Apple rejects updated Nine Inch Nails app
updated 10:00 am EDT, Mon May 4, 2009
Apple rejects NIN app
Apple has rejected an update to a pre-existing iPhone app, according to the lead of the industrial band Nine Inch Nails. In a video (see below), Trent Reznor describes the app as a companion to the NIN website, making it simpler to access hosted music, photos, videos and forums. But the NIN Access 1.0.3 update has been tossed out as a result of what Apple is calling "objectionable content," in the form of The Downward Spiral.
While Apple has not specified the form of the content, Reznor notes that the Downward Spiral album, which has an ample amount of swearing, is not available directly through app. The closest thing is said to be the album's title song, which can only be heard through NIN Access when streaming a podcast. Ironically, Reznor observes, Apple has long sold the uncensored Downward Spiral through iTunes.
The musician calls Apple inconsistent in this regard, and points out that potentially offensive material can pass through many Apple apps, including the mobile versions of Mail and Safari. The company's approval personnel are also said to have missed a more obvious area of concern, that being the NIN forums. Posts on the site are generally uncensored, outside of normal moderation concerns.
It is not known if or when the new NIN Access app might be approved, and if the app's developers intend to make any changes to meet guidelines.
Apple nanny
05/04, 10:04am (2 replies) reply
wow, isn't Apple going a bit overboard?
climacs
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Joined: Sep 2001
stupid Apple
05/04, 11:04am (1 reply) reply
Damn it Apple, why don't they just mark certain content as "explicit" like they do for music and call it a wrap? This censorship is just lame, and makes the whole platform that much less attractive.
WiseWeasel
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Joined: Apr 1999
WWDC
05/04, 11:10am (2 replies) reply
If anyone's going to WWDC, they need to ask Apple exactly what guidelines they give people in order to have an app approved. It just seems horribly inconsistent in trying to "protect the public." It's doing more harm than good.
Obviously, overt forms of pornography shouldn't be allowed, but turning yourself into the content police for everything that's going to be sold on the store is just too much for one company to do. Next, they'll want to filter content that's viewed in Mail and Safari!
dagamer34
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Joined: Apr 2007
So
05/04, 12:57pm (2 replies) reply
I guess Apple is OK if your app makes explicit or objectionable (EoO) noises (iFart), but not OK if it speaks EoO words? But it is OK if you have a 'song' that has EoO words in it, but not an app?
Where does the line start or end? Because, in theory, they should be banning apps like eReader and Stanza because you can download books to those like "Huck Finn", which has many uses of the 'n-word'. (No, not "Nationalism").
testudo
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Joined: Aug 2001
:D
05/04, 05:17pm reply
testudo - Nine Inch Nails??
Amundyeus
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Joined: Feb 2005