Steve Jobs Says iPad Revolution Means ‘Freedom from Porn’

LifeSiteNews.com ^ | Tuesday May 18, 2010 | Peter J. Smith

[It's me]

CUPERTINO, California, May 18, 2010 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Steve Jobs, CEO of Apple Computers, says his company will not be a party to the pornography industry and hopes that the iPad and iPhone revolution will help lead to a porn-free world.

Jobs reiterated his position in a heated e-mail exchange with Ryan Tate, a writer for Gawker.com, which follows news and gossip in Silicon Valley and elsewhere. Tate, who admitted that he was home alone and slightly inebriated at the time, took issue with a television ad calling the iPad a “revolution” and fired off an e-mail to Jobs.

“If Dylan [American songwriter Bob Dylan is one of Jobs’ favorite musicians] was 20 today, how would he feel about your company? Would he think the iPad had the faintest thing to do with ‘revolution?’ Revolutions are about freedom,” Tate wrote, not expecting a response from Jobs.

However, Jobs did respond to Tate, triggering an e-mail duel. “Yep, freedom from programs that steal your private data. Freedom from programs that trash your battery. Freedom from porn. Yep, freedom,” responded Jobs. “The times they are a changin’, and some traditional PC folks feel like their world is slipping away. It is.”

However, Tate accused Jobs of "imposing" his "morality" by having Apple forbid pornographic applications for iPad. “I don’t want ‘freedom from porn.’ Porn is just fine! And I think my wife would agree,” fired back Tate - who later said he regretted mentioning his wife.

Jobs shot back, “You might care more about porn when you have kids.”

Read the rest of the article here:

[freedumb2003]

>>What kind of a conservative defends things that debase the foundation of life?<<

One that embraces freedom.

What kind of conservative allows others to make their decisions? That is what liberals do...

[SoConPubbie]

So, you don’t believe in freedom to choose and discern. You diminish Christ’s trust in all of us when you put your opinion in front of the ability of each to decide.

No, not at all.

It's not yours to decide. The bible defines what sinfulness is.

For instance:

Mathew 5:27-28

27 Ye have heard that it was said by them of old time, Thou shalt not commit adultery:

28 But I say unto you, That whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.

If you are being honest with yourself, you know darn well what types of images lead to this type of desire in your heart.

Think before you respond.

This is a point of honesty.

[Niteflyr]

Granted, the lack of Flash capability cripples the web browser in terms of viewing a lot of Porn, so the two issues aren’t unrelated.

Maybe for YOU they are related...not me...

[Deagle]

Heh, you do sound like a fellow programmer/hardware engineer. I have never tried to write bios for a PC (have written low level firmware for telecommunications equipment). That sound like fun!

Have never purchased a PC intact... All have been from scratch (probably due to my H8 experience). Can’t imagine buying an Apple (already put together - and limited upgrades).

If I might inquire - what are you writing firmware for? What languages are you using?

[Niteflyr]

What kind of conservative allows others to make their decisions? That is what liberals do...

Liberals LIVE for that!! :o)

[freedumb2003]

>>So, once again, you’re wrong. He’s only limiting your ability to view porn on HIS products.<<

And again I invite you to quote where I have said otherwise. I am merely saying anyone who decides to buy said product is participating in a fascist venture and is of limited ability to think for him/herself.

That is my opinion — mine. Unlike you weak-minded children I can stand on my own feet and argue why this is bad and not for people who can think.

[SoConPubbie]

As do I. The difference is I do it with the understanding that my fellow man/woman is a person of dignity imbued by our God with the ability to discern and see and deal with sin.

It is only fascist egomaniacs like you who believe they must foist their personal moral beliefs over others and make them hew to your beliefs that leave the light of Christ and enter the darkness of Ego.

Then you throw away the Old Testament and all the laws it prescribed for a Holy Country, a Country pleasing to God.

Remember, Christ said don't change the Law, not one jot or tittle. For I am come to fulfill the law.

Nowhere did he make any statement in recorded history, that we were not to fight for his righteousness both in our own personal lives, the lives of others around us, or in our government.

In fact, Christ's Love commends me to fight for morality in Government as well.

It's not my definition, it's the bibles.

It's getting late, I guess you weren't able to admit your mistake.

Good Night.

[Republic of Texas]

Steve Jobs didn’t give a damn about porn before he had kids, and when he was trying to become a billionaire. Suddenly he’s conservative? Yet he supports the party that loves porn.

[freedumb2003]

I am not sure you are tracking this argument (again you surprise me less and less as I see what you seem to think is argumentation).

This isn’t about what one does or does not view. It is about CHOOSING what to view or not view. Putting a blindfold on does not bestow morality, it just blinds you. You won’t see “lustful images” but you won’t see your wife either.

An adult chooses not to engage in porn. A child (like you) has that decision made for him/her.

[freedumb2003]

>>It’s getting late, I guess you weren’t able to admit your mistake<<

You mean I couldn’t explain my adult position to a child like you.

Good night, God Bless and may you someday understand why freedom is so important to Christianity and may God turn you way from your fascist ways.

[stripes1776]

Granted, the lack of Flash capability cripples the web browser in terms of viewing a lot of Porn, so the two issues aren’t unrelated.

They aren't related at all. Flash is an obsolete technology. It will be replaced by HTML 5. There years from now everyone will look back and see that Jobs was right about that. Three years from now you will be able to watch all the porn you want in HTML 5.

[Niteflyr]

Three years from now you will be able to watch all the porn you want in HTML 5.

Come on now that is so disingenuous to directly relate ANY video format directly to porn. I'm not into porn but spend lots of time dealing in video content. I guess you don't shoot videos of your kids...or watch political debates...or...

[Greysard]

What Jobs is talking about is the programs in the App Store. The App Store in iTunes is not going to sell porno applications.

Methinks Jobs has built a nice strawman and now is mercilessly beating it to a pulp. There are no "porno applications" anywhere - on a PC, on a Mac or on a mainframe if that's your thing :-) The closest to that I can think of is some strip poker game that I saw back around, I think, 1985. Porn today is delivered not in a 35 kB application - it is delivered on a 25 GB Blu-Ray disk. I can't imagine what kind of "porn application" one can even write, let alone sell.

So this Jobs' chest-beating is just for show. Apple's products don't restrict anyone from browsing a porn website, or transferring a bunch of porn audiom video and photos through iTunes, or emailing them around... Some comments in this thread say "Thank you, Saint Steve, for saving our children from the awful scourge of porn" - but they are wrong. Children will get *more* porn on iPad, if only because the screen is larger :-) I don't think there is a technological solution to that, short of going Luddite *plus* burning all libraries in vicinity.

[Niteflyr]

Some comments in this thread say "Thank you, Saint Steve, for saving our children from the awful scourge of porn" - but they are wrong. Children will get *more* porn on iPad, if only because the screen is larger :-) I don't think there is a technological solution to that, short of going Luddite *plus* burning all libraries in vicinity.

Couldn't have said it better...

[Sir_Ed]

You’re correct about Apple’s iPads and such, but you’re not right regarding their Mac Pros.

Mac Pros and their operating system handle large files much better than PC’s, they also handle fonts, color spaces and .eps/tiff/.PSD/.ai files much better.

Their workflow for creating designs in Illustrator, Photoshop and InDesgin are much better for handling files from beginning to end, from the local computer to a service bureau.

Now, admittedly, not many people design files that use numerous fonts, eps. images with alpha channels and duotones/tritones plus tiffs with clipping paths, all exported in CMYK to a service provider, but for those of us that DO such work, the Mac is far, far superior to PC’s.

I have many Macs but don’t own any iStuff...no Touches, iPads, iPhones, etc., and I’ve been using Macs for design work for almost twenty years now.

Ed

[Rummyfan]

However, Tate accused Jobs of "imposing" his "morality" by having Apple forbid pornographic applications for iPad. “I don’t want ‘freedom from porn.’ Porn is just fine! And I think my wife would agree,” fired back Tate - who later said he regretted mentioning his wife.

So stick with your PC or iMac.......

[stripes1776]

There are no "porno applications" anywhere - on a PC, on a Mac or on a mainframe if that's your thing :-) The closest to that I can think of is some strip poker game that I saw back around, I think, 1985... I can't imagine what kind of "porn application" one can even write, let alone sell.

The App Store in iTunes did have some porno apps. For example one let you look at women's breasts. Apple got complaints about apps like that, so they decided they would not sell porno apps anymore.

Apple's products don't restrict anyone from browsing a porn website, or transferring a bunch of porn audiom video and photos through iTunes, or emailing them around...

Jobs' comment was not about porno on the web. It was about the App Store in iTunes. That's all this is about. There's really no need to exaggerate--either to make Jobs into an Angel for saving kids from porn, or to make him into a Devil for restricting people's freedom. He's just a darn good businessman who sells products that a lot of people buy.

[stripes1776]

Come on now that is so disingenuous to directly relate ANY video format directly to porn. I'm not into porn but spend lots of time dealing in video content. I guess you don't shoot videos of your kids...or watch political debates...or...

Well, if you shoot video, then you know about video applications. And you can convert that video to lots of formats depending upon the application that will play the video. And since you have an iPhone, you can transfer that video to you iPhone by first converting it to the proper format.

What I was referring to is HTML5 for websites and the H.264 codec for video. Do you develop websites?

[Greysard]

The App Store in iTunes did have some porno apps. For example one let you look at women's breasts. Apple got complaints about apps like that, so they decided they would not sell porno apps anymore.

Apple was dealing with an idiot. Consider this: the person *buys* an app that is clearly adult, then runs it, gets offended and complains to Apple :-) What did they expect? If book aficionados were just as sensitive we'd have to complain about most fiction books in existence :-) But fine, if Apple has complaints about porn in apps they are free to not sell those. One problem, of course, is that if Jobs doesn't sell then nobody else can sell either... but that's another issue, and people already commented about that on this thread.

What I'm uncomfortable about is the position of Mr. Jobs (which he explicitly took in his earlier article and in this interview) that he somehow is blocking porn on iPads. That he doesn't do and has no ability to do. Jobs is exaggerating his effectiveness in blocking porn, and as I mentioned his subterfuge works.

[stripes1776]

What I'm uncomfortable about is the position of Mr. Jobs (which he explicitly took in his earlier article and in this interview) that he somehow is blocking porn on iPads. That he doesn't do and has no ability to do. Jobs is exaggerating his effectiveness in blocking porn, and as I mentioned his subterfuge works.

Well, it wasn't an interview. It was an exchange of emails. If you haven't read the emails, then here is the link:
Gawker

Have you ever used an iPhone or iPod touch?