FSF zealotry at its best
With great apologies to the Macalope for borrowing his style, here’s my take.
Reason 1:
iPhone completely blocks free software. Developers must pay a tax to Apple, who becomes the sole authority over what can and can’t be on everyone’s phones.
I assume that the “tax” refers to the $99/year fee that developers must pay for their digital certificate and not the 30% Apple charges to host and distribute the applications (which, let’s not forget, only applies if you charge for the app). The idea that the average consumer, who is the target market for this phone, cares or even knows about the FSF’s philosophy is pretty silly. They just want their shit to work.
Reason 2:
iPhone endorses and supports Digital Restrictions Management (DRM) technology.
It does not “endorse” Digital Rights Management technology. The fact that applications must be digitally signed is, in my understanding, mostly a security matter. And it supports DRM only to the extent that the record labels and movie studios require Apple to put the crap on most of the content in iTunes.
Reason 3:
iPhone exposes your whereabouts and provides ways for others to track you without your knowledge.
This is blatantly false. Any time any application wants to use the Location Services it asks you. In fact, Apple’s decision to be “the sole authority over what can and can’t be on everyone’s phones” prevents the nasties from doing this.
Reason 4:
iPhone won’t play patent- and DRM-free formats like Ogg Vorbis and Theora.
The iPhone does support DRM-free formats. Name me one other successful phone/MP3 player that supports Ogg Vorbis and Theora. You can’t. Why? Because nobody cares about them.
Reason 5:
iPhone is not the only option. There are better alternatives on the horizon that respect your freedom, don’t spy on you, play free media formats, and let you use free software — like the FreeRunner.
The FreeRunner: a hacker’s dream, a consumer’s nightmare. And “better alternatives on the horizon” does not help me when I want a phone that is available right now. If I cared about what was supposedly coming “real soon now” I’d still be waiting for HURD. Until you ship a working product, it’s all vapourware as far as I’m concerned.
The Rest:
Apple, through its marketing and visual design techniques, is manufacturing an illusion that merely buying an Apple makes you part of an alternative community. But the technology they use is explicitly chosen to divide people into separate digital cells, and to position Apple as sole warden.
So for $120/year I can be part of a “real” alternative community that uses their philosophy to divide people into separate digital cells, with the FSF as sole warden? Sign me up!
The iPhone is an attack on very old and fundamental values — the value of people having control over their stuff rather than their stuff having control over them, the right to freely communicate and share with others, and the importance of privacy.
Let’s shift the focus of this argument for a second and see how the phone carriers measure up. Verizon has historically restricted its users from using the features that are built in to the phones they sell. Want to take a picture with your cell phone camera? Go ahead, but you’ll pay us $0.10 if you actually want to do anything with it, like transfer it to your computer. Want to put a new ringtone on your phone? Sure. We’ll just charge you $0.99/month/ringtone for the privilege. And privacy? All phone carriers know where you are at all times based on cell tower triangulation. Oh, and let’s not forget AT&T and the other carriers’ roles in helping our government illegally spy on us.
It’s also a tracking device, and like other proprietary GPS-enabled phones, can transmit your location without your knowledge.
So this won’t be a problem on non-proprietary phones? See my response to point 3. Just because a phone is “free” doesn’t mean it’s inherently more secure in this regard.
Apple’s DRM system monitors your activities and tells you what you are and are not allowed to do. What you are not allowed to do is install any software that Apple doesn’t like. This restriction prevents you from installing free software — software whose authors want you to freely share, copy and modify their work.
Apple must like a whole lot of software then, based on some of the crap I’ve seen in the AppStore. The use of digital signing in no way prevents you from installing “free software”. Do you have to do it through the AppStore? Yes. Can you modify the program and reinstall it on your phone? No. But again, the vast majority of consumers don’t give a fuck.
iPhones can now also only be activated in stores — despite the fact that in the U.S., the Register of Copyrights ruled that consumers have the right to unlock their phones and switch to a different carrier.
The “rogue” iPhoneDevTeam has proven that it’s perfectly possible to unlock the iPhone. Just because consumers have the right to unlocked phones doesn’t mean that the carriers have to make it easy for them.
it’s been a year and a half since Jobs, under pressure from the public, spoke out strongly against DRM and in favor of freedom. With great hesitation, he allowed a handful of files to go DRM-free on iTunes, but kept in place the requirement that they be purchased using the proprietary, DRM-infected iTunes software. Since then, he has done absolutely nothing to act on those words.
Wow, this guy must have way more access to Steve Jobs than anyone else. He knows that Steve only wrote that open letter because he was being pressured, he knows that Steve was hesitant about releasing DRM-free files, and he knows that Steve hasn’t done anything further to get rid of DRM. The fact of the matter here is that Steve Jobs doesn’t care about DRM in iTunes. It’s there because the record and movie companies wouldn’t let him sell the content without it. The only reason he cares about the content is that it sells iPods. He has no vested interest in keeping things DRMed.
Jobs built on the work of people before him too, only his answer is to kick away the ladder and try to prevent anyone else from doing what he did.
Right. Apple didn’t take KHTML and turn it into something more useful called WebKit. And I’m sure Apple hasn’t contributed any of the code they’ve added to Darwin. No, because Steve Jobs is a greedy, selfish, evil man who doesn’t give anything back.
The FreeRunner doesn’t yet do as much as the iPhone and it’s certainly not as pretty. But in terms of potential, the fact that it’s supported by a worldwide community of people rather than a single greedy, dishonest and secretive entity puts it light-years ahead.
So I guess when FreeRunner owners can’t adjust the volume on their phone without going to the command line, they should just suck it up and remind themselves that their sacrifice is benefitting all of humanity.
The bottom line is that Apple is a publicly traded company, and as such it has a responsibility to its shareholders to make money. Judging by the fact that there are still lines for the iPhone 3G, a week after its launch, I’d say they’re fulfilling that responsibility.
Does Apple charge more for their products? Yes. Does Apple wield tight control over their platform? Yes. Does that make them evil? No. In fact, the reason Apple products “just work” is because they have such tight control. I used desktop Linux for 3 years. I dealt with all the kernel recompiles, the lackluster driver support, the clunky UI. Then I was convinced to try a Mac. And I’ll never go back. Linux has been around for 15+ years and has still failed to gain widespread consumer adoption. Why? Because it’s fugly and a pain in the ass for normal people to use.
“Mac users have a high standard for their software. It has to do more than just work; Mac applications have to possess style, class and be enjoyable to use, and work like a charm” - Shawn Blanc
3 years ago
