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  • Apple apparently censoring the word "jailbreak" in US iTunes Store (Updated)

    by 
    Steve Sande
    Steve Sande
    05.17.2012

    Update: TNW reports this has been fixed. Did Apple hire a bunch of temps lately? Developers, musicians, and probably any other content provider in the U.S. iTunes Store have a new Apple policy to deal with this morning; you apparently can't use the term "jailbreak" in a product description or name. If you do slip up, or happen to be like 70's rock band Thin Lizzy and have a hit song and album by the name of "Jailbreak", you'll find that it has been censored by Apple. Apple appears to be blanking out the word "Jailbreak" as J*******k in many cases where it appears on iTunes. Some Americans we're talking to are not seeing the censorship, but we're assuming that's due to caching issues. It's not only in the music category; "jailbreak" is being censored on the App Store (above), in listings for TV episodes (including a G-rated episode of The Roy Rogers Show from 1951 -- below), and even on a podcast on iTunes U about the Andy Griffith show. We're not certain why Apple has chosen to do this -- it could be that it's an unintended outcome of trying to ban the use of the word on the App Store that went a little overboard. When the word "jailbreak" is outlawed, only outlaws will "jailbreak"...