“The editorial drawing [left] of Steve Jobs as a brush-wielding bowdlerizer appeared in Monday’s issue of Ekstra Bladet, a Danish tabloid with a sensationalist bent that likes to think of itself as a champion of the common man,” Philip Elmer-DeWitt reports for Fortune.
“One of the paper’s most popular features is its ‘Side 9 Pigen,’ the photo of a topless or totally nude woman that has graced the 9th page of every issue since 1979,” P.E.D. reports. “Because of the paper’s Page 9 Girl, Apple has refused to let Ekstra Bladet appear anywhere in its App Store, even the version seen only in Denmark.”
P.E.D. reports, “Ekstra Bladet, for its part, refuses to remove its beloved pin-up, and has launched a series of increasingly strident attacks on Apple that culminated Monday in the drawing above and an editorial.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Ekstra Bladet’s “Side 9” page (NSFW) is totally accessible on any iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch via the built-in Safari browser.
Free the breast; after all males have nipples too. Just squeeze yours and see for yourself what comes out.
Any kind of censorship is evil!
To make it clear: I love apple products! Porn bores me to death. (I am alive, so I do not consume it or are not related to it in any other way.) But I really hate any kind of censorship. The world, its people and their cultures are all different – thank god for that – and any effort to try to force the taste of one man to mankind has never ever resulted in anything good. And, sadly enough, as a German I have to say that we have had more than unpleasant experiences with that.
This is great. Ekstra Bladet creates this by refusing to comply and then trashtalk Apple on their own media platform. Looks more like blackmail and betraying journalistic responsibility in order to launch an app they can make money off.
Then, the number 1 Apple
Hater (or Nokia stock holder?), ‘tele-analyst’ John Strand, tips off Fortune to make the story go international.
Talk about a load of hidden agendas..
Apple should may be better prevent all catholic linked church or organization to publish anything else than the holy bible due to the number of known and unknow of their members linked to, friends with, compromised with in house pedophily, pornography, sexual harassment, sexual assaults, unrecognized/abandoned children/mothers, etc. Not doing so, Apple is like tolerant witness, with the crime of complicity. A better built in OS and / or product’s module that will allow all people who want to censor themselves to do it without anyone to impose anything. WikiLeaks is an exemple that shows that in America, there is no need to wait for decision of justice to act. Go on Apple.
Besides running a high class joint, one of the other reasons that Apple bans porn is simple. Get kids hooked on Apple hardware and software and they will grow up with it and use it forever. By providing a relatively/comparatively sheltered place, they encourage parents to buy Apple over ____ for their kids.
Wonder if that rag is complaining that their zine isn’t sold at Toys R Us, either.
Pictures of naked women are simply abusive to women; if you cant see that then you are just another tabloid-reading moron.
Jobs standards are a good thing, and even if 90% of the world are complete idiots, there are still a few real people left.
The problem here is hypocrisy. If I can view this on my iPhone with Safari, then what difference does it make exactly if I use an App or Safari? It just doesn’t make sense.
As a side note, the human body is not pornographic. It may be erotic and sexy, but that’s not pornography. The picture of a naked woman or man is not pornography (I would define pornography as pictures of someone(s) performing some sexual act- of which standing around naked does not count).
I’m not so sure we’re protecting anyone’s kids from naked bodies- they will find them on the Internet easily enough if they really want to.
The other point here is the cultural snobbery (aka arrogance). If the Danish paper were made available ONLY in Denmark, I see absolutely no problem with their app being made available for Danish iPhones (since that seems to be the cultural norm there). What right does Apple/Steve Jobs have to impose American cultural values on other peoples? It just seems over the top to me (but perhaps I’m just to open minded?).
Nudity isn’t violent—that’s a profoundly absurd statement. Violence, on the other hand, is violent.
That being said, I appreciate whatever compass it is—whether moral or business—that dictates this decision.
Many commenters on the Fortune post mention that Apple allowed the Sun (UK) to sell its app despite a similar nude picture (Page 3 instead of Page 9). That is indeed a double standard, which the original Ekstra Bladet headline states.
Leaving aside the “censorship” issue, Apple should certainly apply consistent standards across all submissions. Interesting that the Sun is News Corp. (owed by Rupert Murdoch). Discuss.
Apple knows how this game works. Unfortunately America thinks its the world conscience. If these totally socially acceptable apps were only available in Europe they would still get judged by the US moral majority.
They can not win by allowing this type of content and Steve knows it.
Some Americans are as prudish as the mullahs of Iran.
Shooting and killing people in entertainment media is OK, but show a nipple and the world is coming to an end.
I like that there is a company who still cares about decency. Some things are not meant to be out there for easy access for anyone, any age. Give kids time to be kids. They don’t get that much in these times, with nearly every comedy show and every music video shoving sex at them. And we wonder why teenage pregnancies are rampant and we’re all paying more to support the ever expanding teenage welfare class of poor mothers. Use to be shameful to be pregnant without marriage and a means to support and raise the kids, now it’s the thing to do, they see all these unwed mothers and casual sex on TV, and it’s OK to them.
Sorry, but Apple isn’t imposing their morality on anyone. They simply don’t want to sell certain things in their store–just like Target, McDonalds, Mercedes or Saks Fifth Avenue, They are not preventing anyone from creating any magazine or online storefront and they aren’t preventing anyone from selling their magazine anywhere else. And they aren’t trying to police what you view in Safari either.
You could just as well argue that the Danish magazine is trying to impose it’s (lack of) morality on Apple.
This case has nothing to do with censorship and everything to do with $$$ and the rights of a store owner to sell what he wants. Should Apple be able to force the Danish magazine to carry a 12-page advertising section on Apple products?
Apple is simply policing what is sold in their own app store just like any other retail establishment that has any sense.
You are all sheep. All of you. You’re idiots.
As far as I’m concerned, Apple is completely entitled to make its own rules in its own sandbox. But I do object to the automatic labeling of any nude photo as “pornography”. That’s just plain stupid.
‘just me…’
If “casual sex on TV” causes teenage pregnancies as you suggest, then what do you think “casual violence or murder on TV” manifests?
Why does Apple have to be so damn decent? Aren’t ANY of you taking charge in being an integral part of you own child’s life? Do you really expect a corporation to do it for you?
Why can’t there be an adult section in iTunes, locked off with parental controls from iTunes that does not allow viewing of the Adult section or even downloading anything at all unless your parent gives the ok? Do you all let your children wander shamelessly in the streets? How about the internet? C’mon people.
And if you are an adult that doesn’t like adult section you just don’t go to that section.
Besides what has a little nudity ever done to harm you.. guess what’s under those close of yours, your significant other, your children?? That’s right your naked bodies. Welcome to reality. How is that SO awful?
“Pictures of naked women are simply abusive to women”
Really, abusive to who?
Excuse me but to those of you who say that photographs of a nude body isn’t pornography – then how do you explain nude pictures of Madonna? If that isn’t porn, I don’t know what is – in fact I’d classify it as eyesight damaging.
I always hated the lol abbreviation, but man, I was on the floor with that cartoon! lol!!!
Steve, if you are not laughing at that one, you should. We are all laughing with you, not at you.
Actually, we’re looking at the girl!
Oh, and thank you Apple for keeping this out of the app store for my kids!!!
For everyone else, there’s Safari, jail breaking, Android, Windows 07 – lol
@ Smarmy Bastard,
“Aren’t ANY of you taking charge in being an integral part of you own child’s life?”
Yes, that’s why I don’t let them visit the red light district,
and I do let them visit the Apple app store.
Americans are a funny people: more afraid of boobs than of guns…
The Danes, who in the world gives a crap about what the Danes think or do…
America = Hypocrisy.
They are the worst offenders. You create your own hell. There’s nudity on posters and magazines all over Europe. Has it been corrupting the youth? People in Europe can drink beer on public trains. Has it made people alcoholics?
Welcome to America, where everybody doesn’t want to take responsibility for their own actions. They will find a scapegoat for anything. Never to admit to themselves that they are responsible for their actions and lives, not the media, and not other people.
All that hypocrisy is what drives people to drinking and drugs. All your gang and gun violence. All your hard drug problems. All your aggression. Your plastic lives. Your plastic government. Your plastic jobs. America is very developed yet incredibly backwards at the same time. Socially bankrupt.
You speak to each other like children speak to one another. Overly animated, two dimensional. And all you sheep on here supporting Jobs. Your censorship and hypocrisy is just absolutely absurd. You live delusional lives, all of you.
skjdf
Shouldn’t you be perusing some web site dedicated to a great European computer company?
Oh, snap, that’s right…..
Some of you “anti-censorship” and “Americans are hypocrites” and “Americans are pride b/c they think the nude body is dirty” types are unbelievable. I am trying to take responsibility for my actions and teach my children what I consider proper respect for the human body (a nude body is not “dirty” and neither is sex) and how our actions have consequences.
I would imagine many of us here are, if not liberal, then fairly moderate in out views. But talk about hypocrisy! Do you all honestly think the average (emphasis on average) woman likes being viewed as a piece of meat? Whatever happened to the liberal mantra of equal treatment for women and no exploitation of them for sex?!?