Apple blocks Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist from iStore for "ridiculing public figures"

Laura sez, "Mark Fiore just won a Pulitzer Prize for editorial cartooning for his animated works appearing on SFGate.com. I spoke with Fiore about what's next for him, and he said he'd like to take his freelance shop mobile. Only problem: Apple denied his iPhone app because it 'ridicules public figures,' a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement. If he can get his app past the Apple satire police, he should be good to go."

How's that benevolent dictatorship working out for ya?

Mark Fiore can win a Pulitzer Prize, but he can't get his iPhone cartoon app past Apple's satire police (Thanks, Laura!)

Previously:

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

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lesbianjesus

agraham999 â€¢ #20

“reads your email” ?

If you think google cares about your email then don’t use gmail.

Who’s email are they really going to take the time to read. If I have to tell somebody something I don’t want anyone else to read it’s not going via the internet.

AT&T and Google and any of these guys get and comply with a literal million request from law enforcement a year.
Anonymous

Or create a web app, that obviously doesn’t use Flash, and you can bypass the iTunes and Apple and host it on your own server.
DrPretto

Ha, where is the surprise here? Apple is always controlling, like a dicatatorship, everything with their products, you cant decide for yourself: Examples
1- They have to review every app to decide if it is good for YOU.
2- No flash on their ipad
3- No standard USB ports or camera on ipad

Why people keep buying sub-standard and OVERPRICED apple products?
I am a physician (30 years old) and I have never bought an apple product, and I think I will never do it. I dont want to live in a walled garden controlled by God Almighty Steve Jobs and Apple.
I will always support Open Source software – hardware like Linux and Android. Thats why I bought my Google Nexus One phone which I love, it kills the iphone with its specs.
- Brainspore
  
  Why people keep buying sub-standard and OVERPRICED apple products?
  
  What are you comparing the iPad to when you call it “overpriced”? The Kindle DX is selling for about the same price as an iPad and doesn’t even have a color screen- let alone video capability, a touchscreen interface, web browser or app store.
Elvis Gump

I was onboard with Apple for the candy colored iMac, but I knew something was rotting in the Apple back then. I couldn’t put my finger on it until the iPods started coming and the iTunes store with all this DRM and on and on and one “INSANELY” great thing after another I’m supposed to cough up exorbitant prices for. I couldn’t do it anymore and you know what? I can by a buttload of cheap MP3 player and not worry about dropping them and use Ubuntu and not miss Windows or Mac.

It’s like the two companies are now competing to see who can make their system more closed and under their control not yours.

Reading this sort of thing about such a great cartoonist, well I say start making fun of Jobs, egomaniac extraordinaire at this point.
zio_donnie

doh i can watch it too now. yesterday it just poped some warning about inappropriate content.

next time i’ll make sure i take a screenshot
Heartfruit

I’m left wondering if they are applying the same standards to the iBooks and iNewspapers etc. I can’t imagine that most editorial pages don’t “ridicules public figures” at least 5 days out of 7.
Anonymous

No one has the right to kill any technology. Yes, Flash might be buggy. Just don’t use it. Apple is getting madder and madder.
ratcity

You got me teapot, those are great products (I was blown away by Earth when Keyhole first made it many years ago), my “disdain” comment was highly over-broad. I would use gmail before mobileme 10 times over. But in the particular areas around apple’s touch platforms I believe they are head and shoulders beyond google or microsoft and are making valuable contributions.

…and make a profit, how? Paypal? Dont make me laugh

And it is Apple’s fault their competition is horrible?

I appreciate that Yamara took the fairly strong position against closed platforms. Is that the general consensus? Is there anyone willing to admit (or argue) that while they hate Apple, they are OK with Roku or game consoles? Is it OK for Amazon to add one or two apps to the Kindle and it’s still a “CE” device but add a 1000 and it’s a “closed” computer and becomes evil?
- teapot
  
  How is Apple stopping one from reading the cartoon on the web via the iPad?
  
  The issue is that they are stopping this guy making a profit from his work. Would you like it if we did that to you? You work for years to form a reputation only to have the imasters tell you that you cant release your stuff for their platform in a form which makes you money even though they have approved other apps which break the very same rule they are applying to Mark Fiore’s work. If you put the shoe on the other foot and imagine you are a creator, instead of a mindless consumer, you would see the problem here.
  
  The internet became full of Apple apologists overnight.. Or maybe it was all the idiots who rushed out to buy one, then got on the net and found out they were the laughing stock of most technologically-minded people (whereas the markering promised them they would be the cool, popular guy). Their only response? DEFEND AT ALL COSTS!
  
  @ratcity:
  But in the particular areas around apple’s touch platforms I believe they are head and shoulders beyond google or microsoft and are making valuable contributions.
  Apple have always been pioneers in UI. Doesn’t mean the whole package is good. When it comes to OSX, where anyone can write a program without it having to be approved, Apple kicks ass. Their powerbooks are an icon of this decade because there was no stupid limitations on them.
  
  Nintendo were the first to stick touch-screen functionality into a mainstream hand-held device (DS) and accelerometers into gaming/navigation (Wii) – shouldn’t much of the credit for bringing these things to the market be given to them? By your argument, yes.
  
  And it is Apple’s fault their competition is horrible?
  Ah, no.. it’s Apple’s fault that they don’t allow competition. That is the whole issue behind people having to jailbreak. People shouldn’t have to figure out work-arounds. Paypal is not in competition to Apple, nor is it a secure alternative. Send paypal details via wifi? yeah.. its great to force your customers to put their personal information in jeopardy. Thanks Apple.
  - danfan
    
    “Or maybe it was all the idiots who rushed out to buy one, then got on the net and found out they were the laughing stock of most technologically-minded people”
    
    I’ll make sure to tell that to my friend who codes for the DoD. I’m sure he’ll return it right away when he found out that teapot from BoingBoing said he’s a laughingstock.
grimc

I’m surprised that everybody is arguing about whether Apple has the right to determine what’s sold through the App Store (they do) and the inevitable Flash war (which is pointless in this context, considering Fiore’s app is iPhone ready), but nobody’s brought up the specific reason for rejection: Ridicule of public figures. Yet you can download a TMZ app, and more to the point, you can get an MSNBC app that’s purely political cartoons.

If I were Fiore, I’d ask why Apple thinks MSNBC’s political cartoons are fine but his are beyond the pale. Frankly, you have to wonder whether Apple’s approver has a particular bone to pick with Fiore (after all, he’s an SF cartoonist and I assume the approver is in the Bay Area and is familiar with his work).
agraham999

“The cult of iSteve is undermining web standards and openness.”

Since when is Flash a web standard or an example of openness? It is a platform OWNED by a company and basically licensed by everyone else. The issue here is that Apple is in a position to not support Flash. If you were so concerned about openness than how about convince Adobe to release it from their control?

Adobe has been slow to release products over the years and I can’t see Apple or anyone else having to be reliant on Adobe for something as critical as delivering web video content. The world moves on with HTML5 while Adobe’s flash continues to hog up almost all of my system resources.

Flash is not an open platform people…it is Adobe’s own monopoly.

Apple doesn’t owe Adobe a living. If Adobe makes good products and ships them on time and they work really well…then I’m sure Apple will be happy to provide support for it…but puh-lease let’s not pretend that Apple is doing something sinister when in reality it actually IS trying to provide a better experience for users…by omitting flash.

Adobe has been swallowing software companies left and right over the years…Macromedia…gone…I mean is there an actual really good pro level alternative to the Adobe Creative Suite? Where’s your outrage there?

It’s not personal…it’s business.
- shiva7663
  
  “It’s business” is never a good rationalization for bad behavior.
  - Boomshadow
    
    “It’s business” is never a good rationalization for bad behavior.
    
    Absolutely! I know Boing Boing doesn’t do “like” or “promote” buttons, but if they did, I’d click the Hell out of one for your comment.
    
    Apple, of course, has every right to say what can go into their walled-garden stores–but that doesn’t make it right, especially not on devices that are not permitted to go anywhere else.
    
    Jailbreak early and jailbreak often, folks. Or buy something else.
- Hybridan
  
  While I completely agree with agraham999 comments about the “business” of Stevey and Shanty (my affectionate names for the two CEO’s). The bigger issue I understood from the link is that Fiore’s work, (bias alert, I have been in love with Fiore’s work since I first found it.)is being censored directly by apple for the very reasons that he has created his work. Fiore desires to follow a well documented tradition of using biting satire and cutting rhetoric to help us better understand political, economic and social norms. If he can elicit sidesplitting laughter at times its just a bonus to me. Regardless of the content it is just frustrating that a tech and image savvy social critic is being blocked from using the Iphone/Ipad platform, when the company behind that platform profits so much from using many of the same tools that Fiore does.
- wrybread
  
  The important point is that Apple keeping flash off the iWhatevers doesn’t have anything to do with system resources and closed systems. They’re doing it because they want to keep customers dependant on the App Store.
  
  I’ll say it again: Apple doesn’t want you to have Flash becausea they want you to be forced to use their official apps.
  
  In other words its not moral or technological, its purely, as you say in your closing sentence, “just business”. That may be fine, and if they want to do that its their choice, but it should be evaluated by their customers and prospective customers as such, and not as if they have their customers’ best interests at heart.
- Anonymous
  
  If only Microsoft could have said that back when they were accused of not supporting Netscape!
- jwb
  
  Try reading for comprehension next time, genius. I said “HTML” not “Flash”.
- Anonymous
  
  To claim that Flash is proprietary and HTML5 is not is very misinformed.
  Flash is license free technology apart from included video and audio codecs, but although decoding is not part of the HTML5 specification using HTML4 you will depend on proprietary codecs if you want to support for example mp3 or h.264.
  
  Swf is an open format, Adobe has donated the VM used in the Flash Player, AVM2, to Mozilla. The SDK, compiler and Flex Framework is open source. The RTMP format is open.
  ActionScript is based on the ECMAScript standard.
  Flash Player contains proprietary technology Adobe has licensed for decoding, and hence cannot be opened. But the source is made available to partners in the Open Screen Project.
  
  So with Flash you can develop, compile, publish and run an application without needing any licensing as long as you don’t use proprietary codecs.
  
  With HTML5 on the other hand that is not the case.
  HTML5 is a standard developed by WHATWG, which is a working group founded by individuals from Apple, Mozilla and Opera.
  The editor of the group was until last month Dave Hyatt, and Apple employee.
  If you read wikipedia on the canvas element it says in the section entitled “Intellectual property over canvas”:
  “On March 14, 2007, WebKit developer Dave Hyatt forwarded an email from Apple’s Senior Patent Counsel, Helene Plotka Workman[3], which stated that Apple reserved all intellectual property rights relative to WHATWGâ€™s Web Applications 1.0 Working Draft, dated March 24, 2005, Section 10.1, entitled â€œGraphics: The bitmap canvasâ€ [4], but left the door open to licensing the patents should the specification be transferred to a standards body with a formal patent policy.”
  
  So in HTML5 the canvas is technology licensed from Apple. It’s a royalty free license, but nevertheless technology patented and licensed from Apple.
  
  So with HTML5 you cannot develop, publish and run the application without a license. When it comes to running the application, the software doing that does depend on licensed technology.
  
  And keep in mind that Apple also licenses for the h.264 codec, which is not royalty free.
  So when Cupertino spam bots tell you that Flash has to die to ensure an open Internet, be very suspicious.
  It’s doublespeak, and when they say open they actually mean proprietary technology licensed from Apple.
- Anonymous
  
  It is comical and bit sad that the comments are more or less debating flash rather than the larger question of the original post which has absolutely nothing to do with the adobe v apple dustup. This kind of thing, “ridiculing public figures” is not allowed!? is pretty incredible if you choose to think about it. I cannot imagine how anyone wants any corporation to decide this but it certainly would not be tolerated by many of the people defending it now if it came from any other corporate entity. Viva techie moral relativism.
  
  In a way the flash and content banning issues are related because it comes back to apple’s desire for control. This group of products is fulfilling Jobs decades old vision – in the beginning he didn’t want users to even be able to open their computers let alone expand or fuss them in any way. Guy broke poor Woz’s tinkering heart.
  
  Now it is just the hardware control he wants but, it seems the software, and ultimately, the content. I just don’t get how people are some comfortable with it or just assume it is for their own good. That’s scary.
  
  As for flash, it is true that they owe adobe nothing but on the other hand, they will need to start banning other dev tools or adobe really will have an antitrust case. Of course, some of those tools were used to make many of the apps stores most popular downloads (belying Jobs contention that secondary tools produce poor content). Maybe then the sickening truth behind this smothering benevolence will reveal itself to enough people to actual make a difference.
ADavies

This is a “phone” not a bookstore.

The phone company, an ISP or TV cable company blocking content they don’t approve of would me a better comparison.

The difference being that Apple can prevent you from going to the digital equivalent of “Borders”.

Sure, for now you can bypass the apps and go straight to the web. But Apple has already shown it’s willing to meddle there as well. There’s a popular theory that (at lest one of) the reasons they block Flash is to get more people to buy their app store games.

The effect is to move more functionality (and thus control) to their product.
- peterbruells
  
  No, it wouldn’t. Because phone companies, IPS, cable TV providers, also busses, trams and trains run a *privileged* business, where they get granted a monopoly to use quite limited resources – public spaces, frequencies etc. That’s not the case with phone manufacturers and booksellers.
Anonymous

Good thing iConsumers have iBrother to act as a gatekeeper for them.
agraham999

“Why people keep buying sub-standard and OVERPRICED apple products?
I am a physician (30 years old) and I have never bought an apple product, and I think I will never do it. I dont want to live in a walled garden controlled by God Almighty Steve Jobs and Apple.
I will always support Open Source software – hardware like Linux and Android. Thats why I bought my Google Nexus One phone which I love, it kills the iphone with its specs.”

Dr. Pretto…

You think Google doesn’t have walls? They support openness? Really? A company that owns a search monopoly…reads your email…watches where you go and what you click on…etc. You think once the first major virus infects the Android platform through an app they won’t just close some of those walls a bit?

Google is all about walls…except Google’s walls are invisible…

Why not check out their work in DNA, power grids, phones, email, web browsers, tablets, cars, satellite imaging, mapping, and on and on…if you want to be a part of that “open” market and have everything on their servers…be my guest. Not me.
Joe

While Apple doesn’t owe Adobe a living, it is wrong for Apple to be able to dictate to their customers that they cannot have certain products, or to their developers that they cannot use middleware to develop their apps, or to block content based on political considerations (saying that public figures cannot be ridiculed is a common practice in dictatorships).

But the cult of Steve will defend anything they do.
Yamara

So since I’m getting rid of my iphoney with my next phone purchase, what other positive things can I look forward to beside freedom from censorship? I’m honestly curious. No non-apple haters, please, I can check the negatives of the competition later.

Because there simply isn’t a worse negative than censorship, this side of genocide.
kaffeen

Every time I read the comments of an Apple related story (not just here on BB, but everywhere), I am seeing pretty much the same things being said (a few twists here and there, but pretty much the same arguments). I do see more vocal dissension each time, but it is apparent to me that the groundswell of anti-Apple sentiment is growing en masse at the gates of the “walled garden”. The longer those gates remained closed, the more people that will migrate to other platforms (this includes programmers, consumers, and business partners). Nobody is willing to wait in line forever; many are not willing to wait at all. I see Android taking complete control of the mobile market within two years, maybe sooner. It is not that I think Android is the most superior platform either, it is just that it is the only open *and* viable alternative currently. Microsoft might make a push, but I just think they are too far behind and too clunky as is. Those terrible phones they released recently just put an exclamation point on my apathy toward their efforts.

The bottom line is that all these wonderful programmers, consumers, and business partners will have two choices. Wait in line, or not wait in line. I don’t know about you, but I hate lines…something tells me I am not alone.
TheCrawNotTheCraw

“Apple denied his iPhone app because it ‘ridicules public figures,’”

In Steve Jobs’ development world, you can’t use Flash (b/c it competes with Apple, directly or indirectly, nevermind the crap you hear about “Flash being a CPU hog”…from people who wouldn’t know a benchmark from a benchpress), and you can’t ridicule public figures, b/c free speech doesn’t exist.

You also can’t use Adobe’s cross-platform development technology, b/c Steve wants to force developers to either develop for the iPhone *or* for other portable devices (Android, etc.).

I’m under no illusion that Bill Gates hasn’t conducted business ruthlessly, but while both Apple and MS have DRM, MS never tried to control the content of developers like *this*.
jdk998

Red herring. How is Apple stopping one from reading the cartoon on the web via the iPad? Oh, they are not. Fail.
- Anonymous
  
  I believe it requires flash… Which the iPad doesn’t have (fail).
  - danfan
    
    I’d say the cartoon requiring Flash is more a fail on the part of the site developer. I like how favoring a closed-platform product from a corporation is now the technologically correct thing to do, vs. the open-source solutions of javascript/css/html.
    
    Apple makes technodorks lose their marbles.
DrPretto

By the way, Cory I admire your style, and books. Imagine writing a distopian future (almost present?) story about a man called Steve, controlling people minds through his brainwashing tech products?
On the other side we could have a man like Richard Stallman (Neo?), fighting for liberty.
The name of the story could be “iControl you, iKill you”
Anonymous

As someone considering developing an app to supplement some of my ventures, I would just like to state that developing for use on apple products is not even a consideration… just simply not worth the trouble for the market share.I’ll stick to Android, Blackberry & whoever else comes along… just not apple
dotytron

Apple sucks. period.

I’ll never buy anything Apple until they change their ways.
ratcity

Just want to confirm that none of y’all Apple haters have Rokus, Xboxes, Playstations, GPSes or any other computer equipment that doesn’t play flash or arbitrary content political or otherwise.

At the end of the day I do not depend on my “i” product to support my freedom. I do not expect it to support my freedom any more than the Roku does or the xbox does or for that matter my watch.

I expect it to entertain me and enable me to do certain things. What it doesn’t do is of no interest whatsoever until and unless Iâ€™m making a comparison to a specific product. Which reminds me,… alternatives to the ipad are? I mean, if you don’t want a slate then I guess the whole freedom thing is kind of moot, but if you do then what do you use instead?

OK, here’s another question, if Apple booting an app because of political views is inappropriate I assume that none of you watch any television except for public access?

I seriously don’t understand the philosophical underpinnings that make this a moral issue. Can a free man or woman live without any smartphone at all? And that person becomes less free when they own an iphone or an ipad? Hmmm…

As to whatâ€™s made me an Apple fanboy? From my perspective the bigger issue is why the rest of the industry is failing to do the things that Apple is with respect to interface and design. Iâ€™m not happy about all of Appleâ€™s decisions, but Iâ€™m MORE unhappy about the decisions of Google and Microsoft with respect to their disdain for design, integration and innovation.

And for the love of god web standards people are weirdly entitled:

â€œI really am appalled by the proliferation if iPhone/iPad applications that could just as easily have been made in HTML.â€

You know what Iâ€™m appalled by? The number of books written in Spanish that could easily have been written in English. Whatâ€™s the difference? People other than you bought a product, other people (still not you) wrote some apps. And you have a PROBLEM with that?

And *weâ€™re* the irrational ones? *Weâ€™re* the ones who hate freedom?
- teapot
  
  Iâ€™m MORE unhappy about the decisions of Google and Microsoft with respect to their disdain for design, integration and innovation.
  
  Hm… yeah. I remember the previous and current alternatives to google maps, google earth & street view. Oh yeah, and they didnt do anything to revolutionise free (for small guys) website analytics, did they? What about SketchUp, now a commonly used tool in Universities across the globe?
  
  Heard of Google Mars? Yeah… I’ve seen that elsewhere.
  
  Google Moon?
  
  I hate it how they charge me for all these things, too! So evil of them, right?
  
  It would take a real moron to argue that Google has a disdain for integration and innovation. I’m not even going to touch the comment claiming they read your email. Do your research before you open your cake hole next time.
putty

Is this any kind of a surprise at all? We’re talking about one of the only companies around that sells mobile devices without user replacable batteries. Shame on you Apple.
elro

Presumably Jonathan Swift will now be banned from the iBookstore.
Mister N

What about free speech? . It can’t be sub-controlled by a company because it’s in their iphone policies.
I am not happy with the authoritarian policies of Apple that hinder creativity, free speech and development all in the name of a product.
- BookGuy
  
  I can’t see how this is a free speech issue. A question of good vs. bad business, sure, but not free speech. Apple isn’t trying to prevent the guy from doing his work–they just won’t sell it. He’s still free to create and disseminate his work, be it in publications for other companies, software on other platforms, or drawn on cocktail napkins.
  
  We may not like Apple’s decision, but it’s not anymore illegal than it is for the local newsstand to decline to carry scholarly and trade paperbacks. It would be cool, but they’re not required to sell everything that’s published just because they carry some things that are published, be it for good business reasons, bad business reasons, or just plain snottiness.
  - Yamara
    
    Ah, but I can’t see his work on my iPhone. There’s no technical reason for this, so it is Apple inserting itself into blocking access which is available on every other platform. Not illegal under the First Amendment, perhaps, but plainly selective. Since Playboy and South Park are okay to have apps, but competitors do not, this may be more an antitrust issue, if it sees a court develop at all.
    
    Also, let it be known that I’ve been a Mac booster since 1987. Today they have lost at least one of their best customers. Blocking satire is unacceptable, and it is a very unwise decision to mess with professional satirists. Because of this high-handed policy, I will not be buying Apple products ever again, nor shop at their stores. But I will say this:
    
    I will continue to talk about Apple.
  - gantrim
    
    Bookguy is right, there is no legal right to free speech in someone elses proprietray platform. Its a business with restricted access, buy if you want or not. You can always speak your mind elsewhere. I personally like apple (macbook) becasue it works way more reliably than my previous PC. But I think all of the i products ipod, ipad, iphone are overpriced and not worth it. Personal decisions based on what they offer. Thats all it boils down to. However, it is nice of boingboing to keep these posts going, not over free speech issues, but purely for consumer choice. Apple certainly isnt going to published a list of “un”available material.
Wuss Brillis

One thing is to control the language (App-people stated their reasons), another is to control the content.

Flash flash baby.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vlWOocHwcLo
Bryan Price

I am SO glad that I never became an Apple fanboy. If anything, I’ve been anti Apple for decades now. And it appears to be the right choice.

Microsoft might be the big baddie to most, but at least I can program for it in whatever language I care, I don’t have to sign supersecret agreements to do so, and I don’t have a Big Brother making sure that my program is as clean as they wish it to be.
- danfan
  
  Microsoft might appear to be bad?
  
  Might?
  
  I’d suggest looking at Microsoft’s aggressive stance against open source technologies, and their numerous efforts over the years to “embrace, extend, and extinguish”.
robulus

Stuff it. I gonna spend up and get a HTC Desire. That thing looks sweet as.
Yamara

elro @#59

And Dante.

Not even going to approach Twain, Dickens, Marx…

ratcity @#57

I own none of the things you mentioned. Don Quixote could not have been written just as easily in English as it was in Spanish.

And your points of comparison are unclear. Perhaps a better comparison would be the Soviet Union’s attempts to make a PC with the West’s. They weren’t able to innovate because they had walled away the possibility to imagine; apple is doing that today.

Soviet entertainment was reduced to pre-approved statements. Which is why the starey-eyed Tro-lo-lo Guy was only able to sing nonsense words, and say how happy he was to be home.
peebz

It’s not the only thing that’s just been removed from the iTunes store. Scratch is a really cool programming environment for kids developed at MIT. Want to be truly computing literate, where you write as well as read? Thereâ€™s no app for that. http://tinyurl.com/y223oql
hughelectronic

The link to the classic wiretapping cartoon with Snugly the bear didn’t work. Try this: http://www.markfiore.com/constitutional_compromise_0
Anonymous

Bad PR Forces Apple to Reconsider Banning Prize-Winning Satirist

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2010/04/apple-reconsiders-satire-ban
Anonymous

It was inevitable. We should have expected that, with sole control of media available to iP* devices, AAPL would begin harsh censorship of not only software function, but also ideas.

What’s next – Catcher in the Rye as an iBook on the iPad? Village Voice? James Joyce’s Ulysses? Pictures of the nude Venus de Milo?

One should be very wary of buying hardware whose media sourcing is subject to unpredictable social standards and “moral” censoring.
Yamara

ratcity @#57

Though I do like your phrase “arbitrary content”. “Arbitrary power” is what Palmerston identified as that which opposed liberty and shored up slavery.
Wuss Brillis

Update: they sell South Park on Itunes. There are also South Park apps. Also they sell the South Park songs, and audiobooks.

Regarding the podcasts I’m not sure about the politically correctness on the one by the South Park Church.

May be you have to be a friend of Jobs.
Lars

…the round pegs in the square holes…
Daedalus

Wonder if the ACLU has a case here…sooner or later, there’s gonna be a big “free speech on the intertubes” case, why not vs. Apple? ;)
Anonymous

I’m shorting AAPL and going long GOOG.

F. U. Jobs & Co.
ratcity

I’m happy to give credit to Nintendo. I mean I’m sure we agree on

Ah, no.. it’s Apple’s fault that they don’t allow competition.

Allow competition? Allow competition? Everyone has competition, it’s not something you allow. I’m not talking about competing with Apple on the iphone which is nonsensical, I’m talking about competing with apple for developers.

Paypal is not in competition to Apple, nor is it a secure alternative. Send paypal details via wifi? yeah.. its great to force your customers to put their personal information in jeopardy. Thanks Apple.

Of course paypal competes with Apple. And I’m sure paypal has engineers who understand how to send PI safely using encryption. It’s Apple’s fault that hasn’t happened? Why can’t paypal, amazon, google, microsoft, nokia, htc, adobe or some small folk I never heard of give this guy a better alternative than Apple?

“idiots who rushed out to buy one, then got on the net and found out they were the laughing stock of most technologically-minded people”

See this is the real problem. You’ll never change anything with this attitude. If we’re just going to do this whole Apple is for hipster idiots things and eventually people will come home to the registry and Unix thing then you’re done.

I mean, come on, I don’t want to break it down but I’m an idiot for tapping away at Scrabble and Words with Friends every morning while I drink my coffee? I’d be smarter to be on … well, why is that there’s no such thing for Android, Palm, HTML5…? Is that Apple’s fault too?

Insult me fine, that seems to be your big kick, but the whole other people are idiots thing is basically the ne plus ultra of the technodweeb. Other people are idiots for liking what they like when if only they were enlightened they wouldn’t want to do what they want to do they’d want to do stuff more like me.

Yeah right, good luck with that.

All of this “freedom” shit would be far more interesting if even once the thing that was kicked out of the appstore was available on another platform? Apple is anti-content producer compared to who and if so why doesn’t that who have more content?

Bryan, you can program for Microsoft’s new phone in any language you want as long as it’s C#.
- teapot
  
  Everyone has competition, it’s not something you allow.
  Um, a programmer can write programs for android phones and sell/distribute them via any means, not only via one single store with its own crazy policies and agenda. Other manufacturers don’t seem so ghastly afraid of competition.
  
  I’m talking about competing with apple for developers.
  So what you’re saying is that Apple are making developers choose between writing for their device or a competitor’s instead of just letting them write their stuff once and then compile it for various platforms (as is standard in the industry)? Seems like a pretty shitty thing to do.
  
  but I’m an idiot for tapping away at Scrabble and Words with Friends every morning while I drink my coffee?
  Believe it or not, a long time ago us humans used to engage in this thing called ‘conversation’!
  
  @danfan:
  Should Borders be forced to sell adult-oriented magazines? If it’s OK for Borders to have such a policy, why is it not OK for Apple?
  We are talking about political satire here, not porn. Does Borders have a policy of banning sales of political satire? How about you choose a comparison that reinforces your point next time?
  
  Apple hate is funny. It makes people lose their rationality.
  Most people would argue the same for Apple love…
  I don’t hate anything, I just judge things based on their merits.
  
  I’ll make sure to tell that to my friend who codes for the DoD. I’m sure he’ll return it right away
  Glad to see I could help some people see the light but, unfortunately for your ‘friend’, I’m fairly sure that buyers remorse is not an acceptable reason for return.
  
  I’ve obviously hit a nerve with some die-hard fans here.
  - danfan
    
    My friend is real, thanks. No need for the scare quotes, junior.
    
    RE: Borders, I didn’t say porn, I said “adult-oriented”. Playboy isn’t porn. Regardless, that has nothing to do with it. Borders probably doesn’t sell The Anarchist’s Cookbook, or books that teach you to grow weed. The point is that privately-owned businesses have the right to stock their shelves with whatever they want.
Tingting Rimart

Looks like amonkey to me than a person. Who is that?
Avram / Moderator

There was a similar story last year, when Bobble Rep (an app with contact info for all of Congress, illustrated with bobblehead-doll-like caricatures by Tom Richmond) was rejected by the App Store for the same reason. Apple eventually changed its mind about that.

This list of ten rejected apps includes three rejected for mocking political figures.
aelfscine

I have an iPhone, but Apple is really starting to bother me. Generally I buy things based on utility rather than fanboydom – I hate Macs, do I don’t own one. When I got my iPhone, it was far and away the best smartphone available, so I bought it, and it’s worked very well for me.

Since I got my phone, a lot of competition has come out for it, and a lot of it looked inferior. Is there serious competition for it now? Are T-Mobile’s new thing or the Droid viable alternatives? If the capabilities are more or less the same, it’d be nice to go to someone less authoritarian and crazy.
Snaggy

We had the same thing happen to an app we submitted, one that poked fun at a cartoon image of the Queen. Apple was not amused and chopped off its head.

If the figure being ridiculed is clearly a public one, you would think Apple would just stick a warning on it, and go with free speech.
speedreeder

This whole post (and comments) are ridiculous, I’ve read the terms: Benevolent Dictatorship, Censorship, soviet entertainment, dictatorship, Genocide(!?) and North Korea. A lot of the people posting sound like whiny school children, there is real censorship going on in the world, and there are people being thrown in jails for their ideas. People’s lives have been threatened, and people have died trying to speak their mind.

But none of that is going on here. While I feel that this is a bad business policy on Apple’s part, this is not a case of censorship. Apple owns the app shop and they have the right to turn down whatever they want for whatever reason they want. If you want them to sell your goods, your goods have to meet their standards.
No shoes, no shirt, no service.
- Yamara
  
  People’s lives have been threatened, and people have died trying to speak their mind.
  
  This has never stopped being the case throughout human history. Those who are unable to speak rely on those who can to speak out, and liberate them. Not spend our liberty distracting ourselves with a noisy toy that delivers more of that silence.
  
  Because it is that silence that ultimately makes people disappear. When leaders support a way to silence or select criticism, they cannot have the best intentions toward their followers.
Anonymous

Someone should tell this guy to come on over to the Android market. The iPhone has officially entered the “manic control” stage of the Apple product life cycle.
Anonymous

Steve will have to prize the cash from my cold, dead hand for that iPad. My COLD! DEAD! HAND! ….he says, typing this on a MacBook :-)

…seriously though, when did him and Murdoch start dating?
2hirondelles

I agree, Apple seems to be a little heavy-handed with it’s Apps policies. That said, we’ve had Mac computers in this household for years now and when the last PC dies, I will never buy another. The Macs have been trouble-free, quite unlike the PCs.
speedreeder

I just want to add, that if you don’t like the way Apple does business, don’t buy their stuff.
- Ugly Canuck
  
  Nor steal it.
- robulus
  
  OK, done deal.
  
  I’ve decided to upgrade to a smart phone, because I’m in the web development biz and my crappy old nokia is becoming a bit of an embarrassment. When I say a bit, I mean cringe inducing luddismly embarrassing.
  
  So I think, right I’ll grab a second hand iPhone. They’re the shit, right? That’s what everyone’s using?
  
  I can pick up a 3G 8gb handset for about AUD$420 on ebay.
  
  And then I have a quick look at the competition. You can’t even tether an iPhone to get mobile broadband on your computer, without jailbreaking it. Call quality is roundly criticised in both 3G and 3GS models, and 3G reception is patchy.
  
  For the same money, I can pick up an HTC Diamond2 BRAND NEW with warranty.
  
  Full credit to Apple, they designed a great phone that changed the industry. But others have taken the ball and run with it, and they’re not producing the best in class anymore.
  
  Add to this that my reason for upgrading is as a developer, and why would I want to buy into this Benevolent Dictatoring, Censoring, soviet entertaining, dictatoring, Genocidal, North Koreanesque dictatorship?
avt_tor

I’m not interested in a device that is a “publisher” or a “store”. I want a communication device that gives me access to publishers and stores so that I can use content of my choosing.

I don’t see how this particular app is obscene, pornographic, or defamatory. (Opinions about public figures are not defamation; if they were, politicians would be suing cartoonists every single day.)
danfan

Probably because they don’t want to be party to a bunch of stupid apps mocking President Obama or Sarah Palin.

Cory, YOU’RE LOSING YOUR MARBLES. It’s not a dictatorship – nobody is forcing you to buy an iPhone/iPad. Sheesh.
- robulus
  
  Yes, yes. Fiore’s work obviously doesn’t live up to their high standards of taste and sophistication.
  
  http://ifartmobile.com/
- teapot
  
  Danfan, YOU’RE LOSING YOUR MARBLES. It’s not a dictatorship – nobody is forcing you to read BB and comment. Sheesh.
  
  If you can’t see why this is stupid on so many levels then you have little hope. He is a Pulitzer-winning political cartoonist. This is not some idiot with a gripe but a man who has been recognised in his field for vision in condensing complex political moments into funny, observant drawings.
  
  As Xenu @#1 pointed out, you can still view his work for FREE via the web. Why should he be barred from profiting from his work? Has he not earnt the right? Stop being fucktards, Apple.
  - danfan
    
    I think you’re being deliberately obtuse. You’re focusing on this one guy’s app, and not thinking about the larger subject. I think Apple’s policy makes perfect sense, especially given the litigious nature of our society. Lawsuits don’t have to make sense to be filed. Any app that Apple releases that involves mockery of public figures is total lawsuit bait. It’s a perfectly reasonable business decision, and I think that it’s you who has little hope for not seeing the obviousness of it.
    
    The author of this app can easily make an iPhone/iPad-friendly web version of his comic.
    
    It’s really insane to me to see how people can simultaneously believe developers should have the right to release whatever they want, but Apple doesn’t have the right to stipulate what kinds of apps they’ll sell. Pretzel logic, indeed.
    - Yamara
      
      The author of this app can easily make an iPhone/iPad-friendly web version of his comic.
      
      Bowlderization is censorship. Wikipedia isn’t censored, and neither is its app. I guess it’s too big to challenge, like Playboy, SI and South Park.
      
      If apple wants to be in the communication business, it has to stop selectively pretending that it isn’t.
    - teapot
      
      Yeah, go on.. keep trolling your opinion.
      
      The author of this app can easily make an iPhone/iPad-friendly web version of his comic.
      …and make a profit, how? Paypal? Dont make me laugh.
      
      I think Apple’s policy makes perfect sense, especially given the litigious nature of our society. Lawsuits don’t have to make sense to be filed. Any app that Apple releases that involves mockery of public figures is total lawsuit bait.
      …yeah, need I remind you that Apple would not be releasing the app, merely selling it? They did not create it and, as such, would not be liable for its contents.
      
      When voilent games are banned from sale can parents sue EB for selling it during the small timeframe it was legal to do so? Can they sue the console manufacturer?
      
      If a software developer makes ‘illegal’ software (for example, to duplicate copy-protected DVDs) that runs on Win XP, does the MPAA sue Microsoft? Of course not.
      
      Your logic is backwards, islave.
      - danfan
        
        You’re still missing the point. I’d like to know why a retailer should not have the right to sell what they want. Should Borders be forced to sell adult-oriented magazines? If it’s OK for Borders to have such a policy, why is it not OK for Apple?
        
        Apple hate is funny. It makes people lose their rationality.
Anonymous

and so it begins…
Anonymous

So this isn’t a case of censorship because hey, you can get the content some other way, and after all it’s just business. And if GM decided to refuse to sell cars to black people, that wouldn’t be racism because hey, they could just buy cars from somebody else, and it would just be business too.

This is ridiculous. Corporate platform-based censorship may not be as scary as government cross-media censorship, but don’t try to pretend they’re not heading in the same direction. In fact when platform providers start refusing potentially popular content, they are usually doing some government’s (or private interest’s) bidding.
flashdadi

“Think different” has become “our way, or no way.”

To paraphrase NIN:

bow down before the one you serve.
you’re going to get what you deserve.
bow down before the one you serve.
you’re going to get what you deserve.

apple i’ll do anything for you.
apple just tell me what you want me to.
apple nail me up against the wall.
apple don’t want everything he wants it all.
Crog

Apple’s policies remind me a lot of Nintendo’s in the 90s. They were against violent games and they would force developers to adjust their content or they wouldn’t allow them to sell games. Nintendo had the most popular gaming platforms, so they could afford to limit the types of games that consumers could buy.

Then Playstation came out, and Sony couldn’t care less about violence in games. Developers hated making cartridges for Nintendo because they were expensive, and they were sick of having to play by Nintendo’s rules. The result was the rise of Sony and the decline of Nintendo (which finally stopped with the Wii).

The bottom line is this: Apple’s market share grants them the power to be as controlling as they want for now, but it probably won’t last. Once a company decides that it knows best about what people should be able to purchase, it’s laying the foundation for its demise. Eventually another platform will come along without such restrictions, and if people want political cartoon apps enough then it will overtake the ipad and iphone. This isn’t censorship what Apple is doing, but it makes horrible business sense prematurely limit its product line.
- danfan
  
  I always thought Nintendo’s policy was quite enlightened, and I preferred playing games on Nintendo to PlayStation because there always seemed to be a touch of whimsy about Nintendo games. I think it’s nice when companies have standards. Why is it that civil libertarians are so schizophrenic in their views?
  
  The argument here seems to be that Apple is violating people’s rights by asserting their own rights. How does that make sense?
  - Yamara
    
    The argument here seems to be that Apple is violating people’s rights by asserting their own rights. How does that make sense?
    
    Yes, we understand, danfan, your Information Purification Directives have created a garden of pure ideology where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths! We get it!
    
    Quick, catch the satire before you forget how it works.
Anonymous

This makes me surprised that apple let the onion app through
gantrim

its not an anitrust issue since there are other mediums you can access it on. Those are the mediums iphone/ipad are in competition with. It would be an antitrust issue if Apple owned the only distribution channel for satire cartoons.

As for not liking apple over this, I still like their products (structurally) but there services (app store, itunes etc…) have never even interested me in the first place and this is just another nail in that coffin.
Xenu

Of course, you can always go and read his cartoons on the web via Safari.
Anonymous

Appstore is not a democracy, go to the Android Market
cmpalmer

Several of you have an interesting opinion of what Free Speech is if you think this is infringing on the right to it. However wrong Apple (and hypocritical) Apple is in not allowing this app, publishers are not the government and they are no laws saying that they have to support “free speech” in what they publish.
Anonymous

This is an excellent illustration over how the censorship of one group, no matter how well intended (or not), will always be insufficient for the freedom of all.
Roger Stanton

Maybe Apple wants to sell phones in North Korea. I’m sure Kim Jong Il would be happy with this policy.
Anonymous

Apple is under no obligation to support flash in their products or be a totally fee market for any idea someone wishes to publish.

They are also under no obligation to release this as an app. Let him release a collection in the bookstore. Or let him release an HTML5 version.

I’m not overwhelmed with sympathy for Fiore or iPad users here. Both knew what they were buying into and what restrictions were in place.
NefariousNewt

I want Apple censoring content as much as I want Comcast/Time Warner/Verizon throttling content based on their desire to make more money.
Anonymous

or you could not buy an Apple product at all.
jwb

Actually Xenu #1 you can’t because his cartoons are in Flash.

I really am appalled by the proliferation if iPhone/iPad applications that could just as easily have been made in HTML. The cult of iSteve is undermining web standards and openness.
- TooGoodToCheck
  
  If you want to fix web standards and openness, killing flash is actually not a terribly bad way to start.
  - Daemon
    
    Of course, killing flash is mostly about making sure that flash games aren’t playable, and thus keeping the money in their pocket.
    - Anonymous
      
      you cant’ play flash games anyway because they rely on hover and click mouse input which touch screen phones don’t have.
yri

It’s precisely this kinda thing that makes me never want to buy any sort of iProduct…
Ashendar

Quick, someone tell Apple to remove those Safari, iBooks and Kindle apps, they allow access to satirical content!

C’mon Apple, your products are excellent and i love em, but policies like this are ridiculous.
Gutierrez

It’s not free speech if you have to pay $0.99 for it on iTunes.
Elijah Meeks

I’m just glad Apple Knows Best. Funny, that lady in the leotard with the hammer… who knew she just wanted to replace the big guy on the TV with a different guy on a little TV.

Speaking of which, debug mode on my iPhone is saying that Boing Boing has 88 errors. Yowza, hey guys, learn how to close your tags.
moosehunter

your point is not valid,
borders DOES sell anarchists cookbook

http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0974458902

and they sell more than 60 How-to books on pot growing

apple is double plus un-good
- danfan
  
  The question is simple: does a business have the right to determine what they sell in their stores? The obvious answer to this question is yes, which renders every complaint about Apple’s behavior moot.
  
  It doesn’t matter if Borders sells the Anarchist Cookbook or not – if Borders opted not to sell that book, that would be their prerogative and nobody would bat an eye.
  - teapot
    
    Aww, you got burned on that whole Borders comparison, didn’t you…. and I’m sure your ‘friend’ is real.
    
    The question is simple: does a business have the right to determine what they sell in their stores?
    
    The obvious answer to this question is yes. The next question is simple: can consumers ridicule a company and their products because of their policies? The obvious answer to this question is also yes. I’m not arguing they can’t do this, I (and many others) are just saying that it is a shitty move by an increasingly shitty company – and it is our right to say so.
    
    if Borders opted not to sell that book, that would be their prerogative..
    Hmmmm….. are you sure you know the meaning of the word ‘prerogative’? The word ‘choice’ would have been a better alternative in this case unless, of course, you are trying to make yourself seem smarter than you are.
boingaddict

*gets popcorn….gives out pitchforks and sticks*……
Yamara

Our Information Purification Directives have created a garden of pure ideology where each worker may bloom secure from the pests of contradictory and confusing truths.
zio_donnie

i find it also interesting that the youtube hitler video mocking the ipad is not accessible by my ipod touch or various friends’ iphones. can anyone confirm this?
royaltrux

Flash isn’t as closed as you think and I don’t want to imagine what growing up on the Web would have been like without it. Think of all the extra animated gifs and Java videos, games. Yuck.

Steve Jobs is starting to make Steve Ballmer seem like a reasonable, decent human being.
- Anonymous
  
  You are confusing “reasonable, decent” with incompetent. MS had a huge lead with their tablet OS and their phone OS, but they never convinced people to really want them.
  
  I really don’t like the terms on the app store, and can’t see myself buying an ipad unless it becomes a lot more compelling, but that doesn’t mean that the people who are buying are stupid or delusional or unthinking slaves to fashion. I have an imac because I like Unix, but not enough to get Linux working well on a laptop (c. 1998; maybe it’s easier now). And when I switched, Windows still had the stupid little cartoon search dog while Mac had Spotlight.
Thac0

Killing Flash is fine and i animate in flash for a living, I know how crappy it can be. If thats the reason they are blocked… fine.

If they are blocked for content then its just another case of apple controlling your access to information and screw them.
boingaddict

i i’m watching it on my iphone right now hehehe
Grey Devil

I guess free speech means nothing when you’ve got a monopoly on a tech platform. This isn’t really surprising to me, it just underscores why i’ve never bought an Apple product.