Apple Blocks iTorrent App From EU Alternative App Marketplace

[Happy_John]

This thread is funny, as it's very clear from the comments who are the users that are involved in media and software creation and development, and who are not.

I do my job, I work hard, so I do expect to get paid.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Money very much is stolen from them.

A downloaded/torrented media file does not equate a lost sale/licensing transactions.
Even assuming someone torrents a media file that he or she would have otherwise bought, it's not stolen.

Stealing is taking away something of value from someone else.
Preventing someone from making a sale isn't stealing.

the "here are plenty of reasons to torrent which aren’t illegal" is disingenuous.

But there actually are plenty of legitimate reasons to torrent.
You can compare that to guns: a considerable share of gun use is illegal - yet they're legal devices in many countries.

 

[iwillfollow]

you NEED a torrent app to download Linux distros right??

Or are we just trying to download movie / music torrents directly to iPhone dear developer?

Ya, because we all know the best way to download a Linux distro is with an app on the iPhone.

 

[germanbeer007]

The whole point of alternative app distribution is to divert control away from Apple. The consumers themselves should be able to choose what software should run on the hardware they buy.

They have a choice on selecting a device that lets them be able to choose what software they want to run.

 

[Happy_John]

Theft is taking something to which you don't have legal title and depriving the rightful owner of its use. Piracy is not theft, it's copying.

It's copying licensed content without paying for the license to consume that content, which is theft.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Royalties owed to the creators being taken away, or denied to them because of illegal distribution, copying, etc. is definitely theft.

I can go on the street and put up signs saying "don't buy from iamgalt".
I can do the same online.

It may be reducing or preventing sales for you - but it's certainly not stealing.

 

[Timpetus]

It's copying licensed content without paying for the license to consume that content, which is theft.

No. Words have meaning, and by using them you indicate that you agree with that, but then you contradict yourself by claiming this word means something that it 100% does not.

 

[Happy_John]

I can go on the street and put up signs saying "don't buy from iamgalt".
I can do the same online.

It may be reducing or preventing sales for you - but it's certainly not stealing.

That's a false equivalence. What you're talking about is advertising against a content provider, not taking the content provider's output without paying them or getting their consent to do so.

Different thing entirely.

 

[Happy_John]

No. Words have meaning, and by using them you indicate that you agree with that, but then you contradict yourself by claiming this word means something that it 100% does not.

Stop babbling. What exactly do you mean?

 

[AppliedMicro]

Now I'm sure you'll come back with some lawyer sounding BS

Yes, I'd agree that use of correct terminology is important - and helpful.

Particularly when talking about alleged crimes or illegal activity.

 

[kwikdeth]

This is about avoiding lawsuits. Regardless of where your opinion lies on the subject of torrenting, allowing an app which has the potential of enabling piracy opens up Apple to liability lawsuits.

Personally I can't see why somebody would even care. I tried torrenting once on my phone and it was slower and more cumbersome than it would have been on a tethered laptop.

 

[kirky29]

I already pay for Netflix, Disney+, Prime, Paramount, Spotify, YouTube Premium (yeah, I know, that one’s a bit odd), ITV+ and a few others — and I still end up torrenting.

A lot of the time the shows I want aren’t even on UK Netflix etc, only on the US version, and messing around with VPNs can be a pain. So honestly, sometimes it’s just easier to go the pirate route.

 

[AppliedMicro]

What you're talking about is advertising against a content provider, not taking the content provider's output without paying them or getting their consent to do so.

Well, the end result is the same, isn't it?
They're losing a sale.

But something losing a sale due to third-party activity isn't necessarily illegal.

That's why both stealing and copyright infringement has been made illegal in law.
They're nonetheless different things.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It's copying licensed content without paying for the license to consume that content, which is theft.

Theft in criminal law generally means taking away someone else’s property so that they no longer have it. Copying copyrighted material does not deprive the owner of their copy as the original still exists. That’s why courts usually call it infringement, not theft.

There are criminal penalties for willful copyright infringement (distributing pirated movies/movies), but they are based on copyright statutes, not theft statutes. Hence it not being theft, but copyright infringement.

A torrent app is nether, so I'm not sure why this even applies.

 

[coffeemilktea]

I know MacRumors commenters love saying things like "torrents are only used for piracy!" but it's also used by universities to share large amounts of data on various projects (Academic Torrents claims to have 241 TB of research data), and public health organizations like the National Institute of Health have used torrents to rapidly disseminate research data for their own various initiatives, one of the most famous and recent examples being the the Human Connectome Project, which researched how to cure brain disorders like Alzheimers, and which needed a way to quickly share 500 GB worth of research with a lot of people.

So if you think it's a good thing that Apple blocks torrenting apps because "torrents are only used for piracy," then that really only advertises your own closed-mindedness and a chronic inability to think of positive uses for technology.

 

[SilmarilFinder]

I don’t see this as just about a torrent app. The issue is that any app can be removed if Apple still controls it through “notarisation”, even if it isn’t on their App Store. The whole point of alt stores is to escape Apple’s control, and
this notarisation requirement goes against the very spirit of that.

 

[cjsuk]

Well shiver me timbers I wasn’t expecting that. Not.

 

[cjsuk]

I know MacRumors commenters love saying things like "torrents are only used for piracy!" but it's also used by universities to share large amounts of data on various projects (Academic Torrents claims to have 241 TB of research data), and public health organizations like the National Institute of Health have used torrents to rapidly disseminate research data for their own various initiatives, one of the most famous and recent examples being the the Human Connectome Project, which researched how to cure brain disorders like Alzheimers, and which needed a way to quickly share 500 GB worth of research with a lot of people.

So if you think it's a good thing that Apple blocks torrenting apps because "torrents are only used for piracy," then that really only advertises your own closed-mindedness and a chronic inability to think of positive uses for technology.

I deal with this stuff.

They mostly don’t use torrents because no one can work them through org DLP and firewalls.

 

[Happy_John]

Theft in criminal law generally means taking away someone else’s property so that they no longer have it. Copying copyrighted material does not deprive the owner of their copy as the original still exists. That’s why courts usually call it infringement, not theft.

There are criminal penalties for willful copyright infringement (distributing pirated movies/movies), but they are based on copyright statutes, not theft statutes. Hence it not being theft, but copyright infringement.

It is theft of the license.

If you go to a bookshop, do you think it is acceptable to photocopy every page of the book, put the book back on the shelf and walk out.

If people do not pay for content, content producers will not be able to afford to produce more content, and then there will be no new content.

Nothing is for free. People's time and effort has a worth. Piracy is parasitic, and parasites, in a large enough size or number, will end up killing their host.

Have you ever wondered why the quality and variety of music today is lower than twenty years ago? It's because, for many musicians, making music is no longer financially sustaining. And the reasons for this are two fold and very clear - streaming services that pay musicians a pittance, and piracy.

Keep pirating, and inevitably you'll be left foiwth bad generic ( and most likely AI generated) music, people primarily listening to music from decades, and movies that are only big-budget franchises, because you've cut the rungs of the ladder for newer musicians, artists, creators, game redevelopers etc from being able to climb that ladder.

It's an incredibly short-sighted perspective. It's the goose who laid the golden egg.

Nothing is for free. If you don't want to work without being paid for your work, don't take other people's work without paying them for it.

 

[AppliedMicro]

Stealing is basically always illegal.
Torrenting isn't (often but not always).

 

[CapitalIdea]

Came in here expecting the usual Apple can do no wrong commenters.

Of course, I was not disappointed. There are plenty of uses for torrents that are legal guys. It’s most likely Apple just doing the usual malicious compliance…

Since the article clearly states that torrents as a category aren’t banned and it’s limited to this app, your argument falls apart.

 

[germanbeer007]

Theft in criminal law generally means taking away someone else’s property so that they no longer have it.

No.

"intellectual property theft" - I take Apple's click wheel design and put it in my music player device. Doesn't mean Apple no longer has that click wheel design

What you said makes no sense. At all.

 

[CapitalIdea]

It's unauthorised reproduction/copying, if anything.

Not theft. Neither the original content owner/creator nor the bona-fide has his file "taken away".

You still stole the experience of consuming it, which is supposed to be a paid thing.

 

[WarmWinterHat]

It is theft of the license.

If you go to a bookshop, do you think it is accetable to photocopy every page of the book, put the book back on the shelf and walk out.

If people do not pay for content, content producers will not be able to afford to produce more content, and then there will be no new content.

Nothing is for free. People's time and effort has a worth. Piracy is parasitic, and parasites, in a large enough size or number, will end up killing their host.

Have you ever wondered why the quality and variety of music today is lower than twenty years ago? It's because, for many musicians, making music is no longer financially sustaining. And the reasons for this are two fold and very clear - streaming services that pay musicians a pittance, and piracy.

Keep pirating, and inevitably you'll be left for bad generic music, people primarily listening to music from decades, and movies that are onlybiug-budget franchises, because you've cut the rungs of the ladder for newer musicians, artists, creators, game redevelopers etc from being able to climb that ladder.

It's an incredibly short-sighted perspective. It's the goose who laid the golden egg.

Nothing is for free. If you don't want to work without being paid for your work, don't take other people's work without paying them.

I'm not giving a perspective, nor an opinion, I'm giving the legal difference between theft and copyright infringement. They are not the same thing. My post is not about morality, or ethics, but law.

No I haven't wondered, and no I don't care. I haven't pirated anything since I was in my 20s (I'm 45 now), so it's not on my radar and not my concern. What is my concern is Apple deciding that this App, that's not even in their store, is unacceptable.

 

[racerhomie]

Meanwhile, torrent apps can be freely downloaded with a browser on a Mac

There is less security on the Mac because of being allowed to sideload software from anyone