Should Apple Have Policies To Guard Against The Use Of Copyrighted Icon Artwork? – [OPINION]

My morning dose of “Oh no you didn’t!” came early today – itunes.apple.com/us/app/id443660443?mt=8 – @Gedeon

@Gedeon Look at their other apps.. http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id443649061?mt=8 … http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id443615412?mt=8 – @JordanSatok

Co-founder of the Iconfactory, Gedeon Maheux, @Gedeon, today highlighted via Twitter that a number of highly recognizable icons for applications such as CandyBar, Coda and Transmit, originally created by his visual arts studio, had been stolen and used as app icons for a variety of – (might we add, terrible looking) – applications on the iTunes App Store.

The applications were published by NVBT just a few days ago, offering up just one screenshot of the same list view across all three titles published. The apps cost a cool $19.99 each and are listed as English, which it is clear that, from the app’s description, these apps, (whatever they do), are far from English.

We’re pretty sure Apple will be requesting that NVBT change the artwork for these three apps, (if not kicking them out of the App Store altogether), pretty soon, but shouldn’t Apple have in place policies to prevent this from happening? – and if those policies already exist, shouldn’t Apple be enforcing them a little harder?

Let us know your thoughts on this in the comments. We’re interested to hear what you have to say on this.