Copyright conundrum
A handful of Russian films have been available on iTunes without their copyright holders' consent and the film studios are unsurprisingly not happy.
The BBC discovered that the films, which date from the Soviet era were available for people to download as apps, but that the film makers had not given their permission for their work to be made accessible through Apple's store.
In Apple's defence, it reportedly told Auntie it takes copyright complaints seriously and is taking immediate action.
The copyright of the protected films, Assa, The Diamond Arm, Gentlemen of Fortune, Kin-dza-dza and Cheburashka is apparently owned by Russian film studio Mosfilm and the Joint State Film Collection.
Mosfilm's deputy director general, Svetlana Pyleva told BBCRussian.com: "It is illegal to present our films as applications either in iTunes or on any other internet site. It is permitted only on our own Mosfilm site. There are no third parties which we have permitted to use our content."
She told Auntie that Mosfilm is preparing to submit a claim to Apple and that "maybe Apple will take appropriate measures and help us solve the problem."
While apps are often created by independent programmers, they are approved by Apple before being made available on iTunes. Press secretary of the Joint State Film Collection Ekaterina Toropova, told the Beeb's Russian website that the Joint State Film Collection ‘retains all exclusive rights' and it was unaware some of its films were being sold on iTunes.
She reportedly said the Collection will try and get in touch with the developers as "it is possible that they obtained licences from someone else and they themselves are in the dark as they are sure that they sell a legitimate product. We'll explain to them that they are wrong."
Apple is investigating the problem and an official representative reportedly said: "We understand the importance of protecting intellectual property and when we receive complaints we respond promptly and appropriately."
However, the Beeb spoke to a programmer called Vladimir Penshin who created an iTunes app for the film Cheburashka who reportedly admitted he offered the unlicensed material on purpose to get some money.
"Of course, I do not have any licence agreement...the companies, who can have complaints, submit them to Apple and Apple notifies me that they have to withdraw the application. I realise that this is wrong. Maybe I am breaking the law," he reportedly added.
