Hitler kicked off iPhone Apple has pulled the plug on an iPhone application which offered an RSS feed of Electronic Frontier Foundation updates. The developer asked the EFF for permission to use their logo, which was granted as long as it was made clear this was not an official EFF product. But earlier this week Apple rejected the application because …
I like apple products, but where MS blatantly lie and mislead you Apple are honest about doing it their way or the highway.
I have had reason to work with Apple's iTunes people in terms of supplying content from my employer (a large broadcast company) and they are just as obtuse then too.
...Apple pulled the plug on an app that provided a feed from another source that the developer of the app had no control over?
Seriously?
Pfft
So what happens if a developer produces an app that provides a direct feed from say, El Reg, and Vulture Central decide to publish a story on, let's say a maker of a well known mobile telephony device, and someone posts in the comments page to that story a link to a website that says "Ra ra ra ra apple fanboi ra ra ra ra overpriced handset ra ra ra ra raving maniacs ra ra ra ra", Apple would pull the plug on the app?
Again I say, Seriously?
Pfft
Anti-consumer? Holy underpants Batman... But... but you're a consumer?
However, unless you're a robot you don't have to buy anything - the bad people in the adverts won't come and take you away if you refuse to buy what they're trying to sell.
GO! Use your mighty consumer power! Stick it to the man! That'll teach him. He might be anti-consumer, but you can be anti-company and see how he likes that.
Shareholders don't like lawsuits. They don't like it when their baby is insulted or blamed for things beyond its control. So they instruct their board of directors to be risk-averse. Extremely risk-averse.
Pretty much anything could be offensive to *somebody*, so Apple's employees are told to play it as safe as possible. What Apple are doing is a symptom of the lawyer-happy society their HQ is based in. ("When in doubt, sue. Even when not in doubt, sue anyway as they might settle out of court just to shut you up." Either way, the lawyers win.)
And in case you think it's only Apple doing this, I suggest you pay closer attention to the news. (And no, it's not just the US either. The UK -- to pick just one EU member nation -- has become infamous as the capital of "libel tourism".)
Stop blaming the corporations. They're obliged to follow exactly the same damned, bat's-arse laws as you and I. The difference is that they're much bigger, wealthier targets and thus far more likely to get sued for money.
Using someone's video to parody them is fair use. Using someone's video to parody something ELSE is not. So the video that uses the clip from Downfall to make fun of the MPIAA is NOT fair use.
Back in the real work, it's always going to happen (and think how idiotic people would have to be to object) - nevertheless, the point stands.
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