
Why Apple’s New Ban Against Sexy Apps Is Scary - alexandros
http://techcrunch.com/2010/02/19/apple-ban-sex/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Techcrunch+%28TechCrunch%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
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maxklein
A lot of us saw this coming. In my opinion, the reason is not really that
Apple wants to ban sexy apps, it's more than they want to keep the AAAA Big
Boob apps out of the store. Those style of apps have really been becoming a
problem, and it's clear that Apple was going to do something about them sooner
or later.

This is probably just the first step of several they are going to take to keep
a certain class of developer out of the store without seeming discrimnatory.

We've been informed by a reviewer already that if your company is releasing
apps for other people, then this action is under internal review already. They
are trying to get rid of a lot of spam apps and if they can get rid of the
appmakr style apps, then they will get rid of a lot of them.

Also, they are tightening the "app has no utility" restrictions according to
the reviewer, meaning that apps will start getting rejected a bit more based
off some apple criteria that the app is not very useful.

For app store ppl who had more than 500 apps pulled, see this thread:
[http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-
store/4...](http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-
store/40766-worst-app-store-offenders-graaple-hotix-studios-add-yours-
here.html).

And for the developers affected by the ban, see this thread:
[http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-
store/4...](http://www.iphonedevsdk.com/forum/business-legal-app-
store/40967-app-pulled-suddenly-after-almost-1-year-appstore.html)

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xenophanes
Whatever you think of sexual material, I think it's bad for Apple to have a
_vague_ stance.

Whatever their policy is, they should _clearly tell us what it is_ , so we
know what we're getting into if we decide to develop an app, or buy an iPhone.
If they had actually answered TechCrunch's question, I would have been a lot
happier no matter what answer they gave.

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btipling
They might have a point, but TechCrunch has had an anti-iPhone tinge ever
since Arrington publicly denounced the iPhone for the Google Voice app issue.
Their contrast in tone between iPhone and Android articles should be a source
of embarrassment for any blog that cares about journalism.

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yumraj
I don't think it's just TechCrunch, I'm seeing a lot of Anti-Apple reporting
lately, while earlier everyone was within the reality distortion field.

But, just because they, or some other blog, is now anti-Apple does not make it
biased like an earlier pro-Apple bias did not make it biased.

Because their bias, or perceived bias, does not conform to your own bias, it's
not fair to call it an "embarrassment".

Moreover, TC is a blog, and not a news media. It's writers are bloggers and
not journalists. So, there shouldn't be any expectation from them to be
neutral or objective.

 _Edit_ : Actually it's funny, whenever I post a comment even slightly
negative of Apple or defensive of an anti-Apple post/comment, my post is
modded negative. And people expect others to be unbiased.

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ellyagg
I take careful note of anyone's biases, even the people I deal with in regular
conversations face-to-face. Bias here by definition means systematic skewed
reasoning. It's of course TC's prerogative to be biased, but I'll dismiss its
analysis to the extent that it is.

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conover
Techcrunch is trying to equate this to an ISP censoring pornographic material.
Apple it just not that kind of commodity carrier. While a small portion of the
content Apple offers is exclusive, most of it can be had elsewhere. If you
don't like their policies, you are free not to use their service.

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jkincaid
Funny, because I didn't mention ISPs once. Did you bother reading the post?

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JoachimSchipper
I did read the post, and I did notice the words "gatekeeper" and "censorship".
Going from there to "ISP" requires a leap, but not a very large one.

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cgranade
Actually, that is a quite large leap. The article refers to being a gatekeeper
in the markets controlled by Apple, such as the iPhone/iPad and the iTunes
movie service. They are now in the content business big time, and are pushing
further with book licensing on the iPad, so the word censorship applies quite
well to them denying access to content they don't like.

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conover
They are the gatekeeper in the markets tied to their devices. However, there
are many other competing devices and content providers. They are not the
universal arbiter of all content streaming into your life.

If Apple doesn't carry a movie you want to watch due to whatever policies, you
can buy a different phone from a different company or stream it on NetFlix or
whatever. On the other hand, if your ISP won't let you download a movie over
your connection because of their policies and they are the only ones who
provide service in your area, that is a much larger problem. That is the
distinction I was trying to make and the one I think this article overlooks.

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cgranade
In some ways the problems with Apple's model go far, far deeper. If devices
like the iPad become the norm, then that enables the machinery of censorship
at a much tighter level than any ISP could ever dream of. The old standby of
using Sneakernet (you know, burning a disk and walking it to the post office)
no longer makes any sense in the world with Apple as a gatekeeper. That makes
it very scary when Apple starts flirting with this kind of censorship without
even defining the terms.

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conover
I agree this would be bad if Apple significantly strengthened their position
but I think the market would push back if it really got bad. People love their
porn.

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cgranade
I think you're right on that, but it worries me that it hasn't happened yet.
The iPad is a rather large step towards strengthening their position, and the
backlash has been, at best, minimal.

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rebelvc
“The products suck! There’s no sex in them anymore!” \--Steve

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rjurney
TechCrunch's outrage is increasingly absurd.

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bluebird
Tired.

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pstevensza
TechCrunch. Apple = new bad. Google = new bad. Unless it's Android, in which
case, Google = new good. Except for Buzz, which is Google = new bad, although
we use it now, so Buzz = new good. Why do I go back? I like reading semi-
literate comments.

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sachinag
Wow, it's almost like good and bad are situation-specific. Well I never!

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pstevensza
Indeed they are. Very astute of you to notice. My point being that TC deem
what is good or bad based on the direction the wind is blowing. Buzz was
downright nasty, now you can follow them on it.

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robotron
So you're saying that someone (individual or organization) should choose an
opinion and stick to it forever, even in light of facts, policy changes etc?

