iLounge is reporting that Apple has rejected a Bittorent client controller app for the iPhone. On the surface, it seems like a pretty standard move for Apple, who have a reputation for guarding digital rights.
After an initial email stating that Drivetrain required “unexpected additional time for review,” Maza then received a rejection email from Apple, stating that “this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”
Obviously, there is a lot of gray area swathed away with this rejection letter. The app is perfectly legitimate and could easily be used for legal downloads. The defensive argument could be made that apps like Safari could also be used for illegal downloads. If there was a Web control panel for Transmission, Safari could even control the Bittorrent client. Just because an application can be used to infringe doesn’t mean that it is.
We aren’t idiots here. We know that 95% of Bittorrent traffic is illegal copyrighted material. Apple would like to show its content partners that it is serious about reducing piracy. Apple also sells a lot of the software commonly found on Bittorrent clients and might want to eliminate a route to pirating.
Not that it will work of course.
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