Apple has been in news for rejecting the Google Voice app and pulling out some third-party Google Voice apps that were previously approved. The developers of these applications were forced to incur refund costs as well. Also there has been a report of a simple dictionary being censored by Apple.
Recently, Gizmodo reported rumors that Apple is blocking all new ebook app submissions to the App Store. This order was carried out as these ebook apps are apparently often used for “infringing upon third party rights” and “have chosen not to publish this type of application.”
However, reports state that this was, in fact, just a rumor. Apple confirmed to Gizmodo that they are not blocking ebook submissions and they have no policy against ebooks. Additionally, they said that they take copyright policies seriously and contact the author to check if the ebook really has the rights to whatever they submit.
Apple issued the following statement explaining their position on ebooks: We have not stopped approving ebook readers and ebooks in fact we’ve approved 221 new ebooks to the App Store since 7/30/09. The book category in the App Store lists 6,000 apps. and this doesn’t cover the full scope since ebooks are included in other categories like medical, reference and education.
Thankfully, Apple is really not going on a ‘block ebook rampage’ afterall.