In December, Apple rejected his iPhone app, NewsToons, because, as Apple put it, his satire “ridicules public figures,” a violation of the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, which bars any apps whose content in “Apple’s reasonable judgement may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.”
How many times must we go down this road, Apple?
Who is the person judging digital books for the App Store who has brain damage and keeps repeating this mistake?
Find that person. Fire that person!
Back on November 9th, 2009 at The eBook Test I posted about another political satire digital book that was rejected similarly: Another Day, Another DoubleDumb Apple Book Rejection!.
What is this going to be, Apple? A case-by-case firefight with you guys?
Are you to be the new Digital Taliban?
If you cannot understand the First Amendment, if you can’t understand it supercedes your narrow monetary interests, perhaps you might want to consider moving your Corporate headquarters to a place like Singapore or Malaysia, where you’d at least have the excuse of hiding behind their similarly-repressive governments.
I find it personally shocking that someone such as Steve Jobs — the epitome of a rebel — winds up on the wrong side of this issue over and over again.
You are entering a world where many precedents have been set by others in court cases to win our freedoms. Follow the example of Grove Press and others, Apple.
This is about books, Apple. Not you.
Stop being so ridiculous.
Is this the future you want —
Apple to be the first corporation to be cited as a book banner?
Do you really want me and my fellow writers to start agitating for that?
Update: Apple Rescinds Book Ban
Previously at Mike Cane 2008:
Apple Forfeits eBooks By Banning A Comic Book!
Apple And A Tale Of Two Bannings
Apple Bans ANOTHER Book From App Store!
Apple Approves Of Shooting Nurses In The Face!
Previously at The eBook Test:
Apple: Get The Hell Out Of Your Own Way!
Another Day, Another DoubleDumb Apple Book Rejection!
Apple’s Two-Faced Censorship At Work Again
A REAL Justification For Apple Censorship?
Mike Cane's iPad Test 
However good the iPad may or may not be, and the iPhone, iPods and the rest, I wouldn’t buy Apple products… not with that kind of censorship. I’d sooner use Linux on whatever machine is available. And use Mozilla Firefox and Thunderbird and whatever Open Source stuff is around and useful.
The future for me has got to be outlaw technology, not Apple or Microsoft or Amazon or any of those.
Apart from anything else, it is 100% guaranteed I’d be banned.
So Apple doesn’t exist for me. I wouldn’t go near it. And even iPods are useless because they don’t have enough bass. They’re a civilian’s music tool. No good.
We should boycott any firm that indulges it’s arrogance in book censorship.
>>>The future for me has got to be outlaw technology, not Apple or Microsoft or Amazon or any of those.
Heh. At one time, those *were* the outlaws.
Amazing how when they get all “legal” they become the new Man!
The censorship is ludicrous, true, and the “new Man” dynamic is a truth of metaphysics. No way around either of these.
But I have to disagree with Dr. Snake. All my computer smarts are Apple-related. I wouldn’t use anything else, EVER. Besides, going with Linux in the current environment would be like trying to fly with a bowling ball chained to my ankle…
Spiritual- and integrity-wise, not to mention anti-corporatist-wise, outlaw technology rocks–UNTIL it becomes popular, if it ever does, and then the new boss is the same as the old boss. I admire and respect this stance, but the work itself is more important right now.
The Doc is an adventurous guy. I did Linux shit — the Nokia Anti-Internet Tablet. Never, ever touching Linux again (unless webOS is over it, ahem).
Jobs need to watch ‘Citizen Kane’ a few times. Mark my words, all Apple is now doing is drawing a bullseye on their back for all the malware stuff from MS.
One of the first things you learn as a Magician is how do patter and misdirection. Jobs is very good at those. So while you’re being entertained, he is pulling money from your pocket and rights away. He is no longer a crazy one, a rebel anymore. Period.