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“Anyone forking out £3.20 for the digital version of the magazine will have to do without the explicit photo spreads that titillated generations of teenage boys,” Moore reports. “The Playmate of the Month, one of the magazine’s most popular photo features, will only appear on the iPad as a tasteful headshot.”
Moore reports, “Playboy agreed to censor its content in order to secure a place in the App Store, from which any software which Apple considers ‘obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory’ is banned… Apple is almost unique in the technology industry for taking an active stance against pornography. In April Steve Jobs, the chief executive, wrote to a customer who complained about Apple’s self-appointed role as moral arbiter to insist that ‘we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone.'”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: If you want to view nudity on your iPad or iPhone, use the browser like everyone else.
As long as the girls are upside down, that’s OK.
Oh no! Naked people! Run!
This is a great example of how powerful the Apple brand has become.
Playboy should just build an app that is an ultra violent video game. Then they can put in as much scantily clad women as they want and call it art too.
Anybody wanting to view porn doesn’t go to the App Store anyway.
(Or so I heard one guy tell another dude at a coffee shop)
apple is not alone in this stance, all current gaming systems have standards that limit porn content. neither xbox, ps3, or wii will allow ao games on their systems. Netflix as well does not stock x-rated dvds on their site. Best buy does not sell porn software on the shelf. sears does not sell vibrators in store. in fact there are few business that openly support the adult industry…blaming apple for restricting the apple store is inconsistent with industry standards. furthermore freedom of speech does not dictate to business which content they must support, there are many mediums to exercise free speech a privately managed app store is not one of them
I can’t find Playboy HD in the app store. I might’ve bought a few issues just to see what it’s like, but this “walled garden” needs some melons.
as much as i disagree with Jobs’ moral stance, i’m glad that Apple is at least being consistent with the enforcement of their rules. The whole fiasco of banning explicit apps while leaving Playboy and SI Swimsuit was embarrassing.
Apple needs to get rethink their content ratings as well. They are in the process of rendering them meaningless.
@ bizlaw,
When they are upside down, they all look alike to me.
If Playboy wants the “exposure” of having an app in the App Store, yet show the full content that’s in their magazine, they just need to create an app (for the App Store) that points to a Safari “web-based app” (basically a web page that is specially designed and sized to work well on an iPhone’s screen using the touch interface). The app itself will not have any prohibited content, and Apple has no control over web page content. Make it so that the only way to gain access to that particular web content is by going through the app as the starting point. (The main drawback is the need to have web access, whereas a fully-downloaded magazine app can be viewed with no Internet connection.)
The Kindle app does something like this to go back and forth between the book reader app and the web book store. The store is a custom mobile web page that is viewed using Safari. There is also a YouTube web app (another custom mobile web page) that works better than the pre-installed native YouTube app.
Because iPhones are usually connected to Internet, I think these web-based apps are going to become more popular at the expense of simple native apps that are currently downloaded from the app store. Advantages: No need to download the app and install it on iPhone. The app takes up no space on iPhone. Updates are available to everyone immediately (it’s a web page). No need to go through Apple’s app approval process. No content restrictions that are defined by Apple. The main drawback is the need to have web access, whereas a fully-downloaded app can be viewed with no Internet connection. You are also limited in what a web-app can do, compared to a native app, but it should be more than adequate for showing magazine content.
@ annoymous coward
“The need for porn will never go away as it’s a educational experience in the pursuit of hard wired pro-creation human needs. Apple blew it’s opportunity to maintain and control it, even profit by it so people can access it safely with a X-rated section.
Fixing people’s computers I always come across people’s “choices” and severe paranoia. What they are afraid of is beyond me, sex is normal as long as it’s legal and consenting. Everyone does it, everyone needs it. So why be afraid or ashamed of it? Just be considerate and not do it in front of others in public places that’s all. Your not going to hell for something that God gave us to use. Lighten up Jobso.”
Well said sir.
Hey, ‘Jobso’- what’s your problem man? Come on, you can tell us, we’re your friends and here to help…
trololo
steve needs a kick in the liver.
too bad im a lazy luddite. it just works.
New slogan: There’s an app for that*
* except using a more convenient physical camera button, nudity/pornographic material etc. etc.
Showing content only from the neck up sounds like Microsoft.
Or maybe from the waist down… hmm…
MW: Word!
I think this is a good policy by Apple.
Playboy is about to find out how many people REALLY just buy it for the articles.