Well,sure the copycating of game concepts is very en vogue on the app store, then again maybe still less widespread than in the flash games space. Regarding that ragdoll cannon game, well, i made a game for the iPhone which had several modes and one of em was one where you shoot a guy out of a cannon, too, and that came out way earlier than that ragdoll cannon game, too.
Not bringing it up to complain, more to stress my point which is: Its tricky with such things, where does one draw the line of what is tolerable inspiration and usage of concepts and what not?
Shooting a character out of a cannon surely isn´t any game developers original idea, so i don´t complain about someone using it, too.
I agree that the guys who copied alilm´s game went too far with "similarities", on the other side me personally i don´t bother much anymore with people using similar or same concepts as i have in some of my games, even if its a clear copycat approach, at the end of the day it will always happen so either i could spend lots of time being upset about it or just go on working on the next thing.
Then there´s also the point that unless i go out and come up with a totally unique game concept i probably one way or the other end up using many gameplay elements in my games which have been in many games before, so i´d feel a bit like throwing stones while sitting in a house of glass by complaining
Maybe if there is no clear line of tolerance to follow one could say once a game shares the same visual style or music next to core gameplay concepts things start to get really fishy, dunno
Alilm, i´d be interested to know though if your contacting apple attempt was any fruitful. I´ve heard mixed stories about some having success with that and others not at all.