Renting movies within an app?

Question

luca.scuderi OP

Created Jul ’15

Replies 7

Boosts 0

Views 1.7k

Participants 5

Dear developer community,

One of my customers asked me if it would be possible to rent movies right inside the app.

This is what the developer license agreement says:

- 1.1 You may use the In-App Purchase API only to enable end-users to access or receive content, functionality, or services that You make available for use within Your Application (e.g., digital books, additional game levels, access to a turn-by-turn map service). You may not use the In-App Purchase API to offer goods or services to be used outside of Your Application.

- 2.3 (…) Rentals of content, services or functionality through the In-App Purchase API are not allowed.

- 11.2 Apps utilizing a system other than the In App Purchase API (IAP) to purchase content, functionality, or services in an app will be rejected

So :

- 1.1 says I should use In-App Purchase API to let the user access content within the app.

- 2.3 says I am not allowed to use the In-App Purchase API to rent content.

- 11.2 says I am not allowed to use another payment system.

Do you know how can we handle with this? A solution would be to make the transaction in Safari and then send the user back to our app but I would be glad to know if there is a better way to handle this and offer users a better experience.

Thanks in advance four your answers!

Boost

Answer 1

NotMyName OP

Jul ’15

I think the better question for your client is "Why on Earth would someone want to rent a video instead of using on-demand or pay-per-view services?"

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Answer 2

luca.scuderi OP

Jul ’15

My customer is a pay-per-view service. It works like iTunes but they have their own catalog. You actually "rent" the movie for two days.

BTW, your answer doesn't really help me... I didn't ask to analyze the business model of my customer's app, I just want to know if there it's allowed to handle payments (for content streaming) within the app without using the In-App Purchase API.

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Answer 3

NotMyName OP

Jul ’15

Specifically, from your Developer program agreeent:

2.3 Content and services may be offered through the In-App Purchase API on a subscription basis (e.g., subscriptions to newspapers and magazines). Rentals of content, services or functionality through the In-App Purchase API are not allowed (e.g., use of particular content may not be restricted to a pre-determined, limited period of time).

Note that Apple even includes examples of what's not allowed.

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Answer 4

NotMyName OP

Jul ’15

Because post editing is broken at the moment, that's from this part of the agreement:

Attachment 2
(to the Agreement)
Additional Terms for Use of the In-App Purchase API

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Answer 5

PBK OP

Jul ’15

Your reading of 2.3 is incorrect - it applies to physical products or services, not digital media. You may certainly use IAP to provide access to digital media through an app; because there may be a time limit or use limit you will use a non-renewing subscription or a consumable IAP. That is the best user experience but it involves paying Apple 30%. If that is an issue you will want to read guideline 11.14 and operate within that.

11.14 Apps can read or play approved content (specifically magazines, newspapers, books, audio, music, video and cloud storage) that is subscribed to or purchased outside of the App, as long as there is no button or external link in the App to purchase the approved content. Apple will only receive a portion of revenues for content purchased inside the App

Also - why not post this question on the In App Purchase forum?

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Answer 6

peantunes OP

Nov ’15

Hi Luca,

I just had a chat with a guy from Apple Store Review and he informed me that the Apple platform doesn't allow this kind of model.

Also I asked if there is any plan for this and he told me he doesn't know about that and if we want to ask to change we could open a bug report to include this support in the platform.

Hope it could help you.

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Answer 7

RLKingSoftware OP

Jan ’16

In this case, I'm sorry to say, your reading is incorrect.

It specifically states "Rentals of content, services or functionality through the In-App Purchase API are not allowed."

Subscriptions are a completely different matter.

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