More info on banned iPhone VoIP app sipgate

Sipgate CEO Thilo Salmon just sent this hot tip regarding the ban his company’s app.

T-Mobile, Apple’s exclusive partner in Germany, has ceased and desisted
sipgate (in this case the German body of the sipgate group) for the
allegedly deceptive advertising of our free SIP client for the iPhone. We
had labeled it as “beta” and according to T-Mobile, this hides the fact,
that the software might contain errors, as the term “beta” is not widely
known. That is a hilarious claim in a number of ways – not at least given
the fact that their corporate parent, Deutsche Telekom, operate a site by
the name of “BetaBuzz” (www.betabuzz.de) to distribute services previews.

It is a said fact, though, that T-mobile has managed to convince a court on
a broad range of technicalities, such as an ad they had found, which does
not bear a “beta” label, to issue a preliminary injunction. I like to point
out, that sipgate has not been heard by the court prior to handing out its
ruling. I think we have a realistic chance to convince the court of the
contrary. Owing to the complex legal issues involved, however, we have
stopped distributing the software in Germany and Austria, in order to comply
with the injunction. We are currently investigating our options.

On a related matter I have some good news:

In July we had been granted a preliminary injunction against T-Mobile’s
iPhone ads in Germany on the basis that they have been deceptive. T-Mobile
had claimed that they are selling an “Open Internet access with Unlimited
Data”, but hid the fact, that they throttle bandwith and disallow its use
for VPN, Chatting and, you guessed it, VoIP.

I am happy to announce, that their first appeal against the injunction has
been turned down.