German Publishers Want Censorship Talks With Apple 197
An anonymous reader writes "The association of German magazine publishers has sent a letter to Steve Jobs (Google translation; German original here) demanding talks about censorship by Apple. The move draws attention to growing concerns about freedom of the press when a single unelected commercial entity has worldwide control over what gets published for the iPhone and, especially, the iPad." While the magazine publishers may rightly be concerned about private control of a platform that many of them are counting on for their long-term salvation, the German state is at the very least ambivalent about the subject of censorship. This is the country that has banned Wikileaks, sought a ban on violent games, and voted to censor child porn (only to have the president kill the ban as unconstituitonal).
I just don't get it. (Score:3, Insightful)
Is it censorship? In the broadest sense, yes. But do I want the federal gov't meddling with this? Any federal gov't? It sets a scary precedent.
Re:Different morals (Score:5, Insightful)
We just don't think of nudity as porn.
And? (Score:5, Insightful)
"A single unelected commercial entity has worldwide control over what gets published for" the PS3.
"A single unelected commercial entity has worldwide control over what gets published for" the Wii.
Are they pushing Apple to do the same as Sony and Nintendo, or are they pushing for special privileges?
What's stopping them from simply publishing their content as web pages?
Why would they want special applications?
Re:Different morals (Score:5, Insightful)
Some of us Americans don't either... though we seemed to be in a minority.
It's the association of magazine publishers (Score:3, Insightful)
Not the German state.
Get it now?
i.e. They want a slice.
Re:apples lockin also brakes freedoms in German la (Score:1, Insightful)
That's nonsense. Why doesn't anyone have an issue with Microsoft's "lockin" for XBox games? They require the same approval process to get the XBox logo on your game box. They've consistently blocked third party installation of software. Or Nintendo? Nintendo has gone so far as to sue every game publisher that tried to sidestep their approval process... on the NES back in the early 90's. That was almost 20 years ago! Every game for every Nintendo console has to be approved. Or Sony? The PSP had a browser and no flash, and software updates consistently blocked installation of unapproved software.
Nothing Apple is doing hasn't been done by the game console manufacturers for at least a decade, and mobile phone companies too. You can't install software on my Verizon Env phone without going through their "Get it Now" store, which also requires approval, and this phone was released 2 years before the iPhone existed.
I don't understand the focus on Apple and the iPhone/iPad or why this is suddenly an issue now. Is everyone blind about this being normal business practice for the entire industry?
Re:Different morals (Score:3, Insightful)
Germans usually tolerate porn and other adult content more than in the US.
True. For instance, I wonder why nobody complains about the beeps that replace all four-letter words (except "Lord") on American TV. (You are aware that the people aren't actually saying "beep", right?) I'd call that censorship. I can live with people saying "fuck" on TV every once in a while.
On the other hand, I find it hard to live with the knowledge that kids are being abused in order to produce child porn. And I wouldn't (necessarily) call the attempt to dry out the child porn market censorship. I mean, seriously, does it impede your right to free speech if you are not allowed to produce and circulate child porn?
Re:And? (Score:2, Insightful)
While having the games market under control of these corporations is unfortunate, having media censored by one is actually quite bad for society. Of course, there are still classical newspapers and the internet and thus Apple cannot effectively censor -- but especially if the iPad becomes more widespread, they will be able to influence what people can get easily. I imagine people might choose to ignore a media source because there is no app for it.
Also, this appears to be a distribution channel people actually are willing to pay for, making access to it even more important for publishers.
Re:New record on summary mistakes? (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:New record on summary mistakes? (Score:1, Insightful)
Its not just kdawson. Which country tried to destroy WikiLeaks?
Re:Quit Whining (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:Definitely a new record on summary mistakes. (Score:1, Insightful)
The law is not "stopped", it is still in full effect. The government only gave order to the police not to make any blocking lists. According to the law, the telecommunication providers could still be fined if they don't install the blocking infrastructure. And in addition, the government could still say any day, that the police may start blocking offending pages (Unlikely that they would, though, especially now that most people have understood that finding and taking down the servers of child pornography is possible and better than simply DNS blocking them)
Comment removed (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:The internet (Score:2, Insightful)
No, it is not, and I do wish propertarians would cease this abuse of language. To censor is "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable...; also : to suppress or delete as objectionable". [merriam-webster.com] It does not matter whether it is the government or a private agency doing the suppression, it is still censorship.
It may be the case that government censorship is more intrusive and threatening to liberty than private censorship, but that does not change the fact that both are members of the same species.