GoMap - Asset disabled (asset store odd decision)

Hello,
I have an asset on the asset store named "GO Map - 3D Map for AR Gaming" that was disabled a week ago with this message:

"Hi Alan Grant,
Thanks very much for your submission to the Asset Store.
'GO Map - 3D Map for AR Gaming' has been deprecated.
It has been brought to our attention that this package contains content that you do not own the rights to redistribute. As this is a violation of our User Agreement, we will be removing this project from the Asset Store."​

That felt weird to me. So i replied asking exactly what is that i don't own.
That's the response:

“Hey Alan,
We noticed that you were using MapzenGo in your package. While it is fine to use other content to build off of, and this content is under the MIT license, we came to the decision that your package "GO Map - 3D Map for AR Gaming" was mostly MapzenGo. We would like to see you add more to it, to make your content differ from MapzenGo, and not be mostly MapzenGo.”​

Ok, I think that answer is very unfair to me and my work on GoMap.

They have made statements that are totally untrue like “We noticed that you were using MapzenGo in your package”. I don’t use that code in my package, i never heard of.

I searched mapzengo for the first time yersterday on google, and i found that is an opensource repository on github published from brnkhy a developer who has a website too.

That guy is the same that published this article http://barankahyaoglu.com/dev/OpenStreetMap-in-Unity3D/ in DECEMBER 2014.

I’ve came across this article in july 2016 from the MAPZEN vector tile service home page: https://mapzen.com/projects/vector-tiles/

As you can see from the blog post that code is capable only of creating 2D building polygons and gizmos as roads, without textures.

There wasn’t almost anything, just some code snippet to take inspiration from.

And that’s what i did.
I added myself:

• Building extrusion.
• water layer.
• earth layer.
• textures.
• customization panel inside the inspector, no coding required.
• customization of single map features like churches etc.
• layer sorting.
• gps integration.
• gps to real world motion.
• mobile compatibility.
• orbit gesture (mobile and mouse).
• pinch zoom.
• location status banner.
• real height buildings.
• roads outline.
• background loading (multithreading).
• full optimization and profiling for performances, to make it usable for real.

I was searching for ready to use package to do an AR game, which i did not found, and i made it.

Apparently that other developer worked on his code too but i don’t know what he did because as i said i don’t have or read his repository zenmapgo.

I only have seen the screenshots and let me put in this way: it’s not a ready to use, asset store style, component.

I had (and incredibly still have) people who was interested in my work and in this days offline i've received lots of email asking me what was happened.

I did not violated any license, as said in the email quoted before, and i did not copied any code.

My content is not "mostly mapzengo".

I’m going to make more features for the users of GoMap, when GoMap will be again on the store.

I hope that GoMap will be online again soon,
Thanks
Alan

EDIT:
Screenshots added:

GoMap - flat style

GoMap - 3D style

MapzenGo

 

Seem a very interesting asset. What was the price?
Not interested in making a pokemon go clone, but maps always intrigued me but all the assets in the asset store used textures instead.

 

I met MapzenGo before, while I was planning to develop an AR game, but I hadn't so much time to set things up, so I found Go Map which is way more ready to use, for textures, gestures and GPS-based location management...
I'm sorry that the repository is disabled, I'd like to receive upcoming updates!

 

Sounds like clueless intern strikes again. There was similar thread about a month ago.I think community managers like @aliceingameland , @Buhlaine and few others might be able to assist with that.

 

Thanks!
I have to contact them in private or they have been notified when you tagged them?

 

Yes i know that other code - its no where near yours i bought yours from sellfy
i would have thought the way you use the api from mapzen is standard and Is there a way of separating the mapzen out so that people could use any other map supplier?
i actually only bought it out of interest, i don’t have any real use for it but i would say if you added a way of putting objects in locations and a simple GO combat system with a simple menu you practically have a fully functioning GO product
Hope you get it fixed, seems a shame, good luck with it
keith

 

I realy Like your asset and i wish it come back soon. I can't understand why it was depricated

 

Unity Asset Store ***PLEASE*** return this to the Store to allow myself and others enjoy this product. I have two projects that I can easily use this in and coming back to Store to find it is taken down is very disappointing.

C'mon....bring it back!

 

I'll take a peek at this and have a chat with our Asset Store Content Manager to see if we can figure out what happened. I'll drop an update here when I have news!

 

They probably just ran a diff and your asset matched to a certain percentage. Adding a third dimension to a work is only 33% and the existing two dimensions 66% if you are talking in the simplest terms logically and the code needed to do that probably less that 33% of the total code.

I'd like to buy your asset though as I've collected maps since being a small child and your pictures of your asset is a nice new way to visualize that data on those maps.

 

I'm sure that these numbers are not even close to my situation =)

 

Dear Unity Store community managers @aliceingameland , @Buhlaine

Pls bring this Asset back.
Alan has clearly done the work himself.
We're trying to use his asset in a project, and we'd like to be able to access an ongoing build with a happy developer on the other end.

Un-deprecate pls.

 

Good, than we can expect to see it in the Asset Store again.

 

oh common Unity3d Asset Store Team, bring it back again we already bought it and really need it @aliceingameland , @Buhlaine

 

Thank you all for the support given to GoMap!

GoMap is back online on the Asset Store!
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/68889

Great updates are coming in the near future!
Have fun and leave a review if you liked the package =)

@Buhlaine thank you for taking care of this situation!

 

Glad to hear it, well done

 

So, what happened and what can be done to prevent such decisions being made in the future?

 

Any demo? I would like to see what's different between this and MapZenGo. The latest version can also do 3d.
How is the performance on mobile?

 

Even more concerning for me, is this a new requirement? My asset, for instance, is almost entirely based on the MIT licensed Json .NET. The problem is that the official version does not work with Unity, so I ported it, then cleaned it up and re-ported it again. Getting it to "work" with Unity wasn't a terribly hard task, but there is a lot of customization to work around Unity nuances, stripping and even just to work around Unity (or in many cases Mono) bugs, but while I have done a lot of work on it and added a lot of my own stuff, it is primarily based on an MIT licensed package. Do I have to worry about it suddenly being "deprecated" from the asset store?

 

Of course! It was primarily the Asset Store Team that got it settled, I just gave them a ping and they said they were already looking into it.

In this case, the issue was that the asset was flagged as stolen content on our store directing them towards the GitHub link for MapZenGo. The asset was removed while the team looked into it as we don't want developers purchasing possibly stolen content. The similarities between MapZenGo and the OP's GoMap were that they both used MapZen which was it's own product and under a license we allow. This was all they team needed to put the asset back online.

In the Submission guidelines we do state the following:
1.2.a While it is understandable that some projects are designed around open source libraries or frameworks, submissions to the Asset Store should have a majority of their content developed directly by the publisher. If we believe a package is a compilation of found content/products or the direct result of public tutorials, it will likely be rejected.

The easiest way to prevent this is to make sure when you submit your asset either leave a comment to the team or a note in your readme saying what content you've used that adheres to our licensing guidelines, and what you've done to build off of it. It really helps just being extremely transparent in the submission comments.


@Dustin-Horne You should be fine, as the asset is under an MIT license. The issue here is we were worried that the package was just pulling other peoples free work together and selling it, which was not the case.

Spoiler: 1.1.1.b

Submissions of free products that you, the submitter, have developed and are providing open sourced through other sites, will be allowed to include a EULA. As long as that content meets all other applicable requirements of this doc, is perpetually free and that EULA is compatible with our own. The compatible licenses that we mainly allow are MIT, BSD 3-Clause, and Apache. Any licenses that require a product to maintain open-sourced or limit usability in commercial products such as GNU/GPL Mozilla Public License, or any Creative Commons that requires attribution will not be allowed. Please reach out to Support@unity3d.com if you would like clarification about any specific license before submitting.

Please try not to insult the team, they are an extremely small team that goes through a giant amount assets a day. In the end they don't want to sell assets that could be stolen, which causes issue for whatever project you're using it in to be at risk as well.

 

Great. I like this asset.

 

@Buhlaine when you say "the asset was flagged as stolen content on our store directing them towards the GitHub link for MapZenGo" does this mean a Unity user flagged/reported it?

The reason I am asking is because I am sure you know this kind of thing can be abused. Not every person plays by the rules. Some folks could see it as a good way of eliminating competition or just causing crap for someone they don't particularly like.

If this is the case maybe it would be a good thing to track who is reporting these assets? Then after the team spends their time (I am sure they have a lot to do already) checking into such cases and finds there is nothing wrong with the asset a mark can go against the person who flagged it. 3 strikes and they're out of there. Having some consequences in place would likely help to prevent such things from happening to begin with.

Just throwing that out for consideration.

 

When an asset is flagged it doesn't get taken down immediately. The Asset Store Content Manager, not the team, makes informative decisions off of the information that they have access to. If an asset is ever taken down, you can reply to the depreciation email or contact support@unity3d.com if you have worries of espionage or think it's incorrect then the team can look into it.

 

The OP says that they didn't use the other product in their own, so what could they have done in that situation?

 

Replying to the vetting team email will typically get it sorted out. Or on initial submission informing the team via comment/readme that they are using MapZen.

From OP -

Some code was used in the project from MapZen. MapZenGO is another persons project which was what flagged the shared files. Upon further investigation we found that both projects were just using the same files from MapZen.

 

Hmmm...

The emphasis isn't even mine, that's straight from the OP. Even what you've quoted is "inspiration", not actual inclusion.

Edit: Right, I see, I was missing the distinction between "MapZen" and "MapZenGo".

 

any chance those of us who bought from sellfy can get a unity "copy"? id like to get the updates etc.

also are you planning to add street names?, or area names