ITUNES FUCKS FREE SPEECH LIKE THEY MEAN IT

[defrog]

BAD: In December, Apple refused to allow author David Carnoy to sell his novel, Knife Music, on the iTunes App Store because it contains “objectionable content and is in violation of Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement”.

Specifically, content like this:



WORSE: Knife Music is now available on iTunes – because Carnoy censored his own book and removed all the naughty stuff.

CONCLUSION: My own novels will NEVER be available on iTunes.

There is just so many things wrong with this story that it’s hard to know where to begin. For a start, Apple’s policy makes zero sense, especially when it already had a section for mature content before Carnoy submitted his book the first time.

Second, the real obscenity here is the spectacle of an author censoring his own work to enable it to be sold. Carnoy says he did it because “it wasn’t that big a deal” and that he’d rather people read the censored version than to not read it at all.

It’s his book, and therefore his call, but I strongly disagree that it’s not a big deal.

I’ve written before that books are one of the last forms of media in which you can tell a story as raunchily and graphically as you like without worrying about censorship from the MPAA or the FCC or Wal-mart or the local church busybody. Caving into Apple’s zero-tolerance SDK user agreement legitimizes the idea that books are no different from films, TV shows and music and MUST be censored to avoid either offending moral people or turning children into sex-crazed drug addicts – and that someone like Apple gets to decide what words you can or cannot use.

I’m sure some will argue that it’s no different from “FCC-friendly” versions of songs or editing all the nipples and swearing out of feature films for TV broadcasting. But then I never supported those practices either.

Not safe for real life,

This is dF

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

What I don't get is how Wal-Mart doesn't sell adult/erotic movies but they'll stock their shelves with Zane books. Those are as hardcore as Penthouse is.

Oh and censoring your art just to sell a few copies is bullshit, too.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

For the record, Wal-mart doesn't stock Zane books in East Tennessee. I'm pretty sure I would have noticed.

[bosswriter.livejournal.com]

I totally agree with you on this. From what I read, a lot of books by very well known and mainstream authors wuld have the same problem with itunes.

I am not surprised with this however, as our society has become so sensitive. Yuck.

I also am surprised the author edited his work to get it on itunes. Have some respect for the art.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

Exactly. If the word "fuck" is a benchmark, then there's an awful lot of popular and classic books that would be unsuitable for the iTunes. Which is why iTunes' ruling makes no sense at all. I'm hoping the whole thing is the result of a random search filter and some lazy staffer who doesn't understand the purpose of Section 3.3.12.

[thelastaerie.livejournal.com]

I am more surprised that the author was willing to change his own novel and remove the naughty content! Instead he should have made a bigger deal of how wrong iTunes was, and how he would never do that and get some free publicity, that's easy marketing.

[def-fr0g-42.livejournal.com]

I guess he's getting free publicity anyway. And I suppose one could argue that caving in to Apple's policy is as big a public statement as resisting it. "See what I had to do to get on iTunes?" I'm sure his other rationale is that the original version is still available. Still, there are principles involved here.