Apple nixes 'potentially offensive' South Park app
Kenny, Kyle, Cartman and Stan won't be appearing on the iPhone any time soon.
(Credit: South Park Studios)Apple has made it clear that South Park must respect its authority.
The company has now twice rejected an iPhone application designed to let iPhone owners watch clips of the long-running show featuring the exploits of Stan, Kyle, Cartman, and Kenny. Apple apparently feels that South Park's content is "potentially offensive," according to Boing Boing, and will not allow it onto the App Store.
Once again, Apple's taste-making policies for the App Store leave it in a curious position. The company's decision to ban a book from the App Store for using dirty language, yet approve a fast-growing category of fart-related applications, has many wondering exactly what sort of standards are used to evaluate iPhone applications.
Apple briefly employed a rating system for iPhone applications with a "17+" category, but has since removed that from the App Store. Still, some developers are self-rating their applications as "17+," such as X-Soft's iWand 17+ (iTunes link), a fake metal detector that features images of a gun and knife.
Perhaps Apple isn't all that worried about the content itself. After all, it's not bothered enough by South Park to stop selling more than a hundred episodes of the edgy show (rated TV-MA) for $1.99 on the iTunes Store, as well as the R-rated South Park: Bigger, Longer, and Uncut movie released in 1999.
And the top paid entertainment application on the App Store as of Tuesday is a "Yo mama" joke generator, with such classics as "Yo mama so stupid she spent twenty minutes lookin' at an orange juice box because it said 'concentrate.'" Slightly farther down the list, "Wobble Bikini Fun" promises that it's "the only application that can make ANY body part on people in your photos jiggle like jelly."
South Park Studios' application was designed to let iPhone users stream episodes, which might be the feature that really offended Apple. The company told South Park's creators that they might be able to get the application into the store at a later date, according to Boing Boing: "But Apple did admit that the standards would evolve, citing that when iTunes first launched it didn't sell any music with explicit lyrics."
Of course, Apple might also be waiting for its rumored iTunes video-streaming service to be completed. It wouldn't be the first time Apple has rejected an iPhone application that contained a feature the company was planning to implement on its own.
Tom Krazit writes about the ever-expanding world of Internet search, including Google, Yahoo, online advertising, and portals, as well as the evolution of mobile computing. He has written about traditional PC companies, chip manufacturers, and mobile computers, spending the last three years covering Apple. E-mail Tom. 
(They told you that before you bought it. They have made it quite clear waving around the DMCA. You knew it; I just don't want to hear the whining)
:-D
It is O.K. for Apple to sell obscenity laced music that enforces, rape, torture, murder, and racism?
It is O.K. for Apple to sell horror movies so horrific in their images that the buzz word "torture porn" has been used to describe the film.
It is O.K. for Apple to sell South Park episodes, but...
heaven forbid they allow access to short clips, easily found on YouTube via the iPhone for someone might be offended?
This makes Appple appear to be controled by one or more fanatical religious groups to put their ideology onto others by refusing to give what consumers want to buy. This why I am happy that some stores are open on christmas.
This is not acceptable behaviour based on the excuse of objectionable material.
Selling episodes of South Park on iTunes? That makes a lot of money. This is approved.
Approve of an app that would let you see South Park content on your iPhone? Limited monetary benefit to Apple. Application denied.
Unless Apple applies this same censorship for values that they feel is important to maintain on the iPhone to *all* content that they offer through iTunes, then they are guilty of hypocrisy for the greed of the almighty dollar.
Somehow I don't see them deciding to take down all the 'offensive' content from iTunes any time soon.
Aren't double standards fun?
There is no way on the App store to rate products mature or otherwise. For them to release them to the general public without having such a system in place would be bad practice.
Also, everyone is whining how it's all about money here. Exactly! It's a company; if they weren't all about money then what would they be about? The shareholders count on them making money. The App can't compete with a service Apple already offers. I for one don't see a problem with this.
Not so much a double standard as a business decision. As you said there is money involved. "Bell, book, and candle, shall not drive me back / When gold and silver becks me to come on"
Try bringing your MacDonalds Happy Meal to consume in The Velvet Rope Restaurant and not ordering off of their menu.
I would kill to see that episode on my Ipod touch just to **** Apple off even more
One wears a power suit the other wears a sports coat (perhaps with a pair of matching hush puppies and a messenger bag) but at the end of the day they both go home, count their wallets and you are just a resource to them both.
- by HomerJayRI February 20, 2009 11:09 AM PST
- Yo mama joke is FUNNY!!
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