Blogs May 18, 2010 at 1:33 pm

Comments

1
I picture his alternate reality turning out like Pleasantville. It's in black and white, the people are creepy, and everyone's obsessed with cookies. I think I'll stay on this side of the screen, thanks.
2
I have porn on my iPod. Jobsfail.
3
Good news for MSFT stock.
4
Jobs is a genius.
Savage is a pervert.

Compare and Contrast....
5
What a dickwad!
6
I get that it's currently hip to hate on Apple.

But, I didn't read Job's comments in the same way you're presenting them. I read them, essentially, as Apple not wanting to be in the business of porn.

That, to me, is a big difference than not wanting porn to exist.
7
Steve Jobs has very firmly secured his seat next to George Lucas in the hall of cautionary tales, in the "Geniuses Who Shaped Modern Culture When They Were Young and Then Went Completely Off the Fucking Rails When No One Would Say 'No' to Them Any More" section.
8
@6, Mr. Victim:

There have been YEARS if not decades of overwhelming echo-chamber hate against Windows PCs and other platforms from the top of your upturned nose.

You're getting defensive about this?

Your dismissal of criticism against Apple is parallel to a dismissal of an open forum of ideas. It is parallel to the dismissal of the open platform. It's a dismissal of reality.

You poor baby. I actually do feel sorry for you that you have paid thousands to be a card-holding member of a productualized sense of superiority.
9
@6 It's not that Apple isn't wanting to stay out of the porn business, but they are preventing anyone from selling things they deem "inappropriate" on any of their products, regardless of whether it's porn or not. I know of a gay comic book publisher who tried to get an app for selling electronic versions of their comics into the app store, but were denied because some of the comics had nudity in them. Cartoon nudity. Also see the recent kerfuffle over their denial of some political cartoon apps because they made fun of public figures.

One can argue that Apple has the right to only sell what they want to sell. While that is true, it doesn't make it good business to tell people you refuse to carry the things they want to buy. I also have the right to know about it though so I can exercise my right to buy a google phone instead so I'm not supporting a company that is keen on enforcing some kind of moral agenda or happyland censorship spree on their products.
10
@8, wow. Project much? You read all of that into my comments?

Nice. :-)
11
@9, I think you oversimplify. I get the argument. I do. But, I think it's more complex than this simple discussion of the issue.
12
@10 Ok...complexify it for me then. Just saying it's a complex issue doesn't convince anyone of much.
13
@10. It's probably all way over your head.

You're probably just confused now that simply asserting that you have an Apple product no longer gives you the superiority that you bought in to.
14
@12, especially those who don't want to be convinced, often for reasons completely outside the specifics of a discussion.

The iPhone had very specific & technical reasons for being a closed system. Apple was protecting the user experience of a new class of phone devices. Battery power, as one example, was important to safeguard. And, maybe they were over protective, but that's how the device emerged.

And, it was phenomenally successful. Most of us see our phones as appliances, rather than open computing systems. We want our phone to do limited things, and to do them very well. We have fully open Apple Computers that can load all manner of non-Apple programs, including porn.

For now, at least, the iPad is really riding on the coat tails of the iPhone and how/why it developed. It may open further, but perhaps not. Again, it's a device more so than a full-function computer.

I can still access a ton of porn on both my iPhone and my iPad if I want to.

But, do I feel that my iPhone is limited? Compared to what? I've never had a phone that has 200,000 available apps for it. Never. I've never been able to do what I do with my iPHone on any other device. I get that there are emerging alternatives, and for specific reasons, I am considering them. And, that will be a market-place choice that I'll make and Apple with have to deal with.

But, the spin this into a story about THE MAN holding us down just seems reactionary, short-sighted, and simplistic.
15
That Gawker writer comes off as a petulant kid in the email exchange (Apple's "pet police force" "kicking down" their doors? WTF?).

BTW, porn isn't sold everywhere in the meatspace, and if Apple doesn't want it sold in their app store, that is their prerogative. The Safari browser on the iPad/iPhone is a perfectly fine doorway to all the porn anyone needs. Youporn works on it, for one.
16
INTERNET SLAPFIGHT!!
17
Coca Cola is evil for not allowing porn on its soda cans. Can you believe Disney refuses to include porn on its DVD collections of its animated classics for kids? Why won't Frigidaire let me browse porn on my fridge control panel?

BTW, no way do I buy that an actual CEO took time out of his life to have an email exchange with a mentally ill blogger
18
Last night I downloaded a bunch of porn and put it on my iPod. God bless Usenet and those dedicated few who take the time to convert crappy porn from one format to another.
19
You just hate the fact that everyone wants and is buying an iPad.

Sucks to be you.

Besides, if you're so lazy that you can't buy one of the cracked iPads, or realize any A4 processor uses the same code and that even Apple Store apps have cracked versions in the Netspace that exists, you really should just buy the lame MSFT product, p0rnd0g.
20
dang, TVDinner beat me to it.

Still, Baconcat ftw. Now, where's my frackin "I agree with Baconcat!" t-shirt, SLOG?
21
The Apple apologists have a point, though convoluted.

Sure, every monopoly can control what it sells.

However, let's say an imaginary competing product were to control its product line as much as Apple does from one side of their mouth *while touting its innovation and awesomeness as a selling point* from the other side of its mouth.

Those who defend Apple would be singing a completely different tune.

Devout fanaticism informs and defends your stance, 14.

I wonder what you'd say if anybody but ~Steve Jobs~ was promulgating this.

22
@14 I'm open to be convinced. Just poking you to provide support for your opinion.

I agree that spinning this as Steve Jobs personal war against pornography is a bit silly. It is true that you can open your browser and go where you want. The thing that concerns me though is not a lack of porn apps. Rather that, in an effort to tightly curate the user experience on an iphone/ipad that includes a big no to porn content in the apps, they are also not allowing "controversial" things in. It's one thing to say "no NakedSword or HisFirstHugeCock apps thank you very much" and another entirely to ban nudity of all kinds, political satire, or what some rich white guy deems as "controversial". It reminds me of when amazon shoved all gay literature, including scholarly publications, to the adult section. To use your words, Apple's arbitrary banning of apps and other practices seem "reactionary, short-sighted, and simplistic".

The crux of it for me is this. The only apple product I own is an ipod. I have issues with some of the annoying restrictions of that product born of the same business philosophies, but have figured ways around them or am over it. I have considered an iphone, but find myself creeped out by Apples willingness to break their own products with updates should you unlock them, censor their app store, and generally act like douche bags in some arenas. It creeps me out enough that instead of just automatically going out and buying that iphone like I want to, I'm instead looking into their competitors and it seems like I know more and more people that feel that way.
23
I'll bet most porn is edited on macs. ;-)

And yeah, I like Apple products.

But, you know what? I own an Xbox too; and last time I checked on the Xbox store, I couldn't buy porn! Imagine that!

Carry on. :-)
24
the addicted degenerates get panicky when they think something might cut off their fix...
25
Basically, this fucker is just trying to make sure that iPhones and iPads completely dominate the market. Jobs sees the business gained from being a pussy nerf walled-garden as larger than the business lost from letting people (and invariably their kids) do whatever the fuck they want whenever the fuck they want.

By "Freedom from Porn," he means "We want parents to feel superficially safe buying this thing for their kids."
26
Also Jobs sees his company as "classy." Too classy to be involved in *selling* porn. He could give a fuck what you do in Safari or what media you sync to the device.

Comcast on the other hand is a company that is not "classy," partly because it makes an ass-ton of revenue from PPV porn.
27
@25, and what's wrong with that? Most people are perfectly happy with walled-garden devices and access. If this equates to more sales for Jobs he's going to do what the market dictates. There are plenty of Android devices and netbooks/tablets out there to provide unfettered access on both WiFi and mobility networks. I'm no Apple fanboy but the backlash is getting a little silly as of late.
28
27: If you were defending a dominant Disney Phone, you'd look as ridiculous as you do now.

I guess you're just blind to it.
29
@27, I didn't say there was anything wrong with it, just like there isn't anything wrong with the limitations to content in peer-reviewed Xbox 360 Indie Games.

Jobs is still a fucker, though.
30
This is a TRAGEDY!!!

I mean, sure. It has built-in browser access to the internet and all. But there is simply NOT enough porn on the internet!!! I need more. I need apps to give me porn too.
31
I hope he has the patience of Job because it's never going to happen...
32
@9, I think this is more about brand than censorship. Apple isn't selling anything with such ground breaking technology you can't get it anywhere else. If they were, Nokia wouldn't be trying to sue the shit out of them for patent infringement.

This is about maintaining the cache of good taste and style that is at the core of the "i" brand.
33
As was said on Avenue Q, The Internet is For Porn.
Frankly, there will be porn as long as the Intertubes exist. Who gives a flying rat's ass whether or not it's been kicked off the iPad/Phone/McGuffin?
34
Jobs, if you can hook me up with some really hot women, then he can try to get rid of porn. Unless those women like porn.

How can he say this working in an industry partly reliant on porn?
35
The thing is, Jobs could have made the argument "Yes, some consumers may want porn, but we are gearing our products towards those seeking other uses" and his point would actually be perfectly valid. If Apple wants to make padded-cell products for those specifically desiring them, that's fine. But instead, for some reason, he decides to take this aggressive stance, as if "If you were a parent, you'd agree with me!" is a sensible defense. What's up with that?
36
While I think Jobs was foolish to talk about "freedom from porn", they're not wrong to avoid wanting to associate the brand with distributing porn in prudish America. Societal norms regarding porn are changing, but becoming a major source of pornography isn't in Apple's best interest at the present time.
37
Do you know what happens if you pop a cracked vid on your iTunes on a Mac hooked up to your wireless hub?

Yup, free p0rn on your iPad.

Seriously, he's just saying he's making it harder to get. Not that it's impossible, but they're not going to profit (directly) from that sub-market.
38
I really took Jobs' comments to not be "omg no porn ever" but just something like "on a PC, you get spyware all the time, annoying pop ups, junky viruses, and all the time annoying ads for porn or your browser gets hijacked and suddenly you find porn links on it." I really didn't see him as crusading for its abolition.
39
Meanwhile, I'm envisioning a world without Microsoft or Apple.

Once you go Linux, you'll never go back.
40
@6

CURRENTLY? Dude, I don't think so. When I started using Macs in the mid-90s I was constantly fighting with people about them. Now, all of those geeks who used to make fun of me are using Macs and acting like they were never iHaters.

Also, Steve Jobs is an evil genius, and we just have to accept that if we want to use his beautiful, beautiful machines.
41
Steve has said previously that if you want porn, you can get it on an Android phone; there are apps there for that. (You can still use Safari to get porn, obviously.)

If you want porn, just go somewhere else to get it. I don't particularly care for porn on a tiny little screen that I'd have to prop up oddly if I wanted to wank to it. The phone really isn't a good place for porn just because it's *inconvenient*.

If you don't like his attitude, walk. Nobody's forcing you to buy an iPhone.
42
@41
I don't care for porn on a tiny screen either. But you know what I don't care for even more than that? Some moralizing dickweed telling me what I can and can't do with my fucking phone.

If it's Apple vs Google, I'm with Google.
43
@ 38 that was my understanding of his context as well.
44
You mad, Steve? Do you feel blame?
45
#38. Really? In the Windowz internetz your browser actually gets hijacked by porn? I've been surfing on a Mac as long as there has been an internet. Before, actually, if you count USENET and BBS's. I have NEVER accidentally encountered porn. NEVER. Sure, it's easy to find if you want it, but suddenly popping up unsolicited? NEVER. I thought the whole thing was weird because my take on what Steve meant was exactly the same as yours.
46
Freedom from porn? Ain't gonna happen. Seriously, though, if a lack of porn is someone's biggest fear, what does that say about them?
47
@42

Google's just fine if you're more into older men-younger women than older women-younger men. See: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/life/goog…

None of these companies really cares about giving you some sort of utopic ultimate freedom. They just calculate how best to meet their own bottom line. Jobs thinks it's by making parents feel safe about buying their kids ipods, iphones and ipads. Page and Brin think it's by catering to men who want to be Sugar Daddies while leaving "Cougars" out in the cold.

Please wait...

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