Hi readers,
So, I was thinking back to our in-class AIS discussion about Apple, about how the company has really opened up the opportunity to privatize the internet with their App store, as well as the discussion on "Jailbreaking" an iPod. The discussion reminded me of some of the other things I think makes Apple's ethics and business morals questionable.
Jailbreaking is the biggest thing on my mind because it seems like many people are doing it, and therefore many people are affected by it. The reason so many people wanted to Jailbreak their iPods/iPhones is that it offered programs, applications, and abilities that were unaccessible with a normal Apple device, programs such as uploading HD video to Youtube, among other things. Soon after these Jailbroken programs were released, Apple released their own versions in an update customers had to pay for. Basically, it seems to me, Apple didn't let these third party programmers sell their applications to Apple customers, and then essentially stole the ideas and made money off them. And now, Apple is filing for a patent that will let them "kill," or make worthless, Jailbroken Apple technology (you can read about that here). This strategy, the taking and selling of programmer's ideas and then trying to make it illegal for these programmers to ever get their products out again, makes Apple seem almost criminal.
I recognize that I could be wrong, and that if Apple had already been trying to develop these programs at the time, it would make financial sense to make the customer buy Apple software. But I also feel that if the technology is out there, in whatever form, Apple should make it available. Please feel free to comment.
Reading your post got me thinking about the long term usability of apple devices. It reminded me of something I read a while ago that talked about Apple's DRM that was attached to all music files downloaded from iTunes. The DRM required the file to connect to Apple's servers and verify that the user was entitled to open the file. The writer pointed out that Apple may not be around forever, and if for some reason Apple were to go out of business, the billions of songs that people had downloaded would become unusable. Apple has since removed this DRM, but I think it connects to this post. If Apple were to cease to exist or stop maintaining the App Store, jailbreaking would be the only way to get new apps because Apple has to approve every single App uploaded to the App store.
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