Apple’s application approval process has been criticized by many including Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails. The issue seems to come from the fact that Apple legally does not have to allow any applications at all in the iTunes Store. Since it is controlled exclusively by Apple they are the final say and can be as arbitrary as they want. We have seen plenty of examples of this in the recent months.
At the beginning of the year Apple banned a Fart Generating App calling it Offensive, they later changed their minds and allowed the app to be published [after all who does not like a good fart joke?]. We have also seen Apple ban certain books due to offensive content, while the latest was an App that was developed by Exact Magic, the App was designed to carry the RSS [Really Simple Syndication] feed from the Electronic Frontier Foundation[EFF] and was using their logo, although is not sponsored nor endorsed by the EFF.
As you can imagine Apple blocking an application carrying the RSS feed of a foundation dedicated to fair-use, and one that has gone against the big movie and recording cartels created a rather large blip on our radars. When you add in the fact that Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple, has a seat on the Board of Directors at Disney; one of the players at the MPAA it raises more questions.
But we did not want to overreact. Instead we contacted both the EFF and Apple about the incident.
Our phone calls to Apple went unanswered [although we will continue to try to get a statement] while our e-mail to the EFF was responded to in a timely manner.
It seems the whole issue was “someone overreacting to Apple’s policy on "offensive" content” according to Rebecca Jeschke; Media Relations Director at the EFF. Rebecca went on to say that Apple rejected the App named EFF Updates due to a linked video that contained profanity.
The video is a parody depicting the last days of Adolf Hitler but the subtitles show him complaining about piracy as if he were a motion picture studio. The short video contains the work “F&*k”, and while tacky to say the least is not what I would call offensive [in fact I thought it was very funny]. But then again, what is offensive to some is not to others.
Rebecca reminded me repeatedly in the e-mail that Apple does not have to allow any apps in the iTunes App Store saying “Apple does not have to carry apps it doesn’t like in its App Store. But iPhone owners should not face legal threats under the DMCA if they "jailbreak" their phones to use the applications of their choice.”
I had originally asked if this impacted the 1st Amendment right to Free Speech, as the right of the poster to use profanity in his expression of disgust at the MPAA should be covered under the 1st Amendment.
Rebecca quickly corrected me saying “This isn’t really a free speech issue. It’s a freedom-to-use-your-property-how-you’d-like issue. As I said above, Apple does not have to carry apps it doesn’t like in its App Store. But iPhone owners should not face legal threats under the DMCA if they "jailbreak" their phones to use the applications of their choice. So EFF has asked the Copyright Office to grant an exemption to the DMCA for jailbreaking iPhones.”
When asked if this latest move by Apple was helping to show their pattern of censorship and information control the response was quite passionate and mirrored the language in the blog post linked above. “we believe that Apple’s approval process for iPhone apps is not just anti-competitive, discriminatory, censorial, and arbitrary, but downright absurd.” Rebecca went on to add that, “Apple does not have to carry apps it doesn’t like in its App Store. But iPhone owners who don’t want Apple playing the role of language police for their software should have the freedom to go elsewhere. This is precisely why EFF has asked the Copyright Office to grant an exemption to the DMCA for jailbreaking iPhones.
The App was later approved by Apple and can be found in the App Store; so I guess the one thing we can take away from this is Apple’s stance on the control of iPhones and all of their technology. As Apple tries harder to make jailbreaking a criminal offense under the DMCA that control will become tighter and tighter. Apple’s anti-competitive behavior may eventually get them into very hot water but our hope is that they will relax the strangle hold they are trying to establish and allow, once and for all, fair use of their iPhones and other products. Until then there are always options like Cydia and Installer; that is if Apple does not get their way and makes using the iPhone that you purchased in the way you want a criminal offense.
