Hi rlabarca,

Like many companies, our API is available for non-commercial use, with commercial use only available to select partners and products by prior permission. Third-parties who are interested in using the API commercially in a product can submit a business proposal for our consideration.

Appigo didn't have a commercial license to use the Remember The Milk API for this app (and didn't even apply for one); the first we became aware of the existence of this app was its launch on the App Store yesterday.

Unfortunately, despite being perfectly aware they didn't have a commercial API license for any products beyond their iPhone app, Appigo chose to launch and advertise their new app with a Remember The Milk sync feature. The sync feature subsequently does not work, and this has resulted in a lot of confusion and disappointment for users. :(

We've given Appigo plenty of chances to do the right thing (they've been warned in the past about API terms violations), so we've been really disappointed in their recent behaviour. We take any abuse of the API very seriously, and have ended any relationship with this company; they will not have access to the API in the future.

We apologise to users affected. For any Remember The Milk users who were misled about this iPad app's support for syncing with our service, if you upgraded to Pro on May 12 or May 13, 2010 to use this app, we will happily refund your Pro account payment (please contact us to request a refund; requests will be accepted until May 20, 2010). Any requests for refunds for the iPad app itself should be directed to Apple.

Emily,

I am guessing many people jumped on the appigo todo app when they saw that it connected to rtm. I know I did.

Has there been any reconsideration on an official ipad app from rtm? The larger screen really lends itself to a much more useful interface than the iphone one did. I think this would be a great boon to an already amazing tool you have created.

This is the exact situation I am in, I second the iPad app request! Will definitely be upgrading then.

bellevuegeek, I've responded previously about an official iPad app here -- my answer still stands, and Bob's hard at work... :)

I'm sure you have your reasons for blocking Appigo ToDo, but it would be nice if you could be straight with us about it. First you said you became aware of the app yesterday, and then you go on to say that they have been warned in the past. It can't be both. I had been happily syncing their app with RTM on my iPhone for a few months before yesterday. Now both the app and the service are being devalued for me, after spending cash on both sides for what looked like the best solution for my workflow. I know iPad apps are highly publicized, but there's a lot less of them than there are phones out there. What's the real scoop? It's very disappointing to read here that you are apparently unwilling to even TRY to work things out.

ddockery, what I said was correct. We only became aware of the existence of the Appigo iPad app when it launched on the App Store yesterday. They've been warned in the past about API terms violations (we'd actually had to temporarily suspend API access for their iPhone app due to violations), and were made well aware of how seriously we take any abuse of the API.

While I won't go into details, as I said, Appigo had been given plenty of chances to do the right thing. It's disappointing for us (and, I realise, for many users), but this action should come as absolutely no surprise to the company concerned.

Hi Emily,

This is sad news and sounds like Appigo is largely at fault. I am, however, wondering if this is a permanent decision from you guys to not work further with Appigo or if this issue can be resolved if they take the appropriate steps?

Thanks.

iPad app please please please

Emily, I apologize for the misunderstanding. I realize now you were referencing both apps, not just the iPad app. It's just fraustrating to have spent $40 (pro account and both appigo apps) and not have a working solution. If RTM could do checklists or subtasks I wouldn't really need Appigo at all.

Add me to the list of bummed people about this. I get the deal about your terms, but, your customers finally got something they have been wanting since the iPad release. An app that works with your product. Also on top of that you might have had people move into the pro account level with you.

To cut support so quickly without any warning is just a bummer. It is 100% your pro customers using this product who are stuck again without a solution. We had no idea of this situation and now we are stuck again without a decent app for the iPad that has RTM support

Cut them off once your app came out, post a one week warning or something to warn us, but, this left us high and dry.

As someone who is using their iPad now for their to do lists with a slight peppering of the web and most of my time to work on my todo lists on airplines, I am currently wondering what benefit being a pro member is getting me.

I also bought the Appigo ipad app to sync with RTM. Appigo did a very nice job with this app, hopefully RTM will make an even better one!

jacerider, sorry unfortunately this is permanent. We'd been very, very clear with Appigo about the API license so there would be no misunderstandings (they'd even been warned not to use their API key in any other apps, as their commercial license was specific to their iPhone app, so they have no excuse here).

It was a deliberate act on their part to abuse the API, and launch an app knowing they were not licensed to do so. They counted on the fact that if we terminated their API access after they launched this app, we'd have a bunch of upset Remember The Milk users on our hands. :(

Unfortunately sometimes we're forced to make tough decisions like this, even if it makes some users unhappy; we won't be coerced into allowing API abuse, just because enforcing the terms might make us unpopular.

All developers who use the Remember The Milk API agree to comply with the license and its terms as a condition of using the API, and 99.9% do so with absolutely no problems. There is no reason why Appigo could not have done the same and completely avoided this situation.

lesliefisher, we apologise for the lack of warning. :(

Unfortunately we had little choice but to act as soon as we became aware of the app (I believe it had been available for less than 12hrs at that stage).

The longer that the app was advertised with Remember The Milk sync, the more users who could potentially be affected and ultimately disappointed. (We're offering to refund those users who were misled and upgraded to Pro based on this app, as described in my previous post.)

Honestly, the app should never have been launched with Remember The Milk sync (and Appigo knew this very well!); we're disappointed as this situation could have been easily avoided.

FYI, apple was kind enough to reimburse me the Appigo Todo for Ipad. Just told them Appigo was doing false advertising in their description and that it wasn't syncing with RTM.

Now please bring an iPad version of RTM.

I'm pretty stunned at this behavior. My Todo list isn't yours-- it's mine. Disallowing me to get my data in *whatever* way I want it is not acceptable.

Based on this behavior, I (a Pro user for two years, just renewing my membership for a third) am cancelling my account, and I will expect a refund in full for the unused third year. Note that I have zero relationship with this app, or this company (indeed, I've never heard of them before a friend of mine, @miyagawa on Twitter, pointed out the asinine behavior on your end)-- but I cannot support *any* company that won't let me take my data where I want it.

Goodbye-- forever.

ussjoin, sorry to hear that you feel this way. :( As a user, we also make your data available in various formats to take anywhere (iCalendar, feeds). Your data is always yours.

To clarify, we have a very open API; thousands of developers have been issued with keys to develop with the Remember The Milk API, and we love API development!

What our API isn't open to, though, is any kind of abuse. For a quick history, this particular company had multiple past API terms violations, repeated warnings to comply with the API terms and the commercial license... and disappointingly chose to ignore all this and violate the API terms (again!). :(

I realise that in this situation the losers will be the users who won't have access to an app they enjoyed, and I'm sorry about this. :(

Given this, we'd love to hear feedback/ideas on how we might be able to better handle these types of "repeat offenders" in the future (and no, abandoning the API terms altogether is not an option ;).

We currently try to give developers the benefit of the doubt for first or minor term violations (we give written notice and allow the developer to correct the issue). In just about all cases, after this the developer pays closer attention to the terms and does their best to comply in the future. :)

It gets a bit trickier for repeat violations, however (particularly if it involves a more deliberate abuse of the API). We've tried written warnings, being extra (extra!) clear about the terms, temporary suspensions of API access, etc. If the developer ignores us and continues their behaviour, I'm not too sure what we can do; we're put in a tricky position because we have to either allow the developer to continue ignoring the API terms (and the terms do exist for a reason!), or stop the developer and make a whole bunch of users unhappy. Sucky either way. :(

We've also considered a mixed approach that somewhat balances the two options (where if we have to ask a developer to stop using the API, we could potentially allow existing users of that app to continue using the API). That would depend on the severity of the terms violation though, and tends to get into all kinds of icky with figuring out who's an existing user, how a new version of the app might know to allow an existing user to access the API (but not new users), etc. So, likely a short-term solution at best. :(

So... any feedback on this process would be much appreciated; we're still learning this stuff! Fortunately, the vast majority of developers using the API have been absolutely awesome about complying with terms etc, so this is pretty new territory for us, and I know we can definitely do some things better.

Oh, and if you're a developer who uses the Remember The Milk API, please, pretty please make this easier for us and read the API terms (and, you know, listen to them too ;). I know it's wordy and all that, but if you disagree with the terms, you shouldn't be using the API (ahem, I believe that's actually the third sentence of the terms :).