Apple & Infringing Copyrights

It’s news like this that reminds me on why I haven’t got any Apple products around. Apple removed a Bittorrent app from the app store, because BitTorrent is often used to “infringe copyrights”. When will anyone learn? Here’s what the app author has to say:

I’d just like to reiterate that my app does *not* present the user with any pirated materials. Nor will it *ever*. I feel very strongly about that. If that’s why you’re rejecting my app, you’re mistaken.

It presents the user with a field to paste a link. So do all of the third party web browsers on the store, all the FTP clients, etc. If you take my app down, I demand that you take those apps down too.

I don’t see them removing the Youtube app, and yet it’s used en masse for ‘copyright infringement’. I don’t see them removing Safari, yet it’s used for ‘copyright infringement’. Hell, if all applications that could possibly be used for ‘copyright infringement’  were banned, I don’t think the iPod would have been such a success. It’s patronizing and wrong to defer user access to an application based on what it could be used for. And yes, there are probably ways to jailbraik any Apple product and install those applications anyway, but the fact that Apple is taking such a hardline stance (probably because of their relationship with the major record labels) is a total dealbreaker for me.

I’ll be fine with my Transdroid, thank you.