I have a huge problem with the banning of any book, recently the iPhone application Comic Reader has been rejected because it can read the Murderdrome http://www.infuriouscomics.com/ comic series. I’m guessing you can assume from the title it’s not a fluffy happy kid’s comic. But this is a comic book. A work of drawing and word balloons. It is imaginary. It is fiction.
The application Comic Reader was submitted to the Apple App Store and the publishers received notice that it was being rejected for violating terms of the Software Developer Kit which states:
“Applications must not contain any obscene, pornographic, offensive or defamatory content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, etc.), or other content or materials that in Apple’s reasonable judgment may be found objectionable by iPhone or iPod touch users.”
Hold up a minute…. They are banning content not the application, the application can be used for many, many, different comics. Apple sells Reservoir Dogs http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reservoir_Dogs in their iTunes store, arguably one of the most violent and graphic movies ever made, and apple sells the unrated version.
The Soviet Union banned the The Bible and The Quran from libraries during 1926 to 1956. Who does Apple think they are
Plus, as the blog points out, they are distributing offensive content in other cases... they are being foolishly inconsistent.
So, it's a poor business practice, too... someone there isn't minding the store (or maybe it's that they're minding it improperly! :-)