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On iPhone, Searching For Kama Sutra = Porn
heychris writes "Eucalyptus, an ebook app for iPhone, has been rejected from the App Store for 'objectionable content.' What's so objectionable? The Kama Sutra, available from Project Gutenberg, which is available on other ebook readers as well. Not only that, but the screenshot shows that you would have to search for Kama Sutra to get it; it's not built in to Eucalyptus. The author is reasonable but frustrated, while Herr Gruber is more succinct." I wonder how good the now-cheap Nokia 810 is as an e-book reader.
Now excuse me, I'm going to read some find articles in the Playboy.
Knowledge is power. Knowledge shared is power lost.
is the answer
They should pull a Trent Reznor and re-submit the app. It sounds like approval is very subjective based on the reviewer. Chances are it might get approved the second time around.
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...with Eucalyptus and the shaking baby app. iPhone = iFun.
If you are so opposed to Apple's censorship, STOP BUYING AND HYPING THEIR PRODUCTS.
Until techy geeks stop hyping everything Apple does as the "next big thing" and start paying attention to the shady shit that Apple pulls every day, the situation will never get better.
I watched the animations on the site, and nowhere did I see the mention of the Kama Sutra. Then again if you can find the Kama Sutra in a search, how is this any different from Google or Safari?
Jumpstart the tartan drive.
I happen to own a nokia n810, and I believe that it's ebook reading ability, particularly pdf, is excellent. It is probably my primary use for the device.
I have an N810 and LOVE IT. I installed Evince which lets me rotate PDFs left or right so I have a full page visible on the 800x480 screen, and it's wonderful to read a book on. The fact that I have a full Gecko based browser and full xterminal everywhere is just icing on the cake.
jX [ Make everything as simple as possible, but no simpler. - Einstein ]
Its been very thoroughly established that Apple's censorship program is based more upon the reviewer you get than any standard set of guidelines. Someone got overzealous and rejected it, that doesn't mean that it is against Apple's policies. Just re-submit the thing and I'd lay even money on it that it will be approved the next time.
A lot of people have the mistaken impression that the Karma Sutra is a sex guide when in reality it is a guide to having and maintaining a strong relationship.
For example it talks about marriage, how to meet women, and other things that you might expect from any modern relationship guide. It has a few sections about sex, kissing, and such but isn't the "sexual positions" guide that people think it is (often mis-referenced as such).
It is no more porn than any modern relationship book (e.g. "Women are from venus men are from mars").
Original submitter here. It seems the root link to the the author's blog is gone, though it's in the firehose submission:
http://www.blog.montgomerie.net/whither-eucalyptus
He's posting his entire dealings with Apple, mostly of the form letter variety. Hope this app nonsense gets cleared up soon.
CC
This iPhone App advertising scheme isn't fooling me and I'm tired of these Slashdot stories feeding the cycle.
It is difficult to imagine how the text-only English translation of the Kama Sutra could be considered porn by anyone who has not spent the last 20 years in a Skinner box. Today, it is probably best understood as an interesting piece of history, since its contents are neither especially informative or titillating.
Of course, if some of the reviewers at Apple have spent the last 20 years in a Skinner box, that would explain a number of the bogus rejections.
Nah, it's because they're coming out with their own book of sexual positions and don't want the competition. Of course their book likely involves Apple fanbois having unspeakable things done to them by Steve Jobs.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
I don't need our new government to babysit me -- Apple's more than willing to do it for them.
"It's the height of ridiculousness to say for those 9 lines you get hundreds of millions."
From the summary: "I wonder how good the now-cheap Nokia 810 is as an e-book reader."
I have an N800, which is very close in specs. It's okay as an e-book reader, but nothing to write home about. I'm using FBReader.
As a general purpose internet laptop killer, it's awesome, though. Especially if you couple it with a bluetooth keyboard. I've written novels on it, VNCed, SSHed, played some games, diagnose networks, listened to podcasts, and even played Ur-Quan Masters on it.
I barely touch my laptop anymore unless I need something that genuinely calls for a larger screen, like a spreadsheet or balancing my checkbook. The fun stuff, I leave to the N800.
http://th.ingsmadeoutofotherthin.gs/eucalyptus/
Just watching the demo video of Eucalyptus's interface makes me want to purchase it. The search methods, content organization, page zooming, and page turning seem very well designed and polished to me. Integration with Project Gutenberg is a fantastic bonus.
Disclaimer: I have no relationship with either Eucalyptus or Project Gutenberg. I'm just a very impressed hopefully-soon-to-be user.
I browse Slashdot at +3, Funny
...your partner is on the phone during sex they might actually be looking up the next position instead of chatting with a friend.
Seriously, why should Apple even have the right to restrict what people do, see, read, or hear on the hardware that they purchased from them? Once money has changed hands their ownership to the metal has ended.
Time is what keeps everything from happening all at once.
The real question is not why Apple is treating the Kama Sutra like porn, but why can't we get official, paid in full porn through the main application and content conduit for the iPhone?
Come on Steve, there are adults out there using the iPhone. Give them what they want and be the pimp of your dreams.
I agree with the more "succinct" blog commenter that is linked in the summary; this is a truly execrable move on Apple's part. The point isn't just that the Kama Sutra can be found elsewhere or that it doesn't meet the definition of pornography. I'm sorry, but the Kama Sutra is one of the world's great religious texts, and is a great literary work in its own right. That Apple would put itself on the side of prohibiting access to it on some sort of moral grounds is completely outrageous. Apple should issue a public apology and fire the person who made this decision. Better yet, they should make the app store approval process more content-neutral, but we know that's not going to happen.
I'm guessing apple has a sweatshop somewhere in Asia stocked with marginal english speakers evaluating apps.
Well it's probably not a sweatshop in India, since they'd likely have recognized the Kama Sutra...
I'm OK with Apple doing idiotic stuff like this. History has shown that, in the long run, the "walled garden" approach does not have a lot of longevity. Apple should know this better than anyone, seeing as they've tried it repeatedly. In the end cheap and open always wins.
I'm willing to bet that once Android phones are really available, you're going to see the smartest developers moving over. Not because Android is technically superior-- it may not be-- but because no one wants to PAY for a SDK and pour loads of time into developing and refining applications, only to have it blocked by Apple for some arbitrary or unknown reason. Couple that with Apple's long history of incorporating good ideas into their own platform at the expense of developers, and I think their App Store will eventually marginalize itself.
Right now, the iPhone is really the only slick thing out there (I speak as a Blackberry user and administrator, which is a platform that works but not well), but how long do you think this will be the case?
Apple's nuts on this. I went to Apple's Bug Reporter to complain about this. You may have to be a registered developer to do this. If so and you are one, please burn some Apple karma and let them know that their approval process is nuts.
Apple hasnt made anything i would would give a damn about.
And ever since my experiences with Nokias Softwaremarket i havent even made any mobile apps.
Might as well burn some karma for truth.
I don't know why anyone even touches an iPhone. I will not tolerate my Apps being limited.
I wish I had mod points for you.
Analysing it rationally though, people who know about Apple's evil bits will touch the iPhone for two reasons:
(i) Physically, it's a very nice gadget. Not perfect, but good enough to get attached to. It's slightly ahead of Android G1 on sheer sex --- it's a bit better physically (unless you want a physical keyboard), but it's neck and neck on the UI. Multitouch is uber-sexy^99, but the Android phone integration is actually a lot more useful. iPhone wins on a few points of sexiness.
(ii) The RDF. Although we joke about it, the RDF is real: it permeates our entire techie culture, even that of the Apple detractors. Our perfectly sane friends who buy an iPhone start drooling incoherently, and despite being bright enough to know and accept that their judgement has gone AWOL (as they freely admit), nevertheless will chant Apple mantras every couple of hours. And they know what's happening and laugh at themselves, but they still continue doing it. The RDF is *extremely* powerful, way way way way beyond normal marketting. Some of my friends are ludicrously bright, so this is no joke --- they see it happening to themselves with eyes wide open, and yet they still let it proceed, and joke about it. (One says she's letting it happen as an experiment, and I believe her ... her PhD says something.)
So there are at least two undeniable reasons to touch the iPhone, even if you know that it's not all roses ahead and that Apple is teh suk. Whether or not the Apps Store problem will affect this balance I don't know. I suspect not --- the strength of the RDF is just completely beyond anything that's come before.
It's only showing it's colors.
Apple's always been *evil*. They've just become very good at creating the 'must-have' style products that are overpriced, locking you into Apple ... at every chance. Easily shutting down anything remotely resembling 'freedom' -- which is what made the PC great in the first place. People have complained about MS's adoption of more and more DRM, but Apple's always had a de facto locking -- by having exclusive locks on compatible hardware. MS went with the approach of allowing unrestricted interoperability (which, when they've tried to limit, they've gotten slapped down due to their monopoly position, but Apple is similarly a monopoly in their market. But MS on PC's and Apples on Apples, are both monopolies. Apple gets away with it because they are smaller -- but their policies and user-abuse are far harsher and more totalitarian than MS. Much of that stems from Apple's core culture, but some of it also stems from MS being forced to be more open because they are a standard -- which they became because of their openness.
It disgusts me the way Apple fanboys fawn all everything Apple, which fancying themselves superior to PC-users. Bu it's nothing more than it ever was -- financial and "in-crowd" elitism.
You see it in Apple's commercials...the I'm a Mac, vs. PC. The PC guy looks like the average harried Joe -- while the Apple guy is just portrayed as 'cool'...with all his little 16-17 y/o rail-thin model pod-girls dancing around him in silhouette, like an oh-so-more-sophisticated 'Deadhead' scene of rainbow colors, but with the original 'cool' of Beatles style and music 60's-70 -- the epitome of cool in the baby-boom generation, with it's message perpetuating the message of perpetual cool youth with their stylish Apple products. The iPhone, by it's price should be focused on adults and business types, but it's obviously focused on sales to teens and 20'-something as the latest trend of electronic fashion -- just like the ipods were yesterday's (and ongoing) fashion statement.
But people should be concerned about how much market lock-in Apple has -- they own the main means of distribution for their gadgets -- and get to decide how their devices are used -- and they have shown that they have no qualms about shutting down anyone who tries to use their product in an unapproved manner -- or even performing the crudest of Christian censorship campaigns against 'objectionable' classics that have been previously censored or caused controversy. What will be next on their banned list, the unexpurgated poems of Walt Whitman, or the 'Song of Songs': an erotic piece that has been subject to demands of censorship over the centuries as it describes intense expressions of physical love, the voluptuous beauty of lovers longing for one another and in a uniquely feminine perspective, it's seductive and intimate language conveys and immediate, sensuous and intoxicating desire. Certainly worthy of censorship -- or how about the recent decision in Bloomington, Ind where the city is refusing to run a paid-bus, public-service ad, "You can be good without God", as being too controversial (that's their definition of objectionable).
That Apple is using it's censorship powers on type of apps and content is very disturbing given it's unique, monopoly lock in the markets it sells too -- yet the fan boys swoon on, like Apple can do no wrong. They were they original PC-company that moved to sue all their competitors out of business. The original company that "sued over their "Intellectual Property" -- they've been guilty of copyright, patent, trademark and DRM abuse since their creation and have no qualms using lawsuits and their market-lock on their products, to control what you can with "your" product (it's really their product -- they can brick-it anytime they don't like a change you've implemented). If you are lucky, they'll replace it
If you use any type of analytics software in your iPhone application you can see exactly when and where Apple is testing your app from. Mine is tested from Sunnyvale California on an iPod touch and iPhone.
It's because his app doesn't respect parental control settings.
Still kinda stupid.
You can get apps from a third party only if you jailbreak it.