Developers trying to benefit from the success of others on the App Store is nothing new. The most common method thus far has been to use the names of some of the more popular apps in the description of a different app, so when an individual searches for the more popular app, the seedy developer's application comes up as well. To date, Apple hasn't done anything about this tactic.

Chances are that if you have browsed the iTunes Store or watched prime time television, you have at least seen the popular eBook reader Classics at least in passing. Apple has featured it in one of its iPhone application advertisements and the UI has drawn some critical acclaim from end users. As a result, the application has been doing well; well enough that it has essentially been copied, right down to its images.

Brought to our attention by a reader, we bring you Classics: Jane Austen by Diego Dominguez Ferrera of Ubiklabs. The application is a collection of ebooks by Jane Austen bundled together in a $2.99 package. Look familiar? It should, as the visual styling is very similar to Classics as seen in these two screenshots:

The visual styles are too similar to be coincidence. Let's take a look at the wood rendering side by side without any of the books or shelves, torn from the .ipa of each application:

See the difference? We don't either. That's because they are exactly the same; the files only differ in their size because the ripoff has been compressed a bit more than the original. Mr. Ferrera might deny it's the same image and perhaps even claim they were both pulled from the same royalty free service (we were unable to contact Ferrera, so we are merely speculating about his answers to these questions). However, the file name for this and other files are mirrored from Classics, which seems to point to a direct rip.

UPDATE: The developers of Classics contacted Ars to clarify that all of the art, including the bookshelf, UI, book spines, and more were created specifically for Classics by designer David Lanham.

This doesn't end with graphics either; the all out copying extends to the page flip sounds and even the app's feature list.

Even the bio snippet of Jane Austen in the app's description was lifted word-for-word from the Wikipedia entry on the author.

Needless to say, the copied version of the app is only trying to benefit from the success of the original, which the developers of Classics have told Ars was done without their permission. "The guy stole our art, our lines, even our name, and I think it's obvious he's trying to piggy back on our success, riding on top of our stolen assets," Phill Ryu told Ars. "We feel violated, and we're a little worried this will continue happening as more apps flood the store."

While the question of why someone would do this is pretty easily answered, how did this application get past Apple's review process? We suppose there are probably multiple people reviewing applications, and that one might have not been familiar with another application—there are thousands of them—but Apple featured Classics in one of its commercials and in the iTunes Store itself. So far, Apple hasn't responded to inquiries into the situation.

One thing is for sure: Apple needs to figure out some sort of solution, because incidents like this make the App Store look a bit like amateur hour.

UPDATE 2: Since publishing the Classics: Jane Austin application has been removed from the iTunes Store, but it is unclear as to who is responsible at this time. The developer, however, still has several other applications available that according to a Classics developer make use of stolen graphics. Phill Ryu has told us that as of this time he has no plans to pursue legal action as long as the graphics and sounds are taken from the offending applications.