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