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Apple Blocks Cartoonist From App Store

ink writes "Here is another troubling anecdote on the iWeb front: 'This week cartoonist Mark Fiore made Internet and journalism history as the first online-only journalist to win a Pulitzer Prize. Fiore took home the editorial cartooning prize for animations he created for SFGate, the website for the San Francisco Chronicle... But there's just one problem. In December, Apple rejected his iPhone app, NewsToons, because, as Apple put it, his satire "ridicules public figures," a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which bars any apps whose content in "Apple's reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory."' Whether or not you agree with Fiore's political sentiments, I believe we can all agree that the censorship of his work should be denigrated."

10 of 664 comments (clear)

  1. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by HarrySquatter · · Score: 0, Troll

    "If they block an app in this circumstance, then apple can block apps for any circumstance".

    Duh? Is this really news to anyone?

  2. Apple belongs in... by batrick · · Score: 0, Troll

    fucking China. This is ridiculous.

  3. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by HarrySquatter · · Score: 0, Troll

    This is the kind of thing, as xbeefsupreme points out, that will rise to the level that it garners attention beyond the realm of geekdom.

    I'd bet 1000 bucks against anyone that it won't. Especially since all the outrage is from people who aren't even iPhone users anyway.

  4. Re:Had similar experience by bennomatic · · Score: 0, Troll

    Maybe he hadn't been convicted yet. That's probably what they're worried about. Since they're curating the content of their app store, they could be held liable for libel in published apps.

    --
    The CB App. What's your 20?
  5. Your belief is incorrect. by mea37 · · Score: 1, Troll

    "Whether or not you agree with Fiore's political sentiments, I believe we can all agree that the censorship of his work should be denigrated"

    Well, don't feel bad; lots of people believe things that are untrue.

    I have no problem with Apple deciding what their product does. What a lot of people can't seem to get their brains around is: the iPod (and iPhone, and now iPad) is not a general-purpose computer.

    Also, I do not regard this as censorship and wish people would quit abusing that term to the point that it has no meaning.

  6. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by HarrySquatter · · Score: 0, Troll

    Yeah exactly. Why actually address arguments when you can make a faulty argumentum ad dictionary?

  7. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by HarrySquatter · · Score: 0, Troll

    There isn't anyone upset with the app store inconsistency and stupidity that owns an iPhone? Really?

    Didn't say so. I'm sure there are but they seem to be a small minority.

    And I'm not sure what you are betting on.

    I'm betting that probably 99% of iPhone users will never hear about this and even they did they would give a resigned yawn and not care.

  8. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by BasilBrush · · Score: 0, Troll

    It really does matter: saying that apple can reject any app they want may not mean much to the general public, but a specific example like this really puts it into perspective and gets potential iphone buyers/developers thinking "If they block an app in this circumstance, then apple can block apps for any circumstance".

    No store or a publisher will sell every item that someone requests them to sell. The very idea that they should is ludicrous. Where's the venom because Nintendo, Sony and Microsoft won't publish every console game that someone proposes to them?

    Some people's Apple hatred is leading them to not think very clearly.

  9. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by anyGould · · Score: 0, Troll

    So, when you chase other men away from your wife and daughter, you're perpetuating censorship (denying access to content arbitrarily)?

  10. Re:News Flash: Apple limits app store! by sbeckstead · · Score: 0, Troll

    Thank you, please refrain from further comment and go away! Oh and it's their device, not there device, there castle!