Apple Refusing Any BitTorrent Related Apps?

jamie pointed out what appears to be an unfortunate policy for Apple's app store that is refusing anything to do with BitTorrent. The example is a remote control app that allows a user to interface with their Transmission BitTorrent client. This certainly isn't the first complaint over app store policy. Issues from the return policy to the "objectionable content" of Nine Inch Nails have some developers concerned over what Apple is doing to the market. Of course, many are quick to remind that it is Apple's store and they are free to do whatever they want with it.

Web UI

[moniker127]

Isn't this what web UIs are for?


I think ittl be a few years before people realize that bittorrent is perfectly legal, and a great distribution method.

Re:First Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Is it really stealing if the media conglomerates refuse to sell it in other countries?

And second, stealing means depriving someone of something. We're not in their archives stealing the original reels or something.

Re:Web UI

[Knara]

My thoughts exactly. Couldn't one just make a Safari bookmark?

Re:What the heck do they expect?

[Anonymous Coward]

No, actually, you're the one being stupid.

This is about controlling the bittorrent client on your home machine, not using bittorrent locally on the phone. RTFS.

Re:What the heck do they expect?

[Stuart Gibson]

It was an app to remotely control your desktop client. In other words the main utility was in starting your download again once you're on the bus and realise you forgot to unpause it.

Re:Apple is free to do whatever it wants...

[fuzzyfuzzyfungus]

The difference isn't between companies interested in their bottom line and companies not so interested(all of which are dead); but between companies whose bottom line is bolstered by controlling you and companies whose bottom line is bolstered by serving you.

Re:Apple.....

[DrLang21]

Apple has far more at stake than their user base now. With the iPod and the iTunes store, they have entered a political and business hotbed where everyone's ass is so tight they could turn coal into diamonds in a week. Apple is likely seeing that they need to be very careful if they want the big winners to keep cooperating in a pliable manner. The RIAA won't stop working with Apple if they allow BitTorrent apps on the iPhone, but you can bet that they will give Apple a much harder time of it, costing Apple lots of money just to deal with it.

Re:First Post

[Anonymous Coward]

Yes it is, if you dont buy it from the sellers how they want to sell. But this has been debated forever already, and you must be a retard not to understand it.

And you must be a retard not to understand that it's not "theft" or "stealing", it's copyright infringement and it has nothing to do with theft. And if they won't sell it to me in the first place, that means they don't want my money. So I am not depriving them of anything if I download it. If they wanted my money they should have offered to sell it to me, or at the very least not _refused_ to sell it to me because of where I happen to live.

Re:So, back to Windows? MS PROHIBITED LIST

[Nom du Keyboard]

At least Microsoft (so frequent target on this site) does not tell me what to run.

Actually they do. They just came out with their own 12 Prohibited Application Types [itworld.com] for Microsoft's Windows MarketPlace for Mobile store. You just haven't been paying attention.

Re:Apple's store

[SJ2000]

Summary:

The example is a remote control app that allows a user to interface with their Transmission BitTorrent client.