
Google makes it official: no porn apps for Chromecast - fpgeek
http://gigaom.com/2014/02/03/no-chromecast-porn-apps/
======
hawkharris
In related news, developers are welcome to cast shootings, stabbings,
explosions and other gory images.

Graphic violence seems to enjoy greater protection than nudity, both
culturally and legally, in the U.S. For example, there's the variable
obscenity standard, which shields children from sexual images but not images
of extreme violence:

[http://www.communitydefense.org/cdcdocs/obscenityman/ch10.pd...](http://www.communitydefense.org/cdcdocs/obscenityman/ch10.pdf)

~~~
gtaylor
I wish software companies would stop trying to play moral police like this.
It's so entirely subjective, and as you mentioned, moral standards vary
wildly.

But whatever. I'm sure this is going to keep kids from seeing "graphic"
material, right? None of us ever went around our parents to see something we
shouldn't have...

~~~
harshreality
I doubt Google cares about keeping people from seeing nudity or porn. They
probably care a lot more about the legal consequences of distributing porn
apps, and the market consequences if religions try to get everyone to boycott
Chromecast because it's sinful.

~~~
GnwbZHiU
"and the market consequences if religions try to get everyone to boycott
Chromecast because it's sinful."

I doubt Google cares about that. We live in a heavily secularized world today.

~~~
vanattab
I am not religious but that does not mean I think its fine to watch porn. Much
of the porn out there is absolutely disturbing (rape and what not) and the
people who produce that grabage are the worest of the worest. Not all of it is
that way of course but even the "classy" stuff is unhealthy in my opinion. I
don't think the goverment should ban porn or anything but I have zero problems
private companies banning it on their platforms.

~~~
true_religion
I don't usually do this but...

> I think its fine to watch porn.

and

> ... but even the "classy" stuff is unhealthy in my opinion.

Seem to be directly contradictory. Unless you're saying its a-okay to do
unhealthy things every so often [which is also valid].

~~~
mkching
The original quote was "but that does _not_ mean I think its fine to watch
porn" (emphasis added).

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fidotron
It'll be interesting to see if they stick to this globally.

The distinctly American prudishness regarding sex is almost a mirror image of
large parts of the world with respect to cinematic violence. It's part of why
you can be so sure these west coast companies will never monopolise the market
in Germany, for example.

~~~
leobelle
> "American prudishness"

This is just name calling, and Americans get shit on for being culturally
insensitive...

Pornography is awful stuff. It exploits the way our minds work, and ruins
peace and happiness. This isn't religiosity, I don't believe in the
supernatural. It's just something I've come to learn as I've gotten older.

~~~
gtaylor
> Pornography is awful stuff. It exploits the way our minds work, and ruins
> peace and happiness.

Is it OK for you to tell someone else what they are allowed to watch? That's
the sticking point, and what is being done by Google (and so many others). You
may not like porn, but there are a massive number that are OK with it. Is it
right for you to impose your morals on others?

Definitely don't take this as inflammatory, but I personally (as an American)
don't want my morals and beliefs forced on others. I think a lot of problems
could be solved if everyone gave this a shot. Different strokes, etc.

~~~
sdegutis
> _I personally (as an American) don 't want my morals and beliefs forced on
> others_

Impossible. At the end of the day, all laws and rules come from someone's
morals and beliefs, regardless of who that is or what they've named those
morals and beliefs.

~~~
sdegutis
I honestly can't even guess why someone downvoted that.

Morals/beliefs are a fundamental part of human thinking. Whether it's named,
whether it comes from a religion or just a person's own experience in life, it
always exists in the brain. That's kind of a fact. So, pretty confused about
the downvote right about now...

~~~
gtaylor
Because it's a bit petty and flat out wrong. Many laws exist not for moral
reasons, but to keep the whole system running. If we were allowed to murder
one another without consequences, society would be vastly different. If we
were allowed to cheat on our taxes without punishment, the system itself may
collapse.

While there are certainly buffoons legislating their morals on others, I think
the greater chunk of modern legislation is corporate/profit driven rather than
this pressing of morals you mentioned. There are, of course, exceptions, but I
think your comments harped on only one motivator (of many) for legislation.

~~~
sdegutis
> _If we were allowed to murder one another without consequences, society
> would be vastly different_

There's an inherent _belief_ that the difference in society would be bad. Is
that true? Bad is pretty qualitative, so it comes down to a belief.

> _If we were allowed to cheat on our taxes without punishment, the system
> itself may collapse._

There's an inherent belief that "the system" is a _good_ thing, and that _we
don 't want_ it to collapse. But again, this is a subjective belief, not
universally held.

Your comment is based on implicit beliefs of what is "best" for society (or
even humanity) as a whole. I'm pretty sure you can't _prove_ that your beliefs
are "correct", because I'm sure most people would argue that subjective
beliefs _can 't_ be correct or incorrect, they're just beliefs.

~~~
sdegutis
By the way, my debating this point does not imply that I agree with it.

------
cowpewter
"No nudity" is a lot more strict than just "no porn". Does that mean that, for
example, you could not make a Flickr app that lets you slideshow your
photostream on your TV because Flickr allows artistic nudity? Or could you,
but you'd have to restrict it to only show photos that are marked as 'Safe' in
the safety filter? What about similar sites that don't have multiple content
safety categories?

~~~
scarecrowbob
Or what if you had an app that guided folks through self-exams for testicular
or breast cancer?

~~~
aestra
YouTube allows this type of nudity.

~~~
richforrester
Anecdotally, during last year's annual Christmas Monopoly game, my mother-in-
law (who was out the game early) flashed us a YouTube movie of a lady getting
her privates waxed, asking what the f was up with YouTube for allowing this.

I must say it quite surprised me this type of content was allowed/condoned.

~~~
thret
Perhaps you'd also be surprised at how many girls injure themselves doing this
by themselves, without instructional videos.

~~~
richforrester
Nah, I believe that. I just expected Google would be a bit more anal about
stuff like that.

And if you'd ask me about my opinion; I feel fine about them hosting it.

------
greenyoda
Looks like Google just lost a large percentage of the entertainment market:

\- The large percentage of people who like porn, plus...

\- The smaller (but outspoken) percentage of people who don't like to be told
what content they're allowed to watch on the devices that they've purchased.

We'll see if the market segment they're trying to attract with this policy
(families with children, if I had to guess) will make up for this loss.

~~~
phenol
I seriously doubt the correlation between "liking porn" and "refusal to
purchase a device that does not have official porn apps, especially
considering I could stream porn from my phone or computer to my Chromecast
just fine. In fact, if I'm being honest, I never install porn apps, even on
devices that allow them, even if I intend on watching porn on them anyway.

~~~
protomyth
The old VHS vs BetaMax might be a study in the subject, but I'm not sure if
it's relevant these days.

------
joesmo
It's rules such as these (and all the other rules of app stores) that keep
many developers from working with such limited platforms. Too bad Google
doesn't focus on keeping malware out of its app store as much as it focuses on
keeping porn out of it.

~~~
cloudwalking
Sort of like the iOS App Store...?

~~~
joesmo
Yes. This is one area where I think having some rules in place can go a long
way towards eliminating malware and extremely buggy software (sometimes, but
better than nothing).

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nsxwolf
They don't care if you stream your own porn on it. They just don't want to
sell/distribute porn themselves. There's a big difference that nobody seems to
be getting.

~~~
nacs
But.. if I can't purchase porn through Chromecast, where else would I ever
find any?

------
smithzvk
I guess this is kind of nice because I won't have to worry about people
connecting to my <insert non-technologically adept person>'s open or poorly
secured WiFi and start playing porn as a joke.

But you can still stream a Chrome tab, so... maybe they are not really
preventing anything except good audio sync.

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mesozoic
I guess they're going to disable using Chrome with Chromecast.

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yogo
Yep because porn will bring the world to an end... unbelievable.

~~~
pekk
Their concern is more likely that it will bring Chromecast to an end

~~~
yogo
Prohibiting porn is right up there with alcohol and other banned substances.
People will always find a way to get it.

~~~
jhvh1134
I don't think that they are trying to ban it's existence all-together, just
within chromecast.

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ChuckMcM
So what ever happened to Ubuntu TV ? There seems to be like half a dozen
different "Chromecast like" sticks in the Chinese market [1], clearly building
these things isn't too hard to master. So where is the open stick version?

[1] [http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/923540954/2013_Latest_High...](http://www.alibaba.com/product-
gs/923540954/2013_Latest_High_Quality_Mini_Android.html)

~~~
girvo
Last time I spoke to some Canonical devs, it's still being worked on, with a
target for 14.04 as an alpha I think. I'd love to have ARM Ubuntu-everything;
ARM laptop, Ubuntu TV stick, Ubuntu phone that turns into a full desktop when
plugged in... The tech is so nearly there. Sigh, one can dream :)

EDIT: the main issue is ARMs lack of anything remotely similar to a BIOS.
That's sort of changing, linux now has some stuff in the kernel to help target
various ARM chipsets, but it's still difficult. Would be cool to see a kick
starter for an ARM Ubuntu TV Stick -- I wonder what protocol would be best for
"flinging" content to it?

~~~
ChuckMcM
I'm familiar with the BIOS issue, the devtree work is an interesting response
to that. I wonder if they are waiting for 14.04 so that they can use Mir as
the compositing platform.

As for protocols, good question. I see the streaming protocols which work
reasonably well, I keep hoping for something like the DisplayLink protocol
over ethernet with say WPA2, basically "connect" have it show up as a frame
buffer to your client. Then some software on the stick so that you could slide
back and forth to different "screens" ala the Amiga with each one being
connected to a different device. But that is just speculating on what might be
possible.

~~~
girvo
Yeah devtree was what I was thinking of. And yes, Mir was the reason given to
me, though these are just devs, not spokespeople for Canonical.

Also, I just giggled, cause I just remembered we have "streaming" in X as is,
from decades back... Though it's not _quite_ the same thing I suppose!

------
tempodox
What a bunch of hypocritical Presbyterian nuns. A 3-feet pile of dead bodies
is OK on TV for 16-year olds, but people actually undressing before having sex
is morally corrupting. I propose capital punishment for every U.S.-ian who was
not born from a virgin.

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mateo411
[http://bit.ly/1cPqDiE](http://bit.ly/1cPqDiE)

