On Feb 1, 6:05 pm, Fabrizio Giudici <[email protected]> wrote: > Since we've argued about the extensive meanings of "dictatorship", let's > put the things together. Let's talk, for example, about China. > > Apple's AppStore is subjected to state censorship in China, and as a > result, again for instance, a few applications about Dalai Lama and > Buddhism are not available in that country. Now, this is for sure a > bigger problem involving the freedom of Internet in that country, and > people can't ever access free information about those topics surfing the > web. > > But let's compare what happens if I'm chinese and buy an iPhone, or any > other phone which accepts any application on it. WIth other phones, I > can manage in getting the missing bits in some ways - underground or > perhaps travelling in foreign countries. When I return in the homeland, > I for sure risk to be inspected and the police might find that I carry > illegal software on my apps. But the fact of carrying illegal document > is a common and old problem in any dictatorship, nothing new, and > there's courageous people willing to risk for it. This underground > circulation of prohibited information is something part of a process > that in the end is able to bring the dictatorship down. > > With the iPhone? First, I can't install the bits that I could get in the > underground market (sure, there's jailbreak, but this is not usable by > most non-technical-savvy people). For sure I can travel abroad and > install those apps, but when I return home? Isn't there that blacklist > application killer that allows Apple to remove unapproved applications > on every gear? Isn't that killer working by talking to some Apple > server? Isn't the local government filtering and monitoring all internet > communications in the country, so I could be as well tracked and > arrested by police (not of course because I generically installed an > application not allowed by Apple, but because of that Dalai Lama stuff). > > Isn't this just _outrageous_?
That surely is way off-topic for the _Java Posse_, so I'll make some final remarks. Firstly, Android has a kill-switch, too (http:// www.theregister.co.uk/2008/10/16/android_kill_switch/). Secondly, if you want to hide some information from the government, then don't use a mobile phone which can be traced back to you personally and in location and can be wire-tapped, use a more anonymous medium (in movies, the bad guys either use pay phones or "one time use only mobile phones" for that very reason). Thirdly, in a country where every PC is required to ship with censoring software on it (http:// en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_censorship_in_the_People %27s_Republic_of_China#Green_Dam_Youth_Escort), I assume that phones will be crippled and monitored, too. Fourthly, no matter how cleverly you install an app on whatever device, in the end it will send data across the Internet for communication which is filtered and monitored for keywords like any other traffic. Finally, think low-tech - from what I read, criminals (who also want to remain undetected, just like dissidents) use simple emails, chat rooms and IRC channels, mixed with encryption, typically from Internet cafes, so that's for the dissidents, too. > I'd also would like to point out that Microsoft has been severely fined > by the EU because of that Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player > being the default installation on Windows. Note, note the only allowed > application, just the _default_ one - a sign that the measure was > directed to protect end customers, not professional ones that take five > minutes in downloading and install FIrefox. And everybody of us was just > applauding to that EU decision. Now, how comes that on the iPhone, > another thing targeted at customers, we're not even talking of > _defaults_ that can be overridden, but an _explicit_ Apple's policy that > forbids any "duplicate" of Apple features? Think of Google Voicemail, > that was banned. Isn't this much worse than Microsoft attitude, and most > of us say now that it's "normal"? Of course, to me doesn't matter that > for Microsoft we were talking of computers and now it's a matter of > smartphones, because of that convergence of computational appliances. As a company, you can build a computer / phone platform any way you like and ship it, granted that you uphold the laws. Now laws don't require you to promote your competitors, so it's perfectly legal to build a closed platform like the iPhone / iPad. Microsoft was convicted to have a monopoly (which isn't even illegal in the U.S., unlike some European countries) and to have abused it to damage competitors, and that's why it was forced to support its competitors. So if the iPhone or the iPad have a monopoly position (probably 90% market share or more, I'm no legal expert), then Apple will probably be sued because somebody will claim Apple abused its monopoly, and the Apple will be forced to open up their platform a bit, just like Microsoft was (I think they were already sued a number of times for their closed iTunes shop). And that's the right thing to do, because monopolies aren't good for anybody. Now when it comes to the effectiveness of these legal restrictions, that's a different matter - Netscape was long dead before it was awarded a legal victory, and changing the browser didn't challenge the real Microsoft monopolies (Windows and Office on the desktop). Same for Intel - they recently got fined for unlawfully keeping AMD out of customers and paid AMD 1.25 billion dollar, but that was even less than their last quarter profit, so that clearly paid off for them. Now every company would love to have a monopoly because it's the most profitable thing, and if Apple had one, I think they would even be worse than Microsoft ever was. But I don't think that will happen for phones because unlike the music player market, where Apple is close to a monopoly in the U.S., there are much bigger competitors involved, and the stakes are higher (right now, smart phones are the "next big thing" for applications). -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "The Java Posse" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/javaposse?hl=en.
