Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace isn't immune to having apps being uploaded that appear to be one thing but in fact are something else. WPCentral.com reports that seems to be the case with someone who has uploaded an app that appears at first to be the official Windows Phone version of Spotify. The app, which was actually made available to download on December 20, has the Spotify logo but costs 99 cents to download. The real Spotify app, which uses an icon instead of the logo, is free to download and was first released in November.Whoever uploaded this app clearly wanted people to think they were downloading the real Spotify application. Instead, this imposter app simply offers up some news feeds and YouTube videos. It's not clear how this app got past Microsoft's Windows Phone Marketplace application process.
In any case, consumers should definitely be aware of this issue since it can cause some confusion, especially among non-tech savvy Windows Phone users who might think that Spotify would charge people to download an app for their streaming music service.
It's actually a genuine app (it doesn't perform anything malicious) other than a copied name, if you were to rename it, there would be nothing wrong with it. So it must be a case of the reviewer making a dodo when checking the name. It is the application provider's responsibility to determine if the application provider has the right to use the chosen name, content, logos, copyright, trademarks, online services & API's."
On Microsoft's side of the certification policy, they do nothing themselves regarding copyright - and as can be seen waive the need to themselves check. It's not part of the certification policy for Microsoft to check, so on Microsoft's part, this is all fine. They only validify copyright directly relating to Microsoft products.
Spotify for iPhone preview:
