WikiLeaks App Removed From Apple Store 338
Stoobalou writes "An 'unofficial' WikiLeaks App which contained published documents from the Cablegate leaks has been withdrawn from the Apple App Store.The $1.99 App created by developer Igor Barinov has been removed from sale without explanation despite the fact that all of the information contained in it is publicly available."
Red the TOS - Number 21 (Score:5, Informative)
http://images.worldofapple.com/appstoreguidelines_9910.pdf
Donations can only be collected with free apps. That's where this specific app went wrong. Simple. Funny that Apple needed 4 days to find out.
Re:Censorship is alive and well (Score:5, Informative)
Unfortunately the First Amendment doesn't apply.
Actually it's fortunate it doesn't apply, because if you think about it, what you're asking for would mean that government would literally have the mandate to *force* private individuals to carry a message they may not want to. Having a right to freedom of speech doesn't mean that other private individuals should be required by law to carry and spread anyone else's message (even at their own cost). Apple consists of private individuals, if governments could force Apple to carry anyone's speech, they could force you and me to carry speech too. If a kid scrawled graffiti on your wall, hey, that's "speech", government should force you to leave it up. Thankfully that's not how things work.
That said, dammit Apple, you keep disappointing me on a regular basis with the closedness and the draconian control over what is and isn't allowed in your 'app store'.
Fortunately there is competition, and competing app stores and platforms are popping up like mushrooms. So I'm not too worried, app stores will be forced to remain quite open thanks to competition. Apple's attitude is already reflecting in their market growth vs the growth of others like Android, and they'll have to ease up a little or they'll keep losing share.
Comment removed (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Erased from iPhones too? (Score:5, Informative)
no, that's the nice thing about iTunes. the file is on your computer as a .app file and you can use it on your iphone as long as you want.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:5, Informative)
What legal limbo? It is operating fully within the law here in the EU. Just because a couple of politicians on the other side of the pond have been braying their heads off doesn't create a legal limbo.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:5, Informative)
Not random at all... the app violates the donation prohibition [thedroidguy.com] in their store. Apps that solicit donations must be free, and this app promises a donation of $1 for each $1.99 purchase.
Now, that prohibition might be a different reason to hate Apple, but they aren't necessarily going after Wikileaks.
Re:Red the TOS - Number 21 (Score:4, Informative)
Totally valid, like their rules about fart apps, set by the sole vendor of fart apps for iShinies:
http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/08/apple-fart-apps/2/ [wired.com]
Nothing about the way they run their app store is valid, just a bunch of bullshit and shady dealings with an official company policy backing it up.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:5, Informative)
Which is funny, because Julian Assange and Wikileaks didn't steal anything... the documents were given to them by a third party, widely believed to be Bradley Manning. Wikileaks is guilty only of receiving the data and publishing the parts they feel are morally justifiable to make public, not stealing, and not espionage, and certainly not treason (they aren't even eligible to commit that one).
Deep Throat provided stolen, classified documents... nobody calls for the heads of Woodward and Bernstein.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:2, Informative)
It really isn't. Don't buy an iPhone/iPad and you're free.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:5, Informative)
and if you do end up getting one, and deciding to leave, you are fairly well locked in.
Re:Go Apple! (Score:5, Informative)
Maybe the laws are different over there, but the last I check here, knowingly accepting stolen property is still a crime.
Why do people keep bringing this one up? The data in the stolen cables is not property because the US government can not have copyright to anything, and data is not property if it is not under copyright. Transferring classified materials is usually only a crime if you had clearance to receive the materials in the first place. The exceptions to that rule probably don't apply to Assange.
Do I need to say this on every Wikileaks thread?
The bigger picture is that this is just another step on the road towards fascism, where all the corporations line up to show that they are on the side of the government. In return the corporations hope to get greater influence over government regulations, government policy and the flow of government dollars.