Apple backtracks on Nine Inch Nails iPhone app

Written by Ben Hardwidge

May 11, 2009 | 07:15

Tags: #access #app #content #downward #iphone #nin #objectionable #rant #reznor #spiral #trent #update

Companies: #apple

After becoming the subject of a humorously juvenile tirade of swearing and sarcasm from Trent Reznor last weekend, Apple has now backtracked on its decision to reject the update to the Nine Inch Nails iPhone app.

The update had previously spurned because it “contained objectionable content,” but Trent Reznor updated fans on Twitter on Friday, saying that Apple had approved the update. Reznor didn’t reveal any specifics about the u-turn from Apple, but said that the app was “unchanged” from its original form, and said that “the "issues" seem to have been resolved.”

Apple had previously stated that the app violated Section 3.3.12 from the iPhone SDK Agreement, because “The Downward Spiral" contained objectionable content. However, Reznor pointed out that "The Downward Spiral the album is not available anywhere in the iPhone app. The song The Downward Spiral I believe is in a podcast that can be streamed to the app.” Basically, the objectionable content was on the Internet, rather than a part of the app itself, which raised a lot of issues about other iPhone apps.

Reznor says that the update to the app, called nin: access, “should fix the international crashing issues” and added that he was “sorry for the delay.” You can find more details about the fixes in the update on the Nine Inch Nails forums here. Reznor had previously threatened to make the app “available to the jailbreak community” if Apple didn’t “get it together” – an act that would also violate the iPhone SDK Agreement.

Apple has previously made some other strange decisions regarding iPhone apps. These include selling the game Baby Shaker in the iTunes store, which it later removed, as well as rejecting an update to the Twitter client Tweetie. As with the Nine Inch Nails app, this was because the app displayed “offensive language” on Twitter, rather than in the app itself.

Was Apple right to cave in to Reznor’s demands, and does it need to revise its iPhone SDK Agreement? Let us know your thoughts in the forums.
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