in working with a non-corporate entity.

So I think this is dead, killed by Apple. I tried to build something cool for you all, as a side project, to make viewing Owncast streams more convenient. It’s just not going to happen and I feel bad about it.

その後、法律事務所に相談などして、うまく公開までたどり着いたようです。

なお、Owncast程注目を集めておらず、ドキュメントもテストもサポートしておらず、他人が自分でビルドすることを考えていないため、ソースコードは現状非公開とのことです。

App Storeでのソーシャルアプリの公開の難易度の高さがうかがわれる内容でした。

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