Why Apple's DUI Checkpoint App Ban Is Stupid

hookskat writes "Reason.tv Editor in Chief Nick Gillespie reacts to Apple's decision to ban DUI Checkpoint Apps from the App Store, writing: 'Let me add something even more damning of this latest development in corporate cave-ins to legally protected free speech and I'm gonna bold it for emphasis: Some police departments actually supply the data used in such apps because they reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads! Somehow, I'm thinking that Steve Jobs circa 1984...would have told U.S. senators sending threatening letters about computer-based info sharing to take a hike. Or at least to spend time on, I don't know, creating a freaking budget for the country rather than worrying about regulating something that helps reduce impaired driving.' Last month, after RIM caved on the same question, Reason.tv released this video on the subject of banning DUI checkpoint apps."

Not Published

[Anonymous Coward]

From the summary on slashdot: "I'm gonna bold it for emphasis: Some police departments actually supply the data used in such apps because they reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads!"

From the article: "Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected...."

Re:Not Published

[zn0k]

> From the summary on slashdot: "I'm gonna bold it for emphasis: Some police departments actually supply the data used in such apps because they reduce the number of drunk drivers on the roads!"
> From the article: "Apps which contain DUI checkpoints that are not published by law enforcement agencies, or encourage and enable drunk driving, will be rejected...."

Yeah, but just because of, like, that, and the fact that it was already discussed to death in today's earlier thread about the same topic - well that wouldn't stop Slashdot from posting another piece of shit fucking flamebait article. Right?

Re:preachin to the choir

[node 3]

Except the story is based on a false premise. Apple doesn't ban apps that use the police department's data.

Massively, massively troll article!

[jo_ham]

What the hell passes for "facts" these days?

Apple has *not* banned DUI checkpoint apps. Not even one. All of the checkpoint apps that were up on the store before today are still there.

What they have done is changed their ToS to be explicit about the listing of non-public information, which DUI checkpoints are *not included in* since the police advertise them.

How the fuck this ever (and in the previous article) got twisted into "Apple bans DUI checkpoint apps" is beyond me, other than some serious axe-grinding Apple haters are just making stuff up and posting it as news. Maybe the correction was sent to them via text message from Android, but it somehow got sent to a guy who cleans windows in Atlanta instead.

Re:banning IS stoopid - wanna know why??

[ArAgost]

you know you don't need an app to drive safe, right?

Re:preachin to the choir

[Nerdfest]

To be fair, the summary says that "Some police departments actually supply the data used". If it's not illegal, they should allow the app, or allow people to install things outside their store, but as usual, that just my opinion, and one of the big reasons I won't buy any of their products anymore. They've lowered their 'Evil' rating in my books a little today already by dropping the "can't charge a lower price somewhere else" portion of their anti-competitive subscription policy though. Sadly, I think that was because of legal ramifications and publishers looking harder at Android than anything else though.

Re:Massively, massively troll article!

[MobileTatsu-NJG]

How the fuck this ever (and in the previous article) got twisted into "Apple bans DUI checkpoint apps" is beyond me, other than some serious axe-grinding Apple haters are just making stuff up and posting it as news.

I used to think that but now I think Slashdot has noticed that stories about Android and iPhone generate a lot of ad-serving content. People still fall for this shit.