Justin Taylor (quoting Pete from Grace City):
Pete from Grace City has a post about Steve Jobs, Apple, and porn. An excerpt:
“Jobs has argued that he wants his portable computer devices to not sell or stock pornography.
When a critic emailed him to say that this infringed his freedoms, Jobs emailed back and told him to buy a different type of computer.
Steve Jobs is a fan of Bob Dylan. So one customer emailed him to ask how Dylan would feel about Jobs’ restrictions of customers’ freedoms.
The CEO of Apple replied to say that he values:
‘Freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom. The times they are a changin’ and some traditional PC folks feel their world is slipping away. It is.’
The interlocuter replied:
“I don’t want ‘freedom from porn’. Porn is just fine! And I think my wife would agree.”
In the most revealing line, Steve Jobs dismissed the critic thus:
“You might care more about porn when you have kids.”
Pause for a moment and consider what the above emails represent.
The CEO of one of the wealthiest, most successful international companies, responds to the email of a customer. Business prospers on the mantra ‘The customer is always right.’ Business wants the customers’ money.
But in this case, over the moral issue of pornography, Jobs is happy to tell customers to buy a different product. He argues that children and innocence ought to be preserved—and that trumps the dollar.
Google (with their motto ‘Don’t be evil’) rake in billions through pornography. Ranks of employees spend their time categorising and arranging advertising for pornography. (I know, I spent some time discussing the difficulties posed to a Christian who worked in their UK HQ.) Pornography is huge business, yet here is the CEO of Apple telling the pornography businesses to take their dollars elsewhere.”
Good for Jobs.
I believe this is more of a marketing ploy by Jobs rather than a true moral decision. Porn is freely available on an iPhone, iTouch or iPad via web sites, YouTube or any streaming video site available (as long as it is not in Adobe Flash, quite possibly the real reason he is banning porn apps). Also, Jobs does not seem to have a problem with the Playboy App or the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit App that is advertised in my SI every single week.
What Jobs is really doing is basking in the opportunity to bash a competitor and protecting his proprietary software from developers that he doesn’t approve of.