It is NOT censorship. Apple is providing a consumer service. A shop. An App Store. It can only enable people to sell things, it can not prevent people from selling things. That would be as daft as me saying, I went to Tesco’s (UK supermarket) and asked them to sell my calendar of naked women. They said no. Thus they are implementing Censorship.

Apple is under no obligation to sell anything they don’t want to sell. It is their shop. There are plenty of other shops out there who will sell what you have, just not Apple.

However, my point is only that it is not censorship. I do think, in agreement with Boxscore Babes, that they could be more consistent and clear with their guidelines. But the App Store is still young, please remember, and whilst present fears may be heightened, I’m hopeful that Apple is working hard to straighten itself out. It is still uncharted territory, and, while that may not be any consolation for BB, it should be for consumers.

David

Haven’t they already tarnished the appeal by the mere name of the device? It’s a running joke everywhere and the first thing I and many people think of first when hearing or saying iPad is something near female genitalia.

This isn’t part of the debate but a fun side note to at least mention.

Apple can do whatever they want. It’s their company and they will live or die by the decisions their customers make. I personally abhor censorship, especially on this trivial level. There are other more important things to worry about in this world. Seeing a woman in a bikini means nothing in the grand scheme. And if it does incite “impure thoughts” (which is different to everyone) then that’s only a result of it being made an issue and forbidden. Typical of us as humans to ban something rather than have open dialogue about it and educate ourselves.

Both the music industry and the movie industry already have established ratings systems with familiar and well-understood ratings. [At least in the USA] it’s clearly understood what is meant by an “R” or “PG” rating—and that rating system is copyrighted and therefore could not be used by Apple in the App Store. Apple does, in fact, reflect these ratings systems in the iTunes store.

In contrast, the App store has no outside review board to develop a ratings system, explain it to developers and customers, and to work with developers who wish to challenge or change the rating received by their product. Because of the nature of the App store a review board and system of this nature really isn’t feasible. Thus, we’re left with having Apple be the arbiter of taste and culture (such as it is) on the iPhone OS platform.

I don’t think we’ve heard the last of this from Apple; after all the “rules” relayed to us have been done so by a third party, who is clearly not a disinterested one, and while Apple offices are closed for the weekend at that. Let’s see what shakes out when Apple is actually open and perhaps says something—anything—official.

The same reason you can’t get a “babes” magazine at Target but you can get SI Swimsuit.

Sorry…your smut gravy train has ended!

Tony

So, say up to 20,000 apps area affected. That leaves now about 120,000 apps that aren’t. They’re trying to make sure their own brand is synonymous with Family Friendly and not Porn Purveyors. There are plenty of avenues to pursue the latter, they just won’t have the Apple name on them. I’m sure some other PC vendors will be glad to pick up the slack and then take the heat. That’s fine. It’s just NOT Apple’s cup of tea. Big deal. Again, why is this a story? Oh, because they decided to clean up their act and do something about something they don’t like being associated with.

If only other entities would do that. To borrow a song title from Cowboy Mouth, “I choose to walk away.”

Good move on Apple’s part.