Slashdot Mirror
Apple Sued For Man's Porn Addiction
coolnumbr12 writes "Chris Sevier, a 36-year-old man from Tennessee, got so addicted to porn videos that his wife took his children and left him. Now he has sued Apple saying the company failed to install any filter in its devices to prevent his addiction. In a 50-page complaint, Sevier calls Apple a 'silent poisoner' responsible for the proliferation of 'arousal addiction, sex trafficking, prostitution, and countless numbers of destroyed lives.' Sevier is seeking damages from Apple, but said he we will drop the lawsuit if Apple agrees to sell devices with a 'safe mode.'"
Normally, I'm not this paranoid, but this reads like a false flag operation by some religious group looking to get filters installed by default. At the very least, I wouldn't be surprised to find out that they're helping fund this insane lawsuit.
Cynical Idealist
pr0n looks for YOU!
Remove the battery. Your device is now configured in safe mode. Unless you are disturbed by a black screen the device is now configured not to present offensive material.
Any material is possible to be a problem to someone. As "safe mode" cannot be sufficiently defined yet leave the device with any function at all "safe mode" is impossible".
What was he supposed to do? It's not his fault Apple makes such sexy hardware.
There's no -1 for "I don't get it."
If this continues, every item sold within the US is going to have a 89-page disclaimer. It is bad enough that insulated cups have warnings about the contents being hot, now electronic devices need to have a disclaimer about the internet having pornography? This guy is literally, blaming the messenger (company that makes the device), for this his own actions and lack of self-control. Plenty of people can use the internet and even peruse sexual content without having their lives destroyed.
Maybe he should have tried getting a life and setting his priorities, instead of watching the Farrah Abraham video.
sudo make me a sandwich
For years and years of not getting my work done.
I'm a good cook. I'm a fantastic eater. - Steven Brust
the internet is for porn
Donte Alistair Anderson Roberts - hi son!
Karma: Chameleon
For several years, pornography ruled my life. I lost my family over it. I lost my self respect over it. It was causing such deep depression that I nearly lost my life over it. Being in IT, I could get around any filters. If I wanted porn online, I found porn online. Simple as that. I finally broke my addiction to it and got my life back together. So, I feel the pain of the person who TFA speaks of.
That all being said...
This. Is. Stupid. Why not just sue The Internetz and your ISP and your carrier and every person who's ever produced pornography, and Samsung for making iPhone screens and... you get the point.
Stopping the addiction does not rely on Apple blocking porn on your iPhone. It involves taking responsibility, getting help, and STOPPING.
While I think he's completely crazy to blame his addiction on Apple, the 'Safe-Mode' is not an altogether bad idea. Wouldn't it be nice to know your kids new MacBook had sex simply turned off?
It would take them days, perhaps even weeks to find a way to circumnavigate the measure. Just think how much our kids could learn about BSD! The really aspirational ones might even learn to cover their tracks with a terminal and Vim!
Brought to you by Carl's Junior.
"We at Apple make the most spank-o-licious computer on the market"
Blaming a device maker for your actions with it shows a complete lack of self-responsibility and requires a child-like understanding of one's own self-control. I can see this guy testifying before Congress or whomever in favor of legal requirements for some sort of restricted mode, because he can't control himself, so everyone else should have to bear a burden of increased cost. A potential legal requirement would be easily met by Apple, but FOSS could be further limited by such laws, as not meeting requirements for schools, etc.
This is different from accessibility requirements, since the folks who need those cannot simply choose to see/hear. All this guy had to do was put the infernal device down.
What's with the redundancy in the headline?
Sheesh, evil *and* a jerk. -- Jade
It's been built-in for years. The problem is that a person with a problem isn't going to use them to restrict himself.
WTF is going on with people these days? It seems over the last decade or so, our actual civil liberties - you know, the right to free expression, bearing arms, freedom from search/seizure without warrant - seem to be slowly fading out, while a brand new set of perceived rights is taking their place. Seriously, what the fuck is up with that?
FWIW, there is no such thing as:
the Right to Not be Offended
the Right to Determine What Rights Other People Have
the Right to Feel Safe
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
Now sullied by slashdot.
Sevier claims that his addiction started when he “accidentally” replaced the “a-c-e” in Facebook with a “u-c-k.” Sevier said this F***book site “appealed to his biological sensibilities as a male,” and he started to prefer the images on the screen to his own wife.
Man, that happens to me all the time. One time, I reached for the skim milk and accidentally drank a 40oz bottle of vodka.
Another time, I was making a peanut butter sandwich and accidentally injected heroin into an artery.
Someone should pay!
Life needs more saving throws.
According to this comment in the ArsTechnica discussion of their report on this story, the plantiff is actually a suspended lawyer who was formerly deployed and is now dealing with mental illness.
... that's the only explanation that makes any sense.
Maybe the commenter is taking the piss, but really
If a previous user had visited that URL, and "facebook" was never visited on that phone, I would expect the auto-fill to do that.
I've accidentally gone to site "A" instead of site "B" in my web browser if my most recent visit was to site "A" and they both start with the same letter and I'm not paying attention.
In any case, it's not the web browser publisher's fault, it's mine for not watching what I'm doing.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
Let's add that the US media run the most shocking, bizarre, or outrage-causing stories they can find, regardless of the actual importance of the events. Since our population is over 300 million, you can manage to find a couple of those stories every day if you have thousands of reporters scouring the country. Then they harp on those stories for weeks. This gives the impression that everyone in the USA is some kind of freak.
What disturbs me is the number of people here who believe it -- who carry a gun because they actually believe they'll get attacked, or who think they'll get sued if someone spills hot coffee.
So perhaps stupid lawsuits like this occur (rarely) in other countries as well, but the media don't deem them newsworthy so you don't hear about them.
[Sir Garlon] is the marvellest knight that is now living, for he destroyeth many good knights, for he goeth invisible.
I wonder how far that strategy will work with a speeding ticket, lets just call it entrapment that they designed a car that knowning violates the law when a simple technical solution could be implemented to make the car never exceed the posted limit.
In all seriousness though, I'd pay $2k to $3k extra for a button in a car that you could push to make it cruise exactly at the posted limit, as well as never exceed the limit going down hills, and it logs sensor data that can be used in court. It won't happen however, these fine only violations are what law enforcement calls their bread and butter.
What a wanker.
I hadn't the slightest objection to his spending his time planning massacres for the bourgeoisie... (P.G. Wodehouse)
How could that possibly work? He's actively looking for pr0n, so he'd simply turn off any controls that inhibit that.
And if he couldn't, then he'd go out and get a laptop or something else to feed his addiction with. If he cancelled his ISP, soon he'd be out piggybacking on his neighbors feed, or hanging around the shadier internet cafes...
What, does he think that alcoholics are cured just because their local grocery store is out of beer or decided not to carry it anymore?
Land of the free = land of "you're responsible for your own damn actions"
"I love animals! Some are cute, others are tasty, what's not to like?" - Betsy Schroeder, Jeopardy contestant
What are the qualifications for it to be considered an "addiction?"
I'd assume taking precedence over your job/relationship/family? While I don't doubt many I know view such material on a regular basis, they're not likely sneaking out for a dirty mag instead of a smoke-break, or missing junior's baseball game.
Then the computer goes crazy! and downloads hundreds of things you never explicitly asked for. Some are porn. Some are ads. Some are probably viruses. And some are more text to download more more more. 1 click = 100s of downloads.
Weirdo fundamentalist sect <> faith
When Jesus was ask what was the greatest commandment, he said "love". Love your neighbor and love God, all the law and the prophets hang on those two, Christ said. So anyone teaching hate toward anyone is teaching the opposite of Christianity.
Certainly that happens, just as the guy selling fake "bomb detectors" claimed science, fools and charlatans sometimes claim God. Their claim is just as bogus though, as Christ clearly directed us to love those who oppose as we love ourselves, even fact even MORE than we love ourselves, love them as he loved us.
Apple can't be to blame because if they were culpable, all that pr0n out there would be in glorious Quicktime instead of crappy Flash or WMV format. Not that I would know this.
First of all I said "The *Bible* teaches hate". I don't know why you chose to misinterpret what I said. The fact is that Christians could have simply omitted the old testament from their holy book. They chose to keep, and are therefore subject to criticisms of the old testament.
The "ancient Jewish scriptures" didn't simply acknowledge that hate existed. They are included in your Bible as the word of God, and command hate. If you don't think the old testament should be included in the Bible, maybe you should create your own sect of Christianity as many others have done.
Even if you did this, it wouldn't mean that Christianity was only love. It would only mean that your version of Christianity was only love. Everyone else's version would still be a mix of hate and love, until you converted them to your version.
Second of all, the new testament also has some pretty terrible stuff in it. On the whole it looks quite progressive compared to the old testament, but compared with modern sensibilities it is barbaric.
Thirdly it is all irrelevant anyway because it's not real. Religion evolves. The leaders will continue to have "divine revelations" of new scripture or new interpretations of scripture in order to continuously drag this antiquated mythology into the present, ever diluting and politically correcting it's message.
How much can you change Christianity and still have it count as Christianity? They've already gotten rid of genocide, slavery, mysogeny, through new interpretations. Maybe we can get rid of miracles and Jesus and God.
The new message can be this:
Sure Jesus was just a man. That's why his teachings were full of flaws that contradict our current knowledge and sense of morality. We modern Christians are able to fix these flaws in a way that we think Jesus (if he lived today) might approve. We still believe in the golden rule and being compassionate, but we've grown out of the idea of supernatural deities as childish and primitive.