As some of you may know, I created an iPhone application that listed over a hundred funny “bushisms” or quotes of George W. Bush. Unfortunately, due to Apple NDA, I can’t show you the exact e-mail. All I can say is that Apple doesn’t exactly allow people making fun of bush. The thing is, I don’t think my application is deliberately making fun of him. What is so wrong with listing true quotes from a person?If it were quotes from great movies, would it make a difference?
Update: I just want to make it clear that I fully understand the reason why my app got rejected and I am not arguing with the rules. Next time I make an iPhone app, I will make sure it complies with the rules.
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September 13th, 2008 at 12:08 pm
Actually, what you’ve written above does not highlight a lack of free speech, but instead illustrates just how much freedom is actually available.
You were not taken out and shot for your “subversive” request, but rather you were given the right to express your desire and were even given a respectful response, albeit, not the one you wanted. You were given the opportunity to make your request (freedom of speech) and Apple was given the right to refuse your request (freedom of speech). The fact is, your software violated their clearly stated rules. Doesn’t Apple have the right to a set of standards?
If you don’t like what’s happened you can start your own business, create your own cool gadgets and make your own rules for software developers. You have the freedom to do all those things. Perhaps you need to work on your understanding of freedom of speech!
Gabe Jacobs reply on September 13th, 2008 1:51 pm:
Wow, when I wrote this post I did not think someone would go crazy over simply stating that Apple didn’t allow freedom of speech. You totally overcomplicated this statement made it way more dramatic than it was ever meant to be.
I was not trying to argue by saying that this app should be allowed into the app store. I was not saying I think Apple is a bad company for rejecting my app. All I said was that “I guess there is no such thing as freedom of speech in the App Store.” Meaning, obviously you cannot say what ever you want and the next time I make an iPhone app, I will make sure I follow the rules.
September 13th, 2008 at 2:26 pm
Maybe you should have made that point more clear in your post.
Gabe Jacobs reply on September 13th, 2008 2:29 pm:
I have updated the post
September 22nd, 2008 at 10:11 am
Actually, Gabe, Apple’s terms do not forbid your application in clear terms.
“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”
This is a case of Apple applying it’s “reasonable judgment” which they have reserved the right to do, but there’s nothing obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory about quoting a politicial figure’s own speech. He said them after all! Defamatory is defined as saying untrue things to harm a person’s reputation. In this country, satire and parody fall outside that realm. Quoting a person’s own speech isn’t satire or parody, but since they said it, it’s hardly “untrue”.
Apple’s trying to keep the App Store clean of all controversy. I hope they reconsider their policy, or at least make their policies more clear to developers from the get-go. Their line “Defaming, demeaning, or attacking particular political representatives is considered inappropriate” was in their email that rejected your app, but not in the original agreement. I don’t even believe that you did that. (I haven’t seen your app of course.)
Therefore it is not a clear policy, and appears to be applied after-the-fact instead of being clearly laid out.
Gabe Jacobs reply on September 22nd, 2008 11:10 am:
I am going to e-mail your comment to apple, but I doubt it will change anything. I have a feeling that they are not to flexible with their decisions. Thanks for the great comment though.
alec reply on September 22nd, 2008 12:49 pm:
I also had an app rejected; ours also featured George W. Bush but like yours didn’t do anything offensive. I had read the developer agreement carefully before starting work on it. I regret that Apple’s policy wasn’t more clear from the beginning; it was deliberately vague on their part.
http://www.juggleware.com/iphone/freedomtime/
September 23rd, 2008 at 11:34 am
Update — I wrote Steve Jobs and got a pithy reply back. He said that (despite his own personal political leanings) the app would offend half his user base so “what’s the point?” I’m not sure half of Americans still like George Bush, but I see what he’s going for. Personally, I think that a lot of the really crappy apps on the App Store are more offensive to me than something political; and the idea that Apple is playing the role of content censor is also offensive to my hopes of how the App Store should be. Here’s a blog entry that really makes the best points of all, better than I could: http://wilshipley.com/blog/2008/09/iphone-app-store-let-market-decide.html
September 23rd, 2008 at 2:53 pm
I’ve posted more detailed information to my blog: http://www.juggleware.com/blog/