Nanny Apple will let you know what you can read
By Gareth Powell
Apple has become a censor of books. How it decided that it would become the keeper of the world’s morals is not known. First it refused to allow a program where boobs, or other parts of the anatomy could be wobbled. (It changed its mind after it saw the commercial success on YouTube.)
Now it has censored a book called Knife Music. It is now available as an e-book application — this is possibly a first — on iPhone and iPod but only after the author removed words Apple considered objectionable.
CNET’s David Carnoy wrote a book called Knife Music last year, and attempted to submit it to the App Store as an e-book.
Apple rejected his application for containing ‘objectionable content,’ which appeared to be a couple of uses of that four-letter word that starts with ‘f’.
Anyone who has been to Apple’s headquarters in Cupertino know that words starting with ‘f’ play a major part in Apple employee’s vocabulary. With Steve Jobs, currently on sick leave, leading the charge.
David Carnoy decided to remove that type of language from the book, which he said didn’t amount to all that many words in the first place. Upon resubmitting the application, it was approved, and can now be found on the App Store.
There aren’t a ton of e-books themselves on the App Store, but there are also e-book reader applications that let you read e-books purchased from another web site on your iPhone.
David Carnoy said he preferred the standalone application approach because it’s much easier to find specific books on the App Store.
If Apple is going to censor books then there would appear to be no end. Among the books that would be banned are Lady Chatterley’s Lover, but of course but also most modern fiction.
Who the #$%# does Apple think it is?
The Lord Chamberlain’s Office in drag?
And why do I have to write #$%# instead of a much more widely used and convenient Anglo-Saxon term?
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January 26th, 2009
It would be a shame if Apple begun to fervently censor books and other such material that customers would desire to have access to. However, since it is their company they are allowed to sell what they do or not want to. From an author’s perspective, I believe that censoring something can always take away some of the original power and message of what was written.