How do I prove an app is mine? [closed]

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So I am in the process of finishing an app (android for now), and I have a doubt about if I should have papers that proof that I made that app.

Its the first time for me to publish an app, and I am concerned about how to prove that I made the app and it belongs to me.

In other words

If I came and asked the instagram app developer, prove that you made this app? What would he show me?

Thanks for your help.

EDIT

So developers of whatsapp, instagram, skype, ...... have nothing to prove that they made the app? They just publish to the store?

Answer 1

The usual way is to show that you are the author of the source code.

Unfortunately, if all you have is your source and your goodwill, another party could come with your source and claim it’s theirs and that you only change the copyright. Then, you’d have to litigate and some very expensive forensic expert could eventually prove it’s yours.

So the key for successfully prove that you’re the author is to have a trustable third party that can confirm that you wrote it first. An independent repository (e.g GitHub, GitLab & co) can help you because they control their independent timestamps (on your own files you could manipulate time).

Now in most countries, copyright authorities allow you to deposit your source code. It is not mandatory for owning the copyright, but it greatly helps in case of litigation.

Disclaimer: I’m not a lawyer, I’m just an author who had some personal experiences in that area. So in case of doubt, the best is to consult a lawyer or a qualified legal expert in your jurisdiction

Answer 2

There are several ways an app developer can prove ownership.

1. App includes link to web site, web site has name and/or photo of the developer.
2. Developer can produce portions of the source code. (Trivial for open source, much more difficult otherwise)
3. Developer can push requested changes to the app. (Again, very unlikely unless it's a small app)
4. Trust. Developer claims authorship, you believe them unless/until you have reason not to.

For what it's worth, the actual act of putting an app onto an app store typically involves encryption. This means that only the original author (or their delegates) can make changes to the app.

A paper document certifying authorship is pretty much worthless unless it's source code.

Answer 3

You either are the owner, or you’re not. It only matters if someone else claims to be the owner and complains. Like if I complained to Apple or Google that the app is really mine, then I and you would have both to prove ownership - obviously only one of us can prove it.

If it went to court, it would be best if you had not only the source code, but also for example git repositories for the whole development time. You should have that automatically, but it would be a huge amount of work to forge it.

To the comment: No, everything you write is automatically your copyright (unless you write it as an employee). You don't have to contact any authorities for that or take any action. What I said was that if you developed an app over a year, and you have a git repository that started empty a year ago, and code was added every day, sometimes with bugs, then later with fixes for those bugs, that repository is pretty strong evidence that you wrote the code. And not someone who managed to make a copy of your source code, or not even that.

Answer 4

Code signing is the only technically guaranteed way to proof your ownership for an app. When you publish an app in Appstore or PlayStore, your app needs to be signed with a developers signing certificate with your private key, name of the company and other related information. All the members who have that private key with them can claim as the owner of the app. For example, Signing process for Android has been described here. Moreover, most of the modern IDEs have the ability to do those kind of signing job for you in implicitly.

Now, when you need to claim for an apps ownership, just extract your certificate from the product and show your information to the person you are proving to.