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Are Siri and the Wikipedia app next on the list ? I don't understand the ban on the historical apps - the civil war did happen and the confederate flag was used. Are nazi flags and symbols banned from ww2 games ?
Germany has a law about this, with some exceptions that would specifically apply to cases like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_§_86a When a movie like Iron Sky has no problem being shown in German cinemas with the swastika left untouched, because it's clearly art, then it should be fairly obvious to Apple that banning historically accurate representations in historically accurate interactive a…
In practice all games that contain forbidden symbols get a German version in which these are replaced for example in the Wolfenstein franchise (that were not censored due to violence).
Germany has a law about this, with some exceptions that would specifically apply to cases like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_§_86a When a movie like Iron Sky has no problem being shown in German cinemas with the swastika left untouched, because it's clearly art, then it should be fairly obvious to Apple that banning historically accurate representations in historically accurate interactive a…
"We view Apps different than books or songs, which we do not curate. If you want to criticize a religion, write a book. If you want to describe sex, write a book or a song, or create a medical App."
Their stance makes very little sense (arbitrarily dividing games away from books or films), but there it is.
Are Siri and the Wikipedia app next on the list ? I don't understand the ban on the historical apps - the civil war did happen and the confederate flag was used. Are nazi flags and symbols banned from ww2 games ?
yes, they actually are. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swastika#Germany
Why is everyone trying to erase history all of a sudden? Because somebody felt bad?
Please don't hyperbolize. Removing the Confederate flags from public places like government buildings and refusing to sell merchandise with the flag is not erasing history. And I'd call the regular terrorizing and murder of black people under this flag far more than "someone felt bad". Apple simply took a way-to-heavy-handed approach here.
This is clearly going too far.
I agree. It's one thing to stop selling actual Confederate flags, it's another to try and scrub any mention of a historical event or depiction of a certain symbol in context. Apple is certainly within their rights to do this, but I think it's silly and impulsive.
For me though, this is nothing new for Apple, and it's why I don't like their software in general. As RMS said, roughly, "Apple puts the user in a prison. It is a beautiful prison though."
Some people embrace the beautiful prison for it's simplicity and ease of use. I suppose that's their choice, but what will they do when they wake up and realize they hate the new warden, after they are so tied into the ecosystem?
I still think those who embrace FOSS now will be at a huge advantage as time progresses and the nanny mentality of companies such as Apple and Microsoft becomes more prevalent, and users of those will be at a large disadvantage. RMS is a man ahead of his time and only time will prove him right. As a matter of fact, I think that's part of the reason why MS is trying to get more ground in the open source community, because they understand that FOSS is actually becoming a threat these days, and they are trying wildly to stop the haemorrhaging.
In Apple's defense though, I do view them as the lesser of two evils, and would gladly push OSX/iOS on users rather than Windows/Windows Mobile. At least it's unix under the hood, and we can see most of the source code.
Germany has a law about this, with some exceptions that would specifically apply to cases like this one: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strafgesetzbuch_§_86a When a movie like Iron Sky has no problem being shown in German cinemas with the swastika left untouched, because it's clearly art, then it should be fairly obvious to Apple that banning historically accurate representations in historically accurate interactive a…
These exceptions might apply to cases such as this one, whether they do is unknown and no publisher has dared to find out. In practice all games that contain forbidden symbols get a German version in which these are replaced for example in the Wolfenstein franchise (that were not censored due to violence).
There is a very reasonable expectation of this changing at some point in the future.