Apple's Controlling Instincts Hit Time and SI
Ryan Chittum, Columbia Journalism Review, July 28, 2010.

If you want to sell your magazine through iPad, you have to sell it through Apple (which will take 30 percent). The company will not allow you to sell subscriptions on your own website. Ryan Chittum writes, "Apple justifies its controlling instincts by saying the iPad (and iPhone) are a 'curated platform.' But that has little to do with letting non-pornographic magazines sell subscriptions. Apple's behavior is setting it up for some serious antitrust scrutiny down the line. It will be well deserved. Meantime, the media had better get hold of this tiger before it gets hold of them."

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Re: Apple's Controlling Instincts Hit Time and SI

Frank Lowney, August 1, 2010

The curation claim is interesting. We know that Apple curates native applications for the App store so is that any different here? These magazines exist in the form of native applications do they not?

The API provides for in-app purchasing. The elements to be purchased and brought into the application are all pre-screened and approved. So its not entirely about the money. It's also about maintaining a certain quality of experience and that can't be assured if the new elements of the application can be brought in without pre-screening. This is probably a good thing where the issues are technical or security oriented and especially where money changes hands.

Where this gets most interesting is when Apple appears to take an in loco parentis position protecting us from things that might be "obscene, pornographic or defamatory." I can certainly understand how the editors at Time, SI et. al. think that they should be trusted on this point. I also understand why these editors want to keep all of the money for subscriptions letting Apple pay the freight on their free app that serves as the container for subscriptions.

These confounding issues need to be separated for any useful analysis.

The iBookstore might be just the place to look for a purer case to examine. For example, I see multiple versions of James Joyce's "Ulysses" in the iBookstore ranging in price from Free to $2.99. Of course these are EPUB documents, not native applications. Presumably, that means that they pose no technical or security threats and thereby constitute a better case.

Has Apple curated the iBookstore refusing to convey materials that, "may be found objectionable?" Apparently, not yet.

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Re: Apple's Controlling Instincts Hit Time and SI

Stephen Downes, August 1, 2010

Yes, there is evidence of nascent censorship in the bookstore.

Apple Purges Erotic Stories From Book Store Bestseller List
http://gizmodo.com/5598114/is-apple-censoring-their-book-store-bestseller-list [Comment] [Permalink] [Previous][Next]

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