When will Apple get sued?
Here we have yet another example of Apple making very stupid choices about the content people can get on their iPhones and iPads:
Apple not only censored an iPad app based on Ulysses, it blacked out multiple panels in another graphic novel for the iPad based on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The app's apparent sin: images of two men kissing.
Getting past the obvious wrongness of this move, I do wonder if perhaps Apple is setting themselves up for a lawsuit. The thing is, if Apple let anybody do anything with their iPhones and iPads, then it would put the responsibility on the end user to decide what they were seeing and not seeing. More specifically, it would put the burden on parents to choose what their children were allowed to see and not see. Given that purchasing on the iPad or iPhone requires a credit card and the average 12 year old doesn't have one, I don't think that's a big problem.
However, with Apple stepping in and actively acting as a content censor, I would argue they are increasing their liability. Now if little Johnny gets to see some boobies, then Apple can be blamed for not doing the job they implied they were doing through all of these efforts. If, on the other hand, Apple took a hands off approach, then they'd have no responsibility for what was being done.
Personally my take is that Apple should have a very simple policy. Apps get rated as mature or not to help parents decide what is okay for their children. Any app that rates itself as mature can have any content it wants to. Now the obvious issue here is that depending on how you define mature, an app may or may not qualify. So, to tie back to this example, does a cartoon featuring men kissing get labeled mature? I would think not, but at least you can choose to rate your app as mature and simply bypass any issues. So at least this gives you freedom to publish your content even if you disagree with Apple's specific definition of mature.
Apple not only censored an iPad app based on Ulysses, it blacked out multiple panels in another graphic novel for the iPad based on Oscar Wilde's The Importance of Being Earnest. The app's apparent sin: images of two men kissing.
Getting past the obvious wrongness of this move, I do wonder if perhaps Apple is setting themselves up for a lawsuit. The thing is, if Apple let anybody do anything with their iPhones and iPads, then it would put the responsibility on the end user to decide what they were seeing and not seeing. More specifically, it would put the burden on parents to choose what their children were allowed to see and not see. Given that purchasing on the iPad or iPhone requires a credit card and the average 12 year old doesn't have one, I don't think that's a big problem.
However, with Apple stepping in and actively acting as a content censor, I would argue they are increasing their liability. Now if little Johnny gets to see some boobies, then Apple can be blamed for not doing the job they implied they were doing through all of these efforts. If, on the other hand, Apple took a hands off approach, then they'd have no responsibility for what was being done.
Personally my take is that Apple should have a very simple policy. Apps get rated as mature or not to help parents decide what is okay for their children. Any app that rates itself as mature can have any content it wants to. Now the obvious issue here is that depending on how you define mature, an app may or may not qualify. So, to tie back to this example, does a cartoon featuring men kissing get labeled mature? I would think not, but at least you can choose to rate your app as mature and simply bypass any issues. So at least this gives you freedom to publish your content even if you disagree with Apple's specific definition of mature.