German Publishers Want Censorship Talks With Apple

An anonymous reader writes "The association of German magazine publishers has sent a letter to Steve Jobs (Google translation; German original here) demanding talks about censorship by Apple. The move draws attention to growing concerns about freedom of the press when a single unelected commercial entity has worldwide control over what gets published for the iPhone and, especially, the iPad." While the magazine publishers may rightly be concerned about private control of a platform that many of them are counting on for their long-term salvation, the German state is at the very least ambivalent about the subject of censorship. This is the country that has banned Wikileaks, sought a ban on violent games, and voted to censor child porn (only to have the president kill the ban as unconstituitonal).

Comments

Re:It's Called A Browser

[Anonymous Coward]

Just, for the love of god, don't build it in Flash! ;-)

I think that's implied when he says "Build a *better* website".

Re:The internet

[frdmfghtr]

I'd like to posit that Apple doesn't have complete control over what content is available for the iPhone/iPad, because it has a web browser.

And even if Apple did have complete control of what is available on the iPhone/iPad, who cares? Does freedom of speech require me to let you publish whatever you want on my webpage, or my billboard, or on my TV/radio show? Is the iPad your one and only source of media?

To all these questions, there is but one answer: No. You have other options. There is the web, as you pointed out. There are books. There is broadcast TV or radio. Build and market your own e-reader. You can say what you want, publish what you want, but that doesn't obligate anybody particular entity to distribute it.