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Apple Bans RSS Reader Due To Bad Word In Feed Link

btempleton writes "It all started when I prepared yet another Downfall subtitle parody. In this one, Hitler is the studio head, upset at all the Downfall parodies, and he wants to do DMCA takedowns on them all. (If you're a DMCA/DRM fighting Slashdotter, you'll like it.) The EFF, which I chair, blogged it on Deeplinks, and hilarity ensued. That weekend, Exact Magic, an iPhone developer, had submitted a special RSS reader app to display EFF news on the iPhone. Apple's iPhone app store evaluators looked at the RSS reader, read the feed it pointed to, and then played the linked-to video. They saw the F-word flash in the subtitles of the video, and then rejected the RSS-reading tool from the App Store. We're up to several levels of meta here — Apple has banned an app over a parody about banning, and is now parodying itself. Bonus: TFA also has the story of just how hard it is to be fully legal in obtaining the famous clip for parody."

16 of 254 comments (clear)

  1. Apple == Nazis by delirium+of+disorder · · Score: 2, Funny

    Fuck apple!

    --
    ------ Take away the right to say fuck and you take away the right to say fuck the government.
    1. Re:Apple == Nazis by ianare · · Score: 3, Funny

      I tried on red delicious, but all I accomplished was hurting my penis. Should I try drilling a hole in it first ?

    2. Re:Apple == Nazis by fractoid · · Score: 5, Funny

      Cook the apple first, preferably in a delicious pastry crust. Isn't that the American way? :P

      --
      Rampant carbon sequestration destroyed the Dinosaurs' tropical paradise. I'm here to help repair the damage.
  2. Re:Subtle by compro01 · · Score: 2, Funny

    No, it's subtitle advertising.

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    upon the advice of my lawyer, i have no sig at this time
  3. Time to wrap it up iPhoneailures by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Funny

    Just get a Blackberry.

  4. Re:Bad words? by Fred_A · · Score: 4, Funny

    In other words, if there was no taboo against saying 'fuck', there would be no reason for Hitler to be saying 'fuck' in the first place. (Except maybe to his dear wife.)

    Would a pissed-off Hitler saying
    "My dear Himmler, I am thoroughly bothered by those irksome developments on the eastern front"
    sound better to you than
    "Fuck those damn Russians" ?

    --

    May contain traces of nut.
    Made from the freshest electrons.
  5. I have an idea to avoid this kind of fiasco by Planar · · Score: 4, Funny

    Publish all your contents under a license that says "you are not allowed to read/view/listen to this for purposes of reviewing or censorship", then sue their ass off when they do censor it. That would put the DMCA to good use, for once.

  6. Re:This is why by Snarf+You · · Score: 2, Funny

    poor resluts

    There's a joke in here somewhere... but I'm far too sober to find it.

  7. In other news, Apple i-sunglasses by Kupfernigk · · Score: 4, Funny

    Apple introduces special i-sunglasses that go completely opaque when near a beach, in case there are any topless women around (not sold in Europe).

    --
    From scarped cliff or quarried stone she cries "A thousand types are gone, I care for nothing, no not one."
  8. Fucking Morons by Master+of+Transhuman · · Score: 2, Funny

    And every one of those fucking idiots uses the word fuck on a fucking hourly basis and the hypocritical fucks can't stand to see the word fuck in a fucking RSS feed?

    FUCK 'EM IF THEY CAN'T TAKE A FUCKING JOKE!

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    Richard Steven Hack - This sig is TOO GODDAMN SHORT TO DO ANYTHING USEFUL WITH! MORONS!
  9. Re:Enough already, Apple by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Or an Apple employee. WOOOSH!

  10. Re:Enough already, Apple by smitty97 · · Score: 4, Funny

    You are using a privately owned store...

    not if you're shopping for a car in the US these days...

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    mod me funny
  11. Re:Enough already, Apple by Resident+Emil · · Score: 5, Funny

    He's apparently thinking different.

  12. Re:Enough already, Apple by geminidomino · · Score: 3, Funny

    The cheapest iPod Touch is $229, or $179 refurbished.

    Besides, it's up to the parent to decide what to buy their child, what they should be allowed to do, and what kind of environment they should be brought up in.

    You mean it's NOT up to apple?

    Shock of shocks...

  13. Re:Speaking as an Apple fanboi ... by sootman · · Score: 2, Funny
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    Dear Slashdot: next time you want to mess with the site, add a rich-text editor for comments.
  14. Apple helping retards by Snaller · · Score: 2, Funny

    Come now, lets all be fair, it is commendable that Apple are hiring mentally diseased retarded people! They need jobs too!

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    If Google really cared they would fix Android Chrome to reflow text, instead of discriminating