I think the real reason why Apple has kept such tight control over the App Store has nothing to do with the applications or quality, at all. It has to do with iTunes and music locking. If you opened up the device, it's only time before a variety of media players and mp3 syncing mechanisms will appear -- all without DRM, of course and without the restrictions (only sync with one device, etc. etc.) And that is what Apple can't afford to do. It could potentially cannibalize the entire iTunes business unit.
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Excuse me for not seeing it's brilliance.
So if Tris wasn't distributed through the app store, this likely would have happened anyway, just mainly involving the developer and the Tetris Company, not those two and Apple included.
When the AppStore is the only way to get applications for a non-jailbroken iPhone, you lose that option and having something pulled from the AppStore means it's gone for everyone.
Any sympathetic attorneys out there who might want to help the guy out with a bit of advice at least?
No one in their right mind is going to pay for a tetris game for the PC, but I can see a ton of people paying money for an official tetris game on the iPhone.
If you're going to copy an existing game like tetris/scrabble/etc, you're going to attract trouble.
