To answer the general point rather than the specific question: this is a very good example why it's better not to read one's reviews! As we all know, the only qualification for writing a review is having a credit card with a billing address in the country in question. Anyone who uses the App Store will quite quickly realise that (a) the quality of the reviews is variable and (b) if someone genuinely had an issue of this type then he'd communicate directly with the publisher or with Apple rather than posting a pathetic one-star whinge.
In general I think we might all benefit if we all, as App Store developers, said something like the following in our product descriptions:
1. We do not read or comment on our App Store reviews.
2. We provide a public space where you can post comments and support requests, at
http://xxxxxxxxxxx. We read every posting and respond to it in public.
This will not stop nutters from posting weird reviews, but it will make the readers of those reviews think: "if this is a problem, why didn't he post it in the publisher's comment space?" and consequently pay less attention to what the nutters say.
To focus a little closer in to this particular case: it's worth remembering that we are not politicians. Politicians are always anxious that any error or misrepresentation should be corrected "for the record". It seems comic sometimes but for them it's necessary, or someone will dig it out years later and say "well, if it isn't true that you said/did/thought this, +why didn't you say so at the time?"+ But we
aren't politicians, and it's a lot easier for us just to leave a lot of stuff alone as being beneath contempt. I've also had reviews that claim the exact opposite of the truth (I know because people have told me about them) but in the end they're best ignored.
The review in question is pretty innocuous commercially, I don't think it would make
anyone less likely to buy the application.
As for your own reputation: if you don't like Apple publishing accusations of theft against you, there is a law of libel and it is there for this purpose. Use it. Get the address of Apple's legal department and write to them. Invite them
very politely to take down the offending material or publish a rebuttal. It will cost them a lot more to defend the case than it will to take down the review. I once found some stolen IP being offered through an Apple online store, and after a friendly conversation with Apple and one email, it was taken down within days.
