Apple: World's First Victorian Tech Company

Either Apple has completely lost hold of its senses or it's trying to turn back the clock to Victorian-era America, a time when we led the world in official prudishness.Apple certainly hasn't gained anything from its humiliating app-off with Trent Reznor of Nine Inch Nails, who appropriately nailed the digital overlord for putting prissiness over common sense -- not to mention the artistic freedom it should be busy promoting rather than burying.

In a vivid demonstration that absurdity knows no bounds, Apple has now banned an e-book reader app, Eucalyptus, from its App Store because readers can download the Kama Sutra.

The absurdity of the action is aptly summarized by Wired:

Forget for a moment the absurdity of blaming a vessel for the liquid it might contain. Apple is also nuts -- and I can say that with some degree of legal authority.

Anthony Comstock, a Victorian-era zealous anti-pornography activist who lobbied successfully for passage of the Comstock Law, used his position as Postmaster General to ban works by George Bernard Shaw and went so far as to try to actually ban nude store mannequins from department store windows. A local judge dismissed the charges, saying, "Mr. Comstock, I think you're nuts."

I realize that Apple employees may not have time to read much literature, but they might be interested in the preface to James Joyce's Ulysses, which reproduces U.S. District Judge John Woolsley's 1933 decision to allow Ulysses into the United States, despite the government's vehement argument that the work was obscene:

Beyond absurdity, I wonder if Apple is aware that Amazon's Kindle e-reader app can also download works with dirty words and graphic sex scenes. Is Apple going to get in Amazon's face about the Kindle app too?