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Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

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Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#401

Post by randallsquared »

Bodell wrote: post #321
randallsquared wrote: post #272

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The application keeps one's Mac from going to sleep. Its name is basically a direct analogy, and doesn't imply any wrongdoing or illegality, as far as I can see. > I also would not buy your product if it were called alcohol poisoning. I love alcohol. I’m drinking a beer right now (happy New Years everyone). But naming a computer program after it sounds like an odd thing to do. And more to your point would also be a v…

I don't think it implies wrongdoing, just sounds like a silly joke. Scotch vs scotch whiskey is more of a word play joke as well than a direct analogy. But I see your point and your totally right that one sounds less bad to me. I'm only stating that as a matter of taste I do not like this particular apps name. And since it's apple's store they have the right to not like it either. I just don't think this is a profoun…

Haha. It's just a convenience, not a need. There's nothing stopping you from going to screensaver settings and energy settings, manually setting it to "never", then going back after you've completed the download, screenshare, or whatever, and changing your settings back. Alternatively, you could use Apple's built-in CLI tool, `caffeinate`, as others have mentioned.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#403

Post by cmorgan31 »

0xEFF wrote: post #359
webmobdev wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> My advice is to immediately rebrand as gracefully and effectively as possible and use all that activist energy to effect the transition. Apple will definitely appreciate it if all of us would just shut up and let them screw us. While I appreciate your well-meaning advise to the author - pick your battles in life carefully - I'd like to add that using your anger constructively at some injustice is a positive move to…

Do you expect to see a box on a shelf of any retail store labeled, “Amphetamine” with a colorful picture of drugs? It’s entirely reasonable for the retail store to tell the vendor to rename the product or else it will be removed from the shelf.

The best argument against Apple is the inconsistency in application of rules. If what you say is reasonable why would they also promote iOS apps whose explicit purpose is the simulation of cartel wars or marijuana dispensaries? My hot take is one doesn’t make much money for Apple while the others provide a clear incentive to act willfully ignorant given their in app revenue streams.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#404

Post by irateswami »

webmobdev wrote: post #311
Bodell wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly if your name your product stupid things I would think that some of us might be choosing not to download your product as a result. And if a store decides not to sell your product because of this it’s really their prerogative. Saying you violated their terms with impunity for 6 years doesn’t mean they lose the right to correct the mistake. This name is pretty rings rather badly in my ears, though I’m not offen…

This just detracts us from the actual discussion - do you think Apple should be the ultimate arbitrator to decide what you name your app?

This whole thing is why I'm so glad someone finally sued Apple over their control of the app store, it's just more fuel for the fire.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#405

Post by mbreese »

wincy wrote: post #229
Bodell wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly if your name your product stupid things I would think that some of us might be choosing not to download your product as a result. And if a store decides not to sell your product because of this it’s really their prerogative. Saying you violated their terms with impunity for 6 years doesn’t mean they lose the right to correct the mistake. This name is pretty rings rather badly in my ears, though I’m not offen…

I know a very intelligent software engineer who told me he had never used Exercism (despite him using other similar tools) simply because he’s a practicing Catholic and thought the name to be in poor taste. You definitely alienate people at the fringes by naming things something even slightly risqué.

You could argue that this is also why we now have system services instead of daemons.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#406

Post by JumpCrisscross »

jethro_tell wrote: post #308
GCA10 wrote: post #276

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Freedom of speech isn't the same as freedom of distribution. There are lots of edgy things that you can say somewhere. You just can't say them everywhere. We can have lots of lively debate about how to draw the boundaries. But we'll get a lot farther if we can move beyond the two-state absolutism of "allowable everywhere" vs. "outright banned with breath-taking severity."

This is still not it. He's not facing a government warrent. Freedom of speech means the government won't/can't prosecute you for what you say. It doesn't have anything to do with how companies or private citizens respond to your words. You're (usually) legally allowed to say you'll fuck my mom but I don't have to bring you over for family dinner. One could contend that apple's refusal to host this app on it's store i…

> Freedom of speech means the government won't/can't prosecute you for what you say

The First Amendment says this. Freedom of speech is “a principle that supports the freedom of an individual or a community to articulate their opinions and ideas without fear of retaliation, censorship, or legal sanction” [1]. It is broader than the First Amendment, and gave rise to it, though the First Amendment is its most successful codification in the modern world.

A society that shuns those who say “bad” things, even without state action, may not hold true to the values of freedom of speech.

[1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freedom_of_speech

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#407

Post by yoz-y »

pfortuny wrote: post #399
0xEFF wrote: post #359

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you expect to see a box on a shelf of any retail store labeled, “Amphetamine” with a colorful picture of drugs? It’s entirely reasonable for the retail store to tell the vendor to rename the product or else it will be removed from the shelf.

Grand Theft Auto comes to mind... Plague Inc... Drink extreme... Trivia Crack Adventura... Drug Mafia... All of those are ios GAMES.

Yes this. The hypocrisy of the gatekeepers is infuriating. Let’s not forget that almost all popular games are mass murder simulators. One of the most popular kids games is a dog fighting game.

Now, I’m not advocating to remove those. I like games, but let’s not pretend that somehow calling an app after a molecule is worse.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#408

Post by null_object »

I genuinely don’t understand the outrage in these HN threads about Apple. This is an application undoubtedly built with Apple hardware, probably using an Apple-developed programming language and an IDE made by Apple, to be used on machines created and manufactured by Apple, and provided on a store that’s setup and run by Apple.

This isn’t even a so-called ‘walled garden’. Let’s take Instagram for instance: built on technologies provided freely by others (HTML, JavaScript, CSS) and exploiting user-created content, I still need to sign-up to a Facebook service to be able to see that freely-provided content.

If these apps were boxes on a Walmart shelf, why would it be seen as some sort of civil-liberty infringement if you got a call someday, to say that Walmart had decided to discontinue selling your product?

Just change the name and move on.

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#409

Post by _jal »

bambax wrote: post #210
Bodell wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly if your name your product stupid things I would think that some of us might be choosing not to download your product as a result. And if a store decides not to sell your product because of this it’s really their prerogative. Saying you violated their terms with impunity for 6 years doesn’t mean they lose the right to correct the mistake. This name is pretty rings rather badly in my ears, though I’m not offen…

> I’m not offended by the word “fuck” but I don’t really want to buy products that are named that. Then don't. How is this relevant? They say the app has been downloaded 500,000 times, so many people are fine with the name. These stories keep coming; they should remind us that nothing is more precious than the open web, and all those stores or walled gardens, their "rules" and vague TOS are the ennemy.

It is less that the rules are vague than that the rules are whatever Apple says they are today, for you.

Apple was promoting Amphetamine not that long ago:

https://apps.apple.com/us/story/id1470456860

Re: Apple has threatened to remove Amphetamine from the App Store

#410

Post by pfortuny »

yoz-y wrote: post #407
pfortuny wrote: post #399

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Grand Theft Auto comes to mind... Plague Inc... Drink extreme... Trivia Crack Adventura... Drug Mafia... All of those are ios GAMES.

Yes this. The hypocrisy of the gatekeepers is infuriating. Let’s not forget that almost all popular games are mass murder simulators. One of the most popular kids games is a dog fighting game. Now, I’m not advocating to remove those. I like games, but let’s not pretend that somehow calling an app after a molecule is worse.

Can you even call something “Arsenic”?
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