Missing in action, Film Lab and RetroCamera

A few of you have commented on the disappearance of Film Lab and RetroCamera from the US, Canadian and UK App Stores. Whilst there has been no official word from developer regarding these disappearances, further investigation has revealed that these apps are now gone from all the App Stores, and not just the three named above. Whilst not confirmed, I suspect the legal eagles at Apple have spotted not just one, but several copyright infringements in these two apps, as the developer has chosen to name the filter effects by their film brands and stock names, like Kodak T-MAX and Ilford XP-2, etc. If the app has been removed for these copyright infringements, then it may be some time before we see it back, as the developer will have come up with a lot of alternative names for these film brand/effect names.

Update on Tuesday, June 28, 2011 at 8:15PM by Glyn Evans

Good news, I just got word that these missing apps will be back in the App Store real soon, and their removal has nothing to do the use of film brand names and stock types, but a slight embarrassment on the developers side, he forgot to renew his developers contract with Apple - Whoops.

Comments

[Robert-Paul Jansen]

What à shame, I really like filmlab! Dont know the other one. We COULD help finding new names though there are a lot of filters in FilmLab which have just slight differences. Thanks for noticing Glyn!

[John Hodges]

I noticed that yesterday because it wasn't even showing up in the new "Purchased" area of iTunes and I was trying to load it. Fortunately, I had my own archive of Film Lab.

[Rajkumr]

In this day of digital photography apps like these are the ones reminding us of the tools of the past!

hope film lab returns soon! and like robert said we COULD help in coming up with alternate names!

but if the legal hassles is not the reason, then this time can be used for more features and updates!

[Lulú De Panbehchi]

I have both apps and I like them a lot. FilmLab has been a learning experience too, since it makes references to the commercial film. I hope they both come back, even if the names are changed. Hipstamatic has a "Kodot" film, which and nobody--that I remember--has said anything against it. "Kodot" means a funny way to get around copyright laws at the same time that it informs the user.
Thanks for the info!

[Mr Timney]

Both apps ARE back in the AppStore & available to download