Welcome to the bitter cold of the New Searchable Era ™. Enjoy your stay.
From TechChuck.com
Apple has approved a version of Knife Music as an e-book application after the author removed words Apple considered objectionable.
An e-book submitted to Apple’s App Store has been approved after the author removed language that apparently offended Apple.
CNET’s David Carnoy wrote a book called Knife Music last year, and attempted to submit it to the App Store as an e-book. Apple rejected his application for containing “objectionable content,” which appeared to be a couple of uses of that four-letter word that starts with F.
But Carnoy decided to remove that type of language from the book, which he said didn’t amount to all that many words in the first place. Upon resubmitting the application, it was approved, and can now be found on the App Store.
“I decided to censor because it wasn’t that big a deal. I changed it very little. It’s more important to have people check the book out–along with the whole concept of ebooks on the iPhone. It’s kind of virgin terriroty now but it’s going to be really big soon,” Carnoy said in an e-mail
Imagine, if you will, if all the text of all the books you’ve ever read were, rather than being paper and ink, were bits and bytes. Now imagine the unlimited ability to search all those bits and bytes for the odd mention of One Of Those Words; and on that basis, without any notion of content or context, if those books were taken down from every bookstore. Which of your favorite books would be missing?
I am not questioning Apple’s right to decide what they will and will not carry in their store. That’s Apple’s business. I am wondering about Apple’s methods and processes and where this is taking us. What will be the place of objectionable words and objectionable ideas in the algorithms of this New Searchable Era ™ ?
“Chilling Effect” is the phrase used to describe the phenomenon of people altering their legal protected conduct for fear of ending up on the wrong side of powers they cannot fight. Today’s weather matches my mood.
January 16th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
One of my favourite books involves a whole lot of use of the so-called F-word.
It would definitly detract from the reading experience if that word was missing, as it gives the character a defineable sense of realism.
But I prefer the good old printed versions anyway. All tries I had at reading e-books (including tablet pc’s, pda’s and even a kindle) have been not quite the same. Since I carry large bags at all times anyway (kids) there is usually room for a book somewhere.
It is really annoying how bad things have got. The censoring of certain words is complete rubbish because people will carry on using them anyway. Over here in Fife, bonny Scotland, fuck is an important part of every day language.
It might not be a surprise that the first recorded use of the word fuck (as well as cunt) were by a Scot, William Dunbar, in the late middle ages.
What’s the point in detracting from our language? If we censor these words, they become taboo and people (especially children, whom these “well-meaning” (insert sarcasm) people want to protect) will use them more.
Sorry about the rant, but I do wonder at the agenda…
January 16th, 2009 at 5:37 pm
Nothing mysterious about the agenda. Commercialized sexuality attracts miscreants all out of proportion to whatever economic benefit Apple, YouTube, Google, etc might gain from them. If the occasional unknown author or filmmaker gets caught in the crossfire, that’s a negligible loss compared to the benefit of keeping the riff raff out.
January 17th, 2009 at 1:34 pm
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