Company may be looking to control knowledge of jailbreaks

For a brief time on Thursday Apple was censoring appearances of the word "jailbreak" on the iTunes Store, reports note. One example included the Thin Lizzy album and song of the same name, which were suddenly renamed "J*******k." Other instances of the word, though, are said to have remained unaffected. By Thursday afternoon Eastern time, the extra censorship is observed to have disappeared.

Although the issue may simply have been a mistake, Apple could also have been experimenting with the idea of discouraging references to jailbreaking iOS devices. The company has long taken a hard anti-jailbreaking stance, to the extent of voiding the warranties of jailbroken hardware, and intentionally disrupting exploits through firmware updates. Forcing sales through the App Store allows Apple to control the security and functionality of iOS, take a cut of paid apps, and in theory reduce piracy.

by MacNN Staff