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GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

applecensorship.com

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Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#41

Post by peteretep »

masonic wrote: post #18
thaumasiotes wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It falls under the "nominative use" defense to an assertion of trademark infringement. Free speech has nothing to do with it. Trademarks are intended to provide consumers with the confidence that the products they're buying really come from the producer they claim to come from. As such, you're prohibited from assembling your own computer and branding it Apple; you've never been prohibited from referring to Apple.

Why do retail entities refer to the Super Bowl by pseudonyms (e.g "The Big Game") rather than its true name?

This is a good question, and there's some more information about it here: https://www.broadcastlawblog.com/2013/01/articles/advertiser...

In summary:

"If “Super Bowl” is used by an individual or business to describe the event and not used for commercial intent, then individuals and businesses can use the term. For example, a grocery store can say “Make sure to stock up on chips for the Super Bowl” but the store cannot say they are the “Official Super Bowl Chip Stop.”"

That said, you can just avoid infringing entirely by calling it The Big Game

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#44

Post by lazyasciiart »

duskwuff wrote: post #37
amingilani wrote: post #8

Please note that while Apple itself may censor applications in regions, creators of the apps may choose to limit their distributions as well. For example: Bank of America's mobile banking app isn't available in Pakistan where I currently am, but this website wouldn't differentiate between that type of censorship or Apple's censorship. But, personally, I still think this is a great idea!

I would hesitate to call that "censorship" at all. Some apps simply aren't relevant in a country because they're associated with a physical service which doesn't exist there. For example, a number of food delivery apps (like Uber Eats and Grubhub) don't operate in China, and as such have chosen to not make their app available there.

And nobody ever leaves the country. Or if they do, they're totally willing to go through the entire giant hassle of switching their account for a few days.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#45

Post by amingilani »

lazyasciiart wrote: post #44
duskwuff wrote: post #37

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hesitate to call that "censorship" at all. Some apps simply aren't relevant in a country because they're associated with a physical service which doesn't exist there. For example, a number of food delivery apps (like Uber Eats and Grubhub) don't operate in China, and as such have chosen to not make their app available there.

And nobody ever leaves the country. Or if they do, they're totally willing to go through the entire giant hassle of switching their account for a few days.

Yeah, that's how I found out BotA didn't distribute their app in Pakistan

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#47

Post by musicale »

Isn't this just "Apple complies with local laws in China (etc.) requiring them to remove VPN apps and hand over data belonging to political dissidents?"

Greatfire is right: Apple could indeed take a stand for freedom - if the shareholders demanded it and and were willing to shut down Apple's iPhone sales and manufacturing business, which is responsible for the bulk of Apple's income and profits.

Google famously left China, but Google is more of an advertising company than a hardware company.

Re: GreatFire is tracking Apple iOS applications for instances of censorship

#49

Post by philwelch »

RandallBrown wrote: post #27

I'm not sure how this shows censorship. It just shows you if an app is available in China. Lots of apps aren't available in China or outside of where the developer is based.

It's also a really, really, really hard line to draw. Lots of countries have laws and regulations that may require a company to withdraw apps from an app store. If you had a Wolfenstein game in your app store, you'd have to "censor" it in the German app store. China is especially censorious and authoritarian, but your only options are (a) don't do business at all in an especially censorious and authoritarian country, thereby censoring all of the apps, or (b) censor the apps the government wants you to censor, which is what you already have to do in lots of other countries anyway.
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