Steve Jobs hates freedom

Steve Jobs hates freedom.

You can see it in Apple’s iOS with it’s obfuscated coding, in the rigid and draconian application management, and now with it’s censorship.  Yup, “There’s an app for that too!”

PC magazine reported on Apple’s Anti-sexting Patent. Apparently teens send each other lewd messages on their phones *gasp*! First of all we all know prohibition doesn’t work.  It didn’t work with booze and it sure as hell will not work to curb the teenage sex drive.  Teens will simply begin creating a new language to describe what it is they want to do to each other.  Ever heard of “Scritching” or “Yiffing“? Google them.  Not to mention that teens could actually just dial each other and talk dirty.

The patent that Apple submitted actually reads, “Text-based communication control for personal communication device,”  If that doesn’t make you a little uncomfortable, it should.

What Apple is really trying to do is allow third parties to control how people communicate.  While the government probably doesn’t care about teens sexting each other, I am pretty sure the government in China would be interested in stopping pro-democracy texts or other forms of censorship.   In Iran, anything that is against the theocracy.  Essentially anywhere the mobile phone disposable or otherwise is used as a tool of dissension.

I am assuming governments can probably already do this.  If you control the network the signals are going through then you can probably control the message as well.  But this is just increasing the amount of control as well as giving it to people who probably have no right to that sort of control.

According to Apple insider the patent also includes:

the technology could also force children to brush up on their grammar, requiring that messages include designated vocabulary words, proper spelling, as well as correct grammar and punctuation, all based on a skill level set by their parents.

Grammar Nazi takes on a whole new meaning.  Thanks Steve!