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."

Re:This is why

[Kaitnieks]

I think they're both control-freaks. The difference is that stuff released by Microsoft is pretty open at first. Later they realize - oops, we should have implemented some kind of control mechanism. They try to add DRMs, genuine validations and loads of other shit with poor resluts. It's different with Apple because the first thing they write is the control, be it hardware or software, and only then they build a product around it.

Re:Speaking as an Apple fanboi ...

[beelsebob]

4. They have an automated script that launches the app, greps the text on screen for naughty words, checks it doesn't crash/access things it shouldn't/leak memory etc. and rejects apps before a human even looks at them.

I wonder if this is the right answer?

Diary of an App Store Reviewer

[DynamiteNeon]

I think this is appropriate.

http://daringfireball.net/2009/05/diary_of_an_app_store_reviewer [daringfireball.net]

Re:Enough already, Apple

[mdwh2]

And as for 'special' phones where internet access is restricted or prohibitively expensive, try just about every non-'smartphone' on the market.

In the US maybe. Elsewhere such as here in the UK, bog standard phones have had unrestricted Internet access for years. And at the same choice of rates as "smart" phones. To be honest, the "smart" distinction doesn't really apply anymore (except perhaps for Iphone shills, who want to hand pick an arbitrary market to greatly inflate Apple's market share).