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It seems that arguments siding with Apple here are all various flavors of "The rules are the rules". But after you leave grade school, if you still think the r

It seems that arguments siding with Apple here are all various flavors of "The rules are the rules". But after you leave grade school, if you still think the rules really are the rules, you haven't been paying attention. Rules at every level, business, government, personal, are all flexible and open to constant interpretation depending on who benefits most from the interpretation. I'm struck by another recent headline case in this community, that of Aaron Swartz. The rules were capriciously enforced in that case as well. Yet the community largely came out on the side of Swartz (and probably rightly so) then. But it's just another high profile case where rules are never the rules when humans are involved. Saying that AppGratis should have known not to build their business on the AppStore platform or they should have known not to break the rules is an easy way to ignore the fact that capricious enforcement of rules has consequences far beyond the ecosystem in which they are made. It's a viewpoint that is naive at best and callous at worst. Which is a bunch of words to say exactly what mattdeboard said: "There's a bunch of Ayn Rand horseshit going on in this thread"

rmrfrmrf 14y ago
This CEO and his 45 employees now have the freedom of using the money they spent to scam users and devs to create an app that actually adds value to the world. I really dont care about Apple's rules--all they really do is spell out the obvious intention of the App Store to idiots who need things spoon-fed to them.
admax88q 14y ago
> Saying that AppGratis should have known not to build their business on the AppStore platform This part they should have known. I think the AppStore terms are ridiculous. There's been a lot of noise raised about them but people continue to build apps for the store thinking "nothing bad can happen to me, the terms are strict only because of bad apps." Stop supporting Apple's walled garden. Stop building for the AppStore. Their terms will change if they can't get any apps. I agree that the "rules are rules" argument is stupid. Rules are flexible and open to interpretation. But that's no excuse to ignore the control Apple has over their users and the history of them pulling apps from the app store.

rmrfrmrf 14y ago

This CEO and his 45 employees now have the freedom of using the money they spent to scam users and devs to create an app that actually adds value to the world. I really dont care about Apple's rules--all they really do is spell out the obvious intention of the App Store to idiots who need things spoon-fed to them.

admax88q 14y ago

> Saying that AppGratis should have known not to build their business on the AppStore platform This part they should have known. I think the AppStore terms are ridiculous. There's been a lot of noise raised about them but people continue to build apps for the store thinking "nothing bad can happen to me, the terms are strict only because of bad apps." Stop supporting Apple's walled garden. Stop building for the AppStore. Their terms will change if they can't get any apps. I agree that the "rules are rules" argument is stupid. Rules are flexible and open to interpretation. But that's no excuse to ignore the control Apple has over their users and the history of them pulling apps from the app store.