Apple Says Public Domain Is Too Dirty for iPhone

[greggh]

http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/05/ap ... -public-do

Eucalyptus is the name of an e-book reader app for the iPhone. It allows you to read public domain books that have been digitized by the volunteers at Project Gutenberg. Apple has rejected Eucalyptus for inclusion in the iTunes App Store because one of the books archived at Project Gutenberg, and thus readable in Eucalyptus, is a Victorian-era translation (just text!) of the Kama Sutra, the ancient Indian compendium of practical information about sex. Since Apple takes technical measures to prevent iPhone owners from running any software not "approved" by Apple, all iPhone owners are denied the benefit of Eucalyptus simply because a prudish Apple reviewer is scandalized by the words "lingam" and "yoni."

This is just the latest example of the many problems with Apple's App Store approval process, which has been revealed to be frequently anti-competitive, discriminatory, censorial, and arbitrary.

Apple defends its "approved apps only" policy on paternalistic grounds -- they are protecting you from "bad" apps...

Continuing proof of what Eben Moglen recently said in a speech. "Nobody has ever had more contempt for customers than Mr. Jobs. Nobody."

[dann]

what speech was that?

[greggh]

what speech was that?

http://www.thelinuxlink.net/forum/viewt ... f=2&t=4055

Here take this. Attach it to the frame of your machine, assuming it's not one made by Steve Jobs, who never wants you to boot from a USB key. Right? I mean you can't. You can't. It's not allowed. Why would you ever need to boot an Apple box from a USB key? You don't need any software, except the software he gave you. Right?

Nobody has yet fully documented what everybody who isn't part of the cult understands. Which is that nobody has ever had more contempt for customers than Mr. Jobs. Nobody.

Also, at the very end of the speech is a funny moment where Eben is asked, "What will Microsoft call their Linux distribution?" Can you guess what his answer was?