Brilliant iPhone App Rejected, Again

Another day, another rejection by Apple or so it seems these days. This latest one is seriously pushing the limits of “may be used for objectionable content” because the app in question was meant for downloading and formatting e-texts from Project Gutenberg. Yes, it is hard to see why that is objectionable because everything on Project Gutenberg is legally free. The “objectionable content” here is the availability of a well-known and respected ancient Indian text that deals with the sexual acts between man and woman.

The App Reviwer searched specifically for Kamasutra

The app itself has an impressively detailed and clean interface, the kind that Apple and any Mac user would appreciate. This app, called Eucalyptus, uses the iPhone’s capabilities to render a visually rich reading experience. It uses “high quality fonts and industry-leading typesetting routines” to give off a very realistic look, making it a pleasure to use. Reading a book on Eucalyptus is almost similar to reading a real book and that is more that what can be said for Stanza and Kindle for iPhone. And as For Classics, this app (Eucalyptus) leaves it and the others far behind in terms of looks and the user interface.

It is the Victorian era translation and is text only. Even though it discusses sex directly, calling is Pornography would be taking it too far.

As for the book in question, the one on Gutenberg is actually the electronic version of a Victorian Era version of the text that is only text and with no pictures. While the book does talk about sex directly, it is by no means vulgar. And considering that other apps on the iPhone (Stanza, eReader, Kindle for iPhone) and Apple’s own mobile Safari can be used to download that same book, this rejection is really the worst so far. And not to mention the fact that anyone can download outright pornographic material using the Internet on the iPhone. So stopping such a brilliant app just because ‘one’ such book exists is ridiculous to say the least.

The developer, James Montogomerie feels the same way and especially because the other apps can not only download this text but also other versions that have pictures and illustrations. He submitted Eucalyptus two times and it got rejected both the times but at least the second time the rejection note mentioned that adding parental controls included in the iPhone OS 3.0 might get it accepted. Monotgomerie has been trying to reach the review board via email for clarifications but has failed to get a response. Apple is clearly understaffed when it comes to iPhone app review.