The law library at Georgetown, where I attended law school, is named after the famous D.C. attorney Edward Bennett Williams. He was known for representing people no matter how distasteful (to some) their causes -- mobster Frank Costello, Jimmy Hoffa, Hugh Hefner, spy Igore Melekh, Senator Joseph McCarthy, etc. As Williams told Mike Wallace during an interview in 1957:
Let me say this to you, no matter how socially or politically obnoxious the ideas of an individual may be, no matter how unorthodox his conduct or his thinking may be, no matter how unpopular he may be, he has the right to the assistance of counsel.
I share this philosophy, and for that reason I will try to refrain from making jokes about which side you would rather represent in the lawsuit filed by Pull My Finger developer Air-O-Matic against InfoMedia's iFart Mobile for using the phrase "pull my finger" in connection with their fart sounds app and the lawsuit in response filed by the iFart Mobile guys. iFart Mobile insists that "pull my finger" is a generic and well-known phrase so they should be able to use it in connection with the iFart Mobile app. The Pull My Finger guys argue that the use of the phrase is but a part of a long campaign by the iFart author to unfairly capitalize on success that should have gone to Pull My Finger -- including spam campaigns, fake reviews, and search optimization schemes.
The humor in fart apps may be low brow, but the dollars are high finance. iFart Mobile only costs $0.99, but it has been downloaded hundreds of thousands of times -- 38,927 on December 25th alone, netting its author a $27,249 Christmas present that day -- and it has been discussed in venues ranging from minor blogs to the prestigious New York Times Magazine.
Putting aside the merits of who deserves the credit for a farting iPhone, I find it interesting that Air-O-Matic is asking for $50,000 in its lawsuit against InfoMedia because that is apparently what an iPhone app developer can make in a single week if his app reaches the #1 paid download spot. With around 20,000 apps in iTunes right now it is very difficult to reach the top, but for developers who do so, there is a lot of money to be made. Ethan Nicholas, developer of a tank artillery game called iShoot, quit his day job after his app hit the #1 spot and he made $600,000 in a single month.
We'll see what legal precedent, if any, comes out of the Fart v. Fart lawsuits, but their existence reveals that developing iPhone apps can be a lucrative but cutthroat business. If you want more details, you can learn what the big stink is all about at these websites:
- iPhone Alley
- Neowin.net
- CNet
- Fortune
- [Update 2/18/09: Another good article is at Ars Technica]
And if you must, you can download both of these $0.99 apps and sniff out your own conclusions:
- Click here to get iFart Mobile:
- Click here to get Pull My Finger:
