BBC forces removal of unofficial BBC News app for Windows
Microsoft employee Lawrence Gripper's third-party BBC app for Windows has been forced to be removed from the Windows stores, following legal pressure.
Gripper's BBC News app is available for Windows Phone and Windows 8, serving half a million people who use it to get their news from the popular publication. Given that the BBC doesn't have an official app available for the Windows platform, Gripper's app is/was the go-to. While it's still available at time of writing, it will soon be removed.
According to The Verge, Gripper is being forced to remove it because of legal pressure from the BBC. The Microsoft employee didn't provide any specifics on the removal. "It is with great sadness today that I removed both applications from the store," he wrote. Gripper created the app before joining the Microsoft team.
The BBC News app used the BBC logo and pulled in feeds from the BBC website, giving Windows users an easy place to read content. Gripper didn't charge for the app; it was simply his "labour of love".
We've reached out to the BBC in hope of learning more.
Update: BBC has provided comment to Pocket-lint on the situation:
"The BBC has clear terms of use that are designed to enable further distribution of BBC content and services in a way that is fair to all parties, and does not imply authorisation or endorsement by the BBC. These are available at www.bbc.co.uk/terms. In this case, the terms of use were unfortunately not met, and we have therefore asked for the app to be removed."
Image: Flickr
- Best movies to look forward to in 2018: Here are all the top film trailers
- Sony XF9005 TV review: Full backlight makes for bloomin' great brightness
- How to get Dolby Atmos: The essential soundbars, speakers and AVRs to buy
- Amazon Fire TV Cube confirmed, set-top-box and Echo hybrid coming soon
- Toshiba announces 2018 4K HDR TV choices, with OLED, Dolby Vision and HLG
- Best World Cup TV deals, 4K HDR and HD TV bargains for Russia 2018
- Get a whole month of Sky Box Sets through Now TV for £3.50, including brand new Westworld
- Roku upgrades voice search, now understands more natural language
- Rakuten announces day-and-date movie releases with Rakuten Cinema
- What is Amazon Prime and what do you get for your money?
Comments