Apple Lifts Ban On the Word "Jailbreak" 113
Gunkerty Jeb writes "After banning the word 'jailbreak' from its app store and music library, Apple [Friday] reversed course and again permits the term — slang for hacking into a device to download unauthorized content — to appear on iTunes and its App Store. On Thursday bloggers noticed Apple had censored the word, using the Thin Lizzy album 'Jailbreak' as an example. For awhile, the title was listed as 'J******k' in Apple's music library, at least its U.S. version. In other instances, digital content continued to bear the full name Jailbreak."
Re:Apple... (Score:4, Interesting)
I'm not criticising American ideals or the American people, but this kind of behaviour is made possible by unregulated free-market capitalism. America is not at that extreme, but it is surely closer to it than any other country.
Since Stalinist Russia was all about centralisation, the very fact that Apple is a private company means it has little in common with it.
Pre-empting moderators:
Off-topic: I was responding to this post, which is itself a response to the story.
Troll/Flamebait: I don't think anyone here should be defending Apple in this case. This is a very real and transparent attempt to limit the freedoms of their users which conflict with their own financial interests.
What. (Score:4, Interesting)
>slang for hacking into a device to download unauthorized content
What.
Re:Apple... (Score:3, Interesting)
"I'm not criticising American ideals or the American people, but this kind of behaviour is made possible by unregulated free-market capitalism."
No my friend its not. I seriously doubt *anyone* wishes to be told what they can or can't say or do. And considering a true free market is regulated by peoples wishes, and their wishes are to not be censored, you'd be *very* hard pushed to suggest this is a result of a free market.
What we have now is nothing but heavily regulated, deeply dysfunctional *corporatism*.
Re:Apple... (Score:3, Interesting)
You're probably getting modded offtopic because you did not clearly link Apple to this bit:
"I'm not criticising American ideals or the American people, but this kind of behaviour is made possible by unregulated free-market capitalism. America is not at that extreme, but it is surely closer to it than any other country. Since Stalinist Russia was all about centralisation, the very fact that Apple is a private company means it has little in common with it."
So allow me: Apple is a perfect example of what unregulated free markets result in. All those liberarians who want to vote with your feet... look at how many people are quite happy to take censorship and control far out-stepping the federal government, because of a shiny product. Apple has the very real potential of eventually reaching the critical mass of Microsoft, where you are FORCED to do business with them, or be unable to use digital devices. If that happens, then sorry, I'd rather the government than Apple. Corporations do not value your freedom, and for the most part, neither do their consumers; that's why we have regulations and anti-monopoly laws.
The problem is that, in the US (as well as many other countries), the government is owned by the corporations.
Until the election process is separated from the influence of large campaign donors, I don't see any possibility of change.
--
dk
Re:Hanlon's Razor (Score:4, Interesting)
Sorry, i didn't understand your example. Can you use a car analogy? Thanks.
Let's say you did something the mechanic didn't like, say you had a different mechanic work on your car. The next time he changes your oil, he adds a special oil plug that only he has the tool to remove. Sometime later, you go to change your own oil and you can't, even though you rightfully should be able to so -- That prick is artificially forcing you to come back to him. Now, It COULD have been a mistake, he could have just grabbed the wrong oil plug, but it's highly unlikely attributed to just stupidity -- They had a motive for malice, and had to go out of his way to use a special wrench to install the incorrect plug.
People "jailbreak" their phones, Indeed, we got a DMCA exemption to do so, and it's legal. Apple doesn't like that so they censor the term making it harder to jail break, and the effect is that more people keep using their service instead of going to another app store. Now, it COULD have been a mistake: Apple could have accidentally entered a term in its censor list, but it's highly unlikely attributed to a stupid accident -- They had a motive for malice, the term censored just happens to be the thing that lets you use someone else's service, and they had to go out of their way to make sure censored terms apply to everything, not just apps in their app store which they already screened for offensive terms...
Re:Apple... (Score:2, Interesting)
Corporations wouldn't even exist if it weren't for governments passing laws to create them. A truly unregulated market consists only of individuals with full responsibility for their actions.