Why you should not buy Apple computer products. [Stallman]
September 22, 2012 Leave a comment
Apple iThings pioneered a new level of restricting the users: they were the first general purpose computers to impose censorship over what programs the user can install.
- Ebooks with DRM won’t work on an iThing that is jailbroken, due to intentional sabotage by Apple.
E-books with digital handcuffs are products designed to attack your freedom, much like the iThing itself. - Apple practices censorship. Here are a few examples of this.
- Apple demonstrates the arbitrariness of its censorship by blocking an app that tells people with text messages when US drone attacks kill civilians.The author said that this app was meant to raise awareness. I hope Apple’s censorship of it raises awareness.
- Apple censors information about abortion providers.
- Apple’s mail service silently censors the mail people send.
- Apple deauthorized a Wikileaks access application, demonstrating its support for censorship by practicing censorship.
- Apple censors iTunes ebooks — banning all mention of Amazon.People should not do business with Amazon, which mistreats authors, publishers, its workers, and its customers. Ms Lisle’s presupposition that the goal of success is all that matters is not admirable.
However, that doesn’t justify censorship.
Of course, publishing in iTunes was already bad for other reasons, such as DRM, and requiring users to use nonfree software.
