Should This App Have Been Approved?

Posted on 22 July 2009, at 3:30 am, by Jason Reese

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While this may not cause the outcry of a baby shaking “game”, you still have to wonder how, exactly, this application made it through Apple’s approval process. Sure, the $2.99 application — simply known as “Cannabis” — just uses Location Based Services . Nothing wrong with that, right? Except this app’s purpose is to pinpoint the known locations of doctors or clinics on a Google Map where you could potentially acquire medicinal marijuana.

Now, this isn’t a debate over cannabis or the medicinal use of marijuana. It is simply begging the question of how this application made it through Apple’s approval process. The application does not locate “dealers” — and there is a disclaimer about social responsibility and emphasis to the fact that the application is not promoting the illegal use of cannabis without a physician’s recommendation. The application is geared solely to show known locations for legalized / medicinal cannabis use near you. If there are no such areas, the application will locate the closest organizations or activist groups you can join to promote cannabis reform.

Should this application have been approved? How do you feel about this application making it into the App Store, while other -apps like NetShare get rejected? What are your thoughts?

via The Sun and Mashable

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3 Comments For This Post

Michael Anderson Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 7:55 am
I think the app approval process is broken and way too subjective … almost moralistic.
Carly Z Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 8:45 am
Agreed. I think Apple should scrap the approval process for everything and just keep it as a “technical vetting”…as long as it works as advertised and doesn’t crash the system then leave it alone.

It seems like Apple is so terrified of being sued over the App Store they’re choking the life out of it.
Michael Anderson Says:
July 22nd, 2009 at 10:58 am
If you look at movies and video games, having content rated separately and making the producer liable to provide ‘worst case’ samples is a solid approach, and would move Apple away from the ‘content police’ role.