Apple Censors 'Ninjawords Dictionary' iPhone Application

[bigmc6000]

It's symptomatic of a bigger problem. I agree, this one issue isn't such a big deal. But then look at how Americans rolled over for the past eight years to mortgage all sorts of freedoms and privileges because of the terror boogeyman. I'm tired of how fearful we are as a country. Afraid of the boob, afraid of the bad word, afraid of the "other", afraid of the Muslim, afraid of the gay, afraid, afraid, afraid.

You think the last 8 years were bad? It's only getting worse - now the gov't is in the business of owning private companies and then wants to make your health care decisions for you (and you thought dealing w/ an HMO is a pain in the @ss) all while leaving all those things you didn't like in place. Sadly, the rights and freedoms of Americans have continued to be limited and will continue to be for, again sadly, the foreseeable future

EDIT: As for the "afraid of gays" part - that's actually the people legislating to the gov't, not the other way around so it doesn't really belong in the argument.

 

[robbyx]

It's not BS. You can kid yourself all you want, but we're slowly chipping away at our rights and freedoms, allowing ourselves to be monitored, not holding flagrant violators of the law responsible because they happen to be our former Idiot in Chief, etc.

I don't want the FCC to open up the App Store and I agree 100% that it's Apple's right to set whatever policies it deems appropriate. I read Schiller's response and it's encouraging. What's missing from the App Store approval process is TRANSPARENCY. Apple needs clear rules and guidelines. Pulling apps and denying access to the store again and again without a clear definition of the problem makes Apple look bad. Period.

Are you not over 17? If you are then nothing is being censored for you (also, please stop this "rights and freedoms" BS - nobody is stopping you from searching the web for any sick thing you could possible imagine.) Apple is making a BUSINESS DECISION, stop comparing them to the gov't. The gov't is what gives you rights and freedoms - not Apple. Furthermore, should the gov't mandate that Apple open up their App Store they are then taking away the rights and freedoms of a non-gov't entity. In conclusion - no ones rights or freedoms have, in any way whatsoever, been impacted by this.

 

[robbyx]

Well, at least 50+ million Americans will HAVE health insurance. And I don't think this government would be bailing everyone out if the last one hadn't run the entire country into the ground! But let's not hold anyone responsible, right? After all, it's the New American Way! Do whatever, apologize, get away with it.

But you're correct. Our rights and freedoms will continue to be limited, regardless of who is in office. Why? Because we're probably the most fearful country on Earth. So we don't care how many of our rights and freedoms we give away to success in our fool's errand of feeling "safe."

And the "gays" part does belong in the argument. More fear and FUD from our elected officials and the public too. No different from the irrational fear of Muslims, seeing a boob on TV, etc.

You think the last 8 years were bad? It's only getting worse - now the gov't is in the business of owning private companies and then wants to make your health care decisions for you (and you thought dealing w/ an HMO is a pain in the @ss) all while leaving all those things you didn't like in place. Sadly, the rights and freedoms of Americans have continued to be limited and will continue to be for, again sadly, the foreseeable future

EDIT: As for the "afraid of gays" part - that's actually the people legislating to the gov't, not the other way around so it doesn't really belong in the argument.

 

[Blue Fox]

I find it hilarious that everyone on here is peeved about "freedoms" and "censoring" material.

This is APPLE's App Store.....they can do with it as they please. Don't like it, don't use it. Simple as that. Stop complaining.


.......and how did this thread turn into a Healthcare/Freedom/Government Intervention thread???

 

[bigmc6000]

It's not BS. You can kid yourself all you want, but we're slowly chipping away at our rights and freedoms, allowing ourselves to be monitored, not holding flagrant violators of the law responsible because they happen to be our former Idiot in Chief, etc.

I don't want the FCC to open up the App Store and I agree 100% that it's Apple's right to set whatever policies it deems appropriate. I read Schiller's response and it's encouraging. What's missing from the App Store approval process is TRANSPARENCY. Apple needs clear rules and guidelines. Pulling apps and denying access to the store again and again without a clear definition of the problem makes Apple look bad. Period.

Well maybe we are but what I'm saying is this decision by Apple has nothing to do with that so it's disingenuous to tie the two together. The gov't and the gov't alone has the ability to restrict rights and freedoms - not a corporation like Apple. I agree with you there are a lot of things that are now restricted as a result of some goings on in DC but DC and Apple are two separate entities.

 

[bigmc6000]

Well, at least 50+ million Americans will HAVE health insurance. And I don't think this government would be bailing everyone out if the last one hadn't run the entire country into the ground! But let's not hold anyone responsible, right? After all, it's the New American Way! Do whatever, apologize, get away with it.

But you're correct. Our rights and freedoms will continue to be limited, regardless of who is in office. Why? Because we're probably the most fearful country on Earth. So we don't care how many of our rights and freedoms we give away to success in our fool's errand of feeling "safe."

And the "gays" part does belong in the argument. More fear and FUD from our elected officials and the public too. No different from the irrational fear of Muslims, seeing a boob on TV, etc.

You were arguing about top down legislation that is restricting rights where as the "gays" part is legislation from the ground up. Sure, it's still fear but it's not DC legislating to the people - it's the other way around (oddly that's how democracy is supposed to work - it's a shame we can't get it to work for things that actually matter).

Also, I can't believe you're so foolish to blame the entire collapse on the president - congress is as much a part of that as he is and lest we not forget the president and congress did not share a party for the part when the entire thing went to *****.

one more aside - if you think the mortgage thing was because of bush I think you should look back at the policies enacted by Clinton - mainly the one about making sure that poor people who can't afford houses should qualify for mortgages if they happen to be a minority (that combined with deregulation drove it into the ground, neither one would have killed it but the combination of the two did, if you think about it it HAD to...)

Anyway - yay, yay, Apple isn't quite as evil as the initial article leads you to believe but people still want to see "hot carl" in their iPhone dictionaries! haha

 

[bigmc6000]

I find it hilarious that everyone on here is peeved about "freedoms" and "censoring" material.

This is APPLE's App Store.....they can do with it as they please. Don't like it, don't use it. Simple as that. Stop complaining.


.......and how did this thread turn into a Healthcare/Freedom/Government Intervention thread???

If you use the word censor just once it sets off a firestorm - at least in tech blogs it seems. I think part of that is still a defense for the torrent sites because the more censorship their is I think people are worried that at some stage they won't be able to download Transformers for free anymore...

 

[Teh Don Ditty]

This thread is about ninjawords, Apple, Phil Schiller and the FTC.

This is not about healthcare or DC politics or any of that crap.

Stick to the topic people.

 

[Darkroom]

In fact I think more companies need to act more responsible in this day and age. Maybe we all should get back to our moral beliefs.

please don't assume "we" all have the same moral beliefs, because i can assure you (based on your response to this thread) that we certainly do not.

 

[G58]

Not sure

If that's true, what is it that makes the iPhone a special case? As we know, the very same allegedly offensive words are to be found as suggestions in Apple's own Dictionary app on all Macs.

Not sure I've missed any points on this one...

Quite frankly I don't think you're right here. I'm coming round to the view the it's an internal legal issue, and a case of one rule for all, ie: no swearing in games etc.

I think the point you're missing is that the concerned parents are far more powerful and have a much greater impact than "the rest of us" because, as I mentioned, "the rest of us" are those of us who frequent forums like MR. I know we like to think we're a little microcosm of society but we're really not, not even close. In this case it's very much the concerns of the many outweigh the concerns of the few (with, I'd suggest, at least 80% of the population really not giving a crap what Apple does and doesn't allow in the app store). Basically, the people they are worried about offending are far more active and care much more than those on the other side and a a business Apple has to make the moves that will help them make more $ and pissing off a group of concerned parents means much more to them than having a bunch of Mac Fans b!tching about censorship.

 

[G58]

Let's be specific here

Well, you were kind enough to quote me, but did you read what I meant?

I said: "I do of course believe in censorship designed to protect children from exploitation of any kind, and from being exposed to what any reasonable person would regard as potentially harmful material."

The censorship I'm referring to is the extreme stuff that we all hopefully want to see an end to. Without a level of censorship, it would be a hell of a lot easier for sick SOBs to exploit kids on the net. It's surely bad enough already.

Maybe other legislation and control of access options play a greater role, but exploitative images of children should never be tolerated imo. That's what I meant.

An example of what a child might accidentally see on the net, that may not be considered harmful, might be a still of a nude scene from a regular movie. But a full on gynaecological perspective, multi penetration type of porn site should be clearly identified as such, to make it easier for parents to do as you suggest - set boundaries and access rights. But how many parents are smarter than their kids? They can just as easily set up their own accounts and guidelines on the family computer.

It's an issue. But I still maintain that the presence of the F word and the C word and the M-F word in an iPhone dictionary app is a complete non-issue in the real world.

It could just be that the approval department has been so busy, they just applied the rule in this stupid way because they were told to apply the rule on all apps. We may yet see it reversed.

While I very much agree with the rest of your post, I must take issue with this statement. I do *not* believe in censorship "designed to protect children", or otherwise. What does that mean? It's a slippery slope.

Call me old fashioned, but I believe in something called PARENTING. It's not *my* responsibility to make sure *your* child doesn't read a bad word or see a pornographic image. You decided to have a child, so you raise it and you censor content deemed offensive. Maybe you have to take time out of your busy day to care, to spend time with your child, to set parental controls, etc., but isn't that what parenting is about???

I'm so sick of people pumping out babies and then whining and crying about having to do the job of a parent, or worse, expecting government and now corporations to do the job for them. It's not my job to raise your kids and I'm certainly not going to support *ANY* kind of censorship, especially not the most bogus and egregious kind, that designed to "protect" children. Barf.