A new emulator called iGBA recently made its appearance on the App Store, allowing users to play Game Boy Advance games directly on their iPhones. This is an absolute novelty in the iOS world: the appearance of iGBA and other emulators on the App Store is a sign of a change in Apple's policies, which until now has maintained strict control over its store. The company has been pushed to allow emulators and other third-party apps by external pressures, such as the European Union's Digital Markets Act and lawsuits from the U.S. Department of Justice. However, the app immediately raised doubts about its originality and the legality of the developers' actions, so much so that it was withdrawn a few days after its release.
It seems that iGBA, which essentially allows you to play Game Boy games on iPhone, is not the result of developer Mattia La Spina's original work. MacRumors reports that the app has been removed by Apple due to copyright violations and spam. According to developer Riley Testut, iGBA is an unauthorized copy of GBA4iOS, an open-source emulator he created over a decade ago. Testut said his app uses the GNU GPLv2 license, but iGBA appears not to reference this license, which may violate its terms.
Apple's decision to remove iGBA was motivated by violations of spam and copyright guidelines, specifically section 5.2 which deals with intellectual property. Testut expressed his disappointment with Apple, saying the company approved an imitation of his Delta app. Beyond issues of originality and copyright, iGBA also raises privacy concerns. According to its App Store page, the app collects data that can be used to identify users, such as location data and identifiers. Despite this, some users have not encountered permission requests for location data upon installation.
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