Comments on: The tech-and-lit chasm: The Nation predicts the iPhone—even if it already exists http://www.teleread.org/2008/12/22/the-tech-and-lit-chasm-the-nation-predicts-the-iphone-even-if-it-already-exists/ News & views on e-books, libraries, publishing and related topics Sun, 08 Nov 2009 03:38:33 -0500 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.8.4 hourly 1 By: Karen http://www.teleread.org/2008/12/22/the-tech-and-lit-chasm-the-nation-predicts-the-iphone-even-if-it-already-exists/comment-page-1/#comment-989835 Karen Tue, 23 Dec 2008 00:34:22 +0000 http://www.teleread.org/blog/2008/12/22/the-tech-and-lit-chasm-the-nation-predicts-the-iphone-even-if-it-already-exists/#comment-989835 Now that Apple is the Walmart of publishing, refusing works based on words (words that they allow in their music, though -- wonder if they'd have ever sold an ipod at all, had they banned all hip-hop and rap and most blues, a lot of rock and country, based solely on words and "adult themes), I'd had to be stuck reading there - halfway thru a book, it might disappear on you (as other retracted apps have). Or have large blacked out sections deemed inappropriate. Want to read Romeo & Juliet? Sorry, that contains children having sex, so it's out. Watch a movie on itunes? No problem, we'll give you the sanitized version (courtesy of one of the christian movie cutting organizations), not the version in the theater. After all, any R-rated movie will contain MANY of the words they are rejecting in literature. Want some tunes? Sure, here's the walmart sanitized version. I don't know why they bother even checking book content - Steve has decreed that no one reads anymore, so that alone should be enough to protect all of us from the objectionable content. Apple is setting themselves up for liability BY their action of censoring content. Remaining a neutral party, they would have been protected under laws regarding internet providers and publishers (after all, the objectionable book can be sold without a plain wrapper and on low shelves where kids could see or easily available on library shelves). Instead, by setting themselves as a gatekeeper, they become responsible for everything in the store and I guarantee the music they sell (let alone the videos) would not meet the same "community standards" they seem to be applying. I just wonder which community they picked; certainly not any in CA (even conservative Orange)? Rural Arkansas, maybe? Or, more likely, Utah, which now has great influence in CA politics. Now that Apple is the Walmart of publishing, refusing works based on words (words that they allow in their music, though — wonder if they’d have ever sold an ipod at all, had they banned all hip-hop and rap and most blues, a lot of rock and country, based solely on words and “adult themes), I’d had to be stuck reading there – halfway thru a book, it might disappear on you (as other retracted apps have). Or have large blacked out sections deemed inappropriate. Want to read Romeo & Juliet? Sorry, that contains children having sex, so it’s out. Watch a movie on itunes? No problem, we’ll give you the sanitized version (courtesy of one of the christian movie cutting organizations), not the version in the theater. After all, any R-rated movie will contain MANY of the words they are rejecting in literature. Want some tunes? Sure, here’s the walmart sanitized version.

I don’t know why they bother even checking book content – Steve has decreed that no one reads anymore, so that alone should be enough to protect all of us from the objectionable content.

Apple is setting themselves up for liability BY their action of censoring content. Remaining a neutral party, they would have been protected under laws regarding internet providers and publishers (after all, the objectionable book can be sold without a plain wrapper and on low shelves where kids could see or easily available on library shelves). Instead, by setting themselves as a gatekeeper, they become responsible for everything in the store and I guarantee the music they sell (let alone the videos) would not meet the same “community standards” they seem to be applying. I just wonder which community they picked; certainly not any in CA (even conservative Orange)? Rural Arkansas, maybe? Or, more likely, Utah, which now has great influence in CA politics.

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