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By Chris Meadows

me-so-holy-tbi-0.87x0.87 In the latest news of Apple’s silliness, it has rejected a BitTorrent client remote control app because “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights”, and an app that allows one to replace Jesus’s face with one’s own in a photo cut-out for being “offensive.”

It should be noted that there is nothing illegal per se about the BitTorrent protocol or app itself. Even though it is far and away most used for illegal music, TV, and movie downloads, it is also used for legitimate distribution of large files such as Linux ISOs. And if photomanipulation of Jesus’s face is “offensive”, it is hardly any more so than some of the other apps on the store already (such as the multitude of puerile fart apps). Certainly anything will be “offensive” to someone. As Silicon Alley Insider says:

As we’ve noted several times, it’s Apple’s app store and they can do whatever they want. But Apple still hasn’t taken some basic steps to give developers a fair position in the decision, such as publishing (in public) very clear parameters of what’s acceptable and what isn’t, and a very clear appeals process.

Until Apple gets its act together, development of any app for the iPhone becomes a crapshoot. Apple has already shown its willingness to reject not only new apps, but even updates to existing apps that they have only just noticed are doing something wrong. In the absence of clear guidelines as to what will be rejected, any application might very well be.

 
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