Sex Tech: Apple App Store banhammer, GoDaddy revenge porn suit
Summary: A collection of notable new sex and technology news items. Covers innovation, legal issues, IP, privacy, controversies, business and more.
An iPhone app for penis sizing hits Apple's app store, while a photography app is pulled for possibly allowing users to see nudes.
New app sizes penises for better condom fit
An app just landed in Apple's iOS App Store that helps men to measure the length and girth of their penises.
Devs at VSM Enterprises say the app is for helping men buy condoms that fit correctly, which is something that Condomania has been offering through its website for over a decade.
Condoms perform safety functions better when they fit the wearer, as well as providing more sensation.
The app is also available for Android.
- iPhone app designed to let men compare penis size with the rest of the world released in App Store (TNT Magazine)
Penis app ok for Apple, but nudes in popular photo app cause for rejection
Popular photo sharing app 500px was been pulled from the iOS App Store last week along with its partner ISO500, because Apple decided the app's ability for users to turn off "safe search" constituted a violation of Apple's anti-porn guidelines.
Early reports said that the apps were pulled because updates allowed the tinkering of search results to allow adult content if users so desired.
However, the company has now learned that Apple simply - and quite suddenly - changed its decision about allowing the app at all, with any ability for users to see content above child-appropriate levels.
Additionally, Apple alleges that it was responding to complaints about child pornography - a strong and potentially damaging accusation which came as a shock to 500px, who told The Verge,
We've never ever, since the beginning of the company, received a single complaint about child pornography. If something like that ever happened, it would be reported right away to enforcement agencies.
The app is still available for Android.
- 500px photo apps pulled from iOS App Store over nude photos (The Verge, updated with Apple response)
Tech solutions for assault emergencies
Increasingly, tech strives to address an urgent need for women to call for help during assaults.
Many practical obstacles stand in the way of tech-based solutions, but some ideas are starting to emerge.
A recent, deeply horrifying gang rape in India December 16th was referenced when the Indian government announced a gadget intended for female wearers - a watch that can alert authorities and family members when the wearer is in danger, and starts filming at the same time.
The December 16 female assault victim died from her attack injuries, and news reports noted the delay in her medical treatment due indifferent police officers.
When triggered, the watch would send an emergency text to authorities and family members with the wearer's GPS coordinates, and record 30 minutes of video. No further details about the proposed project have been provided.
Disappointingly, a prototype is not expected until Summer.
Mainstream porn still clings to DVD businiess model
The adult entertainment expo and awards (AEE, widely known as 'the porn convention' and AVN porn awards) held in Las Vegas every year moved its event dates, and so did not coincide with CES this year.
The porn con's move away from the world's largest tech expo - itself struggling for relevance - may have been more painfully symbolic than intended. One attendee wrote her astonished experience at the porn convention's business panels, where the old guard of America's adult industry focused on business models from 15 years ago - such as DVD product - and a stubborn ignorance about consumer marketshare expansion.
(...) what I can say, and what surprised me, was the extent to which there seemed to be a palpable nostalgia for a bygone era. Take for example the “State of the Industry” panel. There was not a single woman on a panel devoted to discussing where the industry is headed. Not one. Instead, the panel consisted of five men, all of whom were white and appeared to be at least in their fifties. Ironically, on a panel about the future of the industry, the “big boys”—as they were described in the program—really wanted to discuss DVDs, a market, which, by all accounts, has been dying a slow death for years.
- Porno time warp? Final thoughts on the 2013 Adult Entertainment Expo (Las Vegas Weekly)
New revenge porn website lawsuit names GoDaddy
There is very little love for GoDaddy, but a new lawsuit against a revenge porn website - where explicit or sexually compromising images, usually of women, are displayed nonconsensually - names the domain registrar and web hosting company among the defendants.
Last week a class-action lawsuit on behalf of seventeen women was filed against Texxxan.com a subscription-based paysite.
The suit alleges that creating “revenge porn” violates Texas state privacy laws.
- New lawsuit against “revenge porn” site also targets GoDaddy (Ars Technica)
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Talkback
Apple / Revenge Porn
I love many of Apple's concepts, I use to be a rabbid Maclot ABMer - sure, I was into Linux but for the server / geek - Apple was for me THE platform for user friendly creative outlet.
But locking iDevices so you have to go through Apple's store to get software and then Apple acting as morality police, I know they aren't government and thus don't have to have free speech on their platform, but I don't want a company playing nanny on my activities any more than I want government playing nanny on my activities and it really saddens me that a platform I loved so much has turned into the very big brother they parodied in their famous HAL commercial.
Speaking of free speech, now the revenge porn. I don't understand how that is legal. Unless they purchased the content with 2257 documentation, they don't have the 2257 documentation needed to serve the images they serve. I visited on last week to see what they were doing, they had photos of people in the act of fellatio - yet they don't have anyone listed for 2257 records. How is that legal?
They claim a loophole because they aren't the producers but allow people to upload, making it the uploader's responsibility. That loophole was not designed for sites who's purpose is adult content, it was designed for places like web forums that allow image upload, that they wouldn't be legally responsible if a user uploaded an image.
Since the purpose of these "revenge porn" sites is porn, I would hope a judge would stick it to them on 2257 violation.
Unfortunately I think it will take something like a Senator's daughter being on one before we get any real action.
I support free speech, but posting nude pictures of someone without their consent violates privacy, so these "revenge porn" sites need to go. I hate them with a passion. Ends don't justify means so I won't, but I am so tempted to go blackhat on them.
hmm
No contradiction
Apple did not claim that 500px' developers ever received complaints about child pornography. Apple said THEY got complains. (And OF COURSE it is them and not the developer since this is how iTunes App Store support system works; there is just no "complain to developer" option; complains go to Apple.)
Nice try fanboy
500px has a website.
500px has an Email address.
500px has an Android app.
500px's developers can view and respond to comments left in the Google Play market.
If pedophilia was a problem don't you think they would have received at least one complaint directly? Even a MacHead should have the intelligence to contact the developer.
Why would users care to go all those lengths to make a complaint to 500px,
And the information about child porn complains is official, so you have to live with this fact.
Without porn, Apple is coming nowhere near me
Porn?
porn
antitrust?
jobs
Ever since then android has been grabbing more and more market share. :)