Brewer accused of ripping-off iBeer

BOTTOMS UP: The iPhone's iBeer application, which was allegedly copied by a major US brewery.

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The magician and inventor whose creation is at the centre of a multimillion dollar lawsuit over a download which transforms the iPhone into a virtual glass of beer says he was surprised and hurt to discover that his idea had been pilfered.

Steve Sheraton, the magician, invented an interactive application called iBeer last year and began selling it from his own website as a US$2.99 download for the iPhone.

When activated, iBeer transforms the iPhone into a virtual glass of beer. Users can pretend to drink the simulated beer by titling the phone on an angle, which then empties the glass.

But when Apple launched its official iPhone App Store in July this year, Sheraton's download was not the only digitial beer gimmick on offer.

Coors, the US division of the world's fifth-largest brewer, also offered a similar interactive application called iPint, a free download promoting its Carling brand of beer.

Hottrix, a small Las Vegas-based novelty software company, which now owns the rights to the Sheraton's digital gimmicks, last week filed a lawsuit against Coors, seeking US$12.5 million in damages for lost profits and the brewer's "ill-gotten gains".

The suit claims that iPint had been downloaded over six million times since it launch on July 11 and being a free download, "significantly' impairing the number of iBeer (paid) downloads.

Sheraton, 38, says he was alerted to iPint's existence by Benjamin Kopelke, a Brisbane-based web developer and amateur magician who collaborated with Sheraton several years ago to develop a similar interactive application called e-spresso to run on Microsoft's PocketPC operating system.

"I felt really hurt," Sheraton said in a telephone interview. "As a magician, I just felt it really was not right."

The Swiss-born iBeer inventor, who speaks with slight Schwarzenegger-like accent, explained that magicians have an honour system which prevents them from appropriating another's tricks.

"Magicians don't really copyright stuff or patent it. The fraternity itself regards it as such a big shame to steal someone else's trick that if somebody does it, they're basically put out of work," he said.

A self-taught programmer, Sheraton is also the inventor of iMilk, iGoldfish, iMunchies - downloads which can transform the iPhone into a digital glass of milk, a virtual goldfish bowl and a simulated box of popcorn.

"If you were to try iBeer it has a lot of cool features. Like you can shake it up, and it will foam up. So it's a tonne more realistic [than iPint], in my opinion."

Both iPint and iBeer have been among the App Store's most successful downloads and, according to the suit, ranked in the top-ten of most popular free and paid download categories in many international markets.

Since the withdraw of iPint from the US App Store, iBeer has climbed into the top-five.

Sheraton is not surprised by the success of his invention (and its pale imitation).

He has employed the same tricks he used as a top flight magician: creating an emotional involvement with the audience by breaking of the laws of physics or perceived reality.

"How incredible is it that something that's supposed to be a technological device like the iPhone can be turned into something really basic like a glass of beverage and not only that, it doesn't stop there, it receives a third or a fourth dimension by you interacting with it," he said.

"As a result, you get this amazing amount of laughter or release - the emotional involvement."

Coors has since withdrawn iPint from the US and Australian versions of Apple's App Stores, but the lawsuit says the program is still available in other parts of the world.

- © Fairfax NZ News