Apple Bans BitTorrent Software
Written by enigmax on May 11, 2009An iPhone application designed to remotely-control the Transmission BitTorrent client has been rejected by the Apple App Store. Apple told the developer that this type of application is often used to infringe copyrights, so therefore the company has decided not to allow such software on the App store.
Drivetrain is an iPhone application to remotely control the multi-platform Transmission BitTorrent client via the Internet. According to developer, Maza Digital, Drivetrain “provides all the details of the web interface in a native iPhone app that’s easy to use.”
Maza Digital submitted Drivetrain to Apple for approval back in April, and resubmitted the App after he made a few small UI changes. He then received an email in return saying that the review would take longer than expected.
This was followed up by a second email in which Apple rejected the application for inclusion in the App Store, telling Maza Digital;
We’ve reviewed Drivetrain and determined that we cannot post this version of your application to the App Store at this time because this category of applications is often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.
Of course, not only are all BitTorrent clients absolutely legal (people infringe copyright, not software) but Drivetrain is just an application to control a torrent client and as such goes absolutely nowhere near any copyright infringing material.
“By now I am very disillusioned with the whole AppStore process, Maza Digital told TorrentFreak in a response, adding “I find it rather ridiculous that they have rejected an app that does not do anything that may be ‘often used for the purpose of infringing third party rights’.” However, it seems that Apple has decided that everything BitTorrent related is a no go for the AppStore.
A ridiculous move by Apple and a step too far. Quick, ban Safari so no-one can use Transmission Web Interface .
Via iLounge
Previously: Pirate Bay Closer to a Retrial, Demands New Investigation
Next: Popular Torrents Start to Disappear From Mininova
101 Responses
Stupid Apple
I’m not familiar with Iphones (I’m a blackberry user myself) … and I don’t even know much about them, but you don’t need the Apple store to actually get applications do you?
@Jeremy Unless you want to hack your phone (and have to rehack it with each firmware upgrade), yes you have to use the Apple store to get applications.
Bullshit. I would have loved that app on any portable device. Hell… make it for a Mac, there is no good remote service to control Transmission from the Mac. (only the WebGUI… bleh)
Man, that does suck then… I know I don’t need anything like that to get applications on my blackberry. Guess the blackberry does have something over the Iphone then :)
P.S. Clutch no longer exists… there is a WebGUI (based off of Clutch) built into Transmission now…
Nowa days jail-breaking an iphone or ipod touch is a matter of clicking a few buttons with your mouse, and the benefits are so worth it. Cydia is used to download apps. and you can use a program called winterboard to change the look of your iphone and ipod. firmware upgrades are not all that often and when they come about there is typically a fix for them within a couple weeks or so.
I am a blackberry storm user and will be until big red get the iphone. until then it’s storm/itouch for me!
@aXXo
but you can still connect to it via any web browser. Including mobile safari. and it is still owned by “clutch”
aXXo eh?
I just use Transmission’s built in webUI, works on any computer or mobile device – what more do you need?
Apple has benefited off piracy thoroughly. The iPod came into existence because of the amount of mp3 files flowing around the web.
However if this is the tack they’ve chosen to take I support them, and suggest they also ban their computers as they can be used to infringe copyright as well.
Another reason not to buy Apple products.
idiots who gives you the right to tell a person what they can do with what they legally bought.
iFucking apple
how stupid can a corporate manager be?
Haha, serves you all right for buying anything apple. why don’t people learn?
And another reason to wait for the Palm Pre or the next android phone.
People like to say what apple is doing is simply to ensure quality and to avoid mistakes of the past like game systems (was it atari?) that let anyone develop and we ended up with landfills filled with ET carts. (somehow I do not see a future including landfills full of iPhone crAPPS)
I don’t buy it. It’s about control and their carrier/partner relationships ABOVE their users. They’ll come around eventually, when the control shifts back to them. And their followers will think Apple did it for THEM. Nope.
Just wait for better hardware that runs android.
It seems these days everybody is shying away from BitTorrent these days. Even Google seems to be running scared now since The Pirate Bay decision.
I wonder if this was Apple’s idea, or another little condition the MPAA and RIAA forced them to abide by in exchance for the iTunes store going DRM free.
I’d say it’s definitely the latter, but Apple seems to lose an awful lot of IQ points when it comes to certain iPhone policies.
This doesn’t make sense (mind you anything Apple does doesn’t make sense either).
Apple is trying to control what users can or can not do on a piece of technology that they legally own just because they might or might not do something illegal with it?
I’m confused. Aren’t there some companies, organizations and individuals that have legally authorized the public sharing of their material through bit torent?
Who told them that only bit torrent is used by pirates? Only the RIAA/MPAA believes that so I can only assume that they have something to do with it.
I remember when the music and motion picture industry fought long and hard against the audio cassette and VHS video tape industry. This is the same type of alarmist propaganda that the RIAA/MPAA are spreading today about bit torrent technology.
Sounds like the RIAA/MPAA have sent their usual legal threats to Apple. It is yet another attempt by the RIAA/MPAA to control yet another company.
They are skilled and manipulating, controlling and extorting not just people and politicians, but also corporations that they do not own.
People don’t like being owned or controlled. This is why piracy is rampant. The people do not want to be controlled, manipulated, exploited or controlled.
“Haha, serves you all right for buying anything apple. ”
As opposed to what?
riaatard – Well said. I have at least 30 albums that are non-riaa and can think of 5 off the top of my head that were shared by the artists themselves.
This is the age of the scapegoated protocol. Established distribution cartels do NOT like a direct line between artist and listener/viewer.
it always been apples business plan to keep control of all peripherals and software attached to there stuff, it what make then more stable and fast. the down side is that you can only do what apple want with there crap, so props to the ppl hack there stuff to make it more usable for ppl with free minds :)
FCUK Apple.
nope, apple just chicken out when facing mafiaa
OMG APPLE!! WHY DID YOU DO THAT? I HAVE TO DOWNLOAD LIKE 5 COPIES OF EACH LINUX VERSIONS OF MY IPHONE TOO YOU KNOW ;_;
There are legal uses for torrents so Apple is definitely outta of line here… last legal things I did was download textfiles, download various Linux Distributions, Download Open Source Software, Download Various public domained books, download art complilations…. So come on Appl dont give me that bullshit
Nothing like the smell of corruption in the morning.
With the financial hit that iTunes is taking from filesharing, do you really think that Apple is going to go anywhere near bittorrent?
Sure, it’s a messed up thing to ban something perfectly legal, but if were on Apple’s board, I’d do the same thing. If I sold music, I wouldn’t help people steal music, even if it hurt the people using the software for legitimate uses (which to be honest, except for a few ‘nix downloads, is pretty few and far between).
Apple makes crap products and is for complete morons.. no surprise here.
See what happens when you buy into a completely controlled system?
Apple sucks
iDiots are iDiots ;)
People are actually still buying from these Nazis? Fine, the iPhone is a nice piece of hardware but that’s like buying a slave labor plant because you like the decor.
I’ll never be tempted to buy from Apple. Then again, never was.
Android ftw. :)
Buy the hardware, ditch the crappy software. Thats my motto.
Apple doesn’t allow anything that is even remotely close to competing with their services on the iPhone. Bittorrent is better thatn iTunes, so they won’t allow it. That’s the simple fact of the matter.
“With the financial hit that iTunes is taking from filesharing”
The only financial “hit” that iTunes is taking is the backlash from introducing the RIAA’s coveted variable pricing scheme. Which is ironically hurting the labels more than it’s hurting Apple.
http://macdailynews.com/index.php/weblog/comments/21034/
“If I sold music, I wouldn’t help people steal music”
Except that downloading music isn’t theft in any way, shape, or form. Nice try, though. I can now assume you made that comment from a cozy little wage-slave cubicle at the offices of the RIAA.
The chaotic bozo choir of hypocrites: living in a dank basement room of Mom’s and of the esthetic imagination and raging about a non-issue.
Apple is for losers
The more apple acts as mobile Nazi’s, the bigger the sigh of relief I have for my extremely wise decision in ‘just saying no’ to your totalitarian handheld world!
Nancy would be proud!
Just another example of the Apple Monopoly. They want a cut of everything you have on your iPhone and will vigorously prevent you from procuring software for your own property by any other means.
this is what you get for being iDiot.
Apple like the RIAA and MPAA want TOTAL control over their products irrespective of what’s right for the client, this is why I have never bought a apple product and never will, NO corporation has the right to dictate the terms for something that has been paid for by a customer, so it’s off to the boycott bin for them as well.
Apple is the epitome of hypocrisy. They really want you to think that oppose “copyright infringement” occuring on their devices. If you have a 160 GB iPOD and actually bought music to fill it, it would cost you about $30,000 on iTunes. You think someone would actually do that? But if your friend lends you his CD collection and you rip the tunes and put it on your iPhone, you just committed “copyright infringement.” (stupid law, so no one follows it). Not to mention cracking your own DVDs and putting it on your iPhone rather than pay double for the DVD AND the digital copy from iTunes is also copyright infringement. (another stupid law that needs to be changed)
And no fricking homebrew apps, iSh1ts are crap. When I buy hardware I want to be able to run my own apps, not just Digital Restriction Manglement funneled applications supplied from one flipping website. Yea it reduces the odds of viruses/worms from getting on the hardware. But I will gladly sacrifice gold platted manacles for freedom.
Android +1
Since Torrent Droid was mentioned on this site, there are now 4 torrent apps available on the Android market.
“It has been proven that youtube can be (and is) used to infringe copyright therefore, our Safari browser will stop connecting to it.” Let’s see when they’ll come up with something like that…
I am presuming Apple will now be banning their iphone from actually being able to phone people? Don’t forget terrorists use phones to help them arrange bomb attacks, much more dangerous than bitorrent. Will they also will be withdrawling all apple computers incase users use them to install bitorrent clients?
Apple has the right do do whatever they want with THERE website/software/Applications/hardware…
guess what… DON”T BUY THEM, you the consumer whores are still buying Apple products.
I stopped “buying” Apple stuff in late 2003. I still own my Quicksilver G4 which keeps up. Everything else from know own, open source for the WIN.
Android! YES!
REMEMBER, YOU fuel these corporations! YOU feed them. STOP CONSUMING, and they wither up and DIE!
Apple is such a confused company… they are so right wing with policies like you can only install apps from the app store… yet the first apple was made by a hacker in a homebrew club…. you don’t get much more left wing than that.
Apple… whatever happened to your hacker ethos?
@46 – money
The reason I won’t ever buy an apple product…
Apple continuing with their walled gardens.
Good thing this won’t happen to G1 users. There are plenty of good file sharing apps for Android out there:
http://www.p2p-blog.com/item-1044.html
I’d have to agree that this is a terrible decision by Apple as this application does not transfer a single bit of information on it’s own. I disagree with their decision and hope it is reversed.
On the other hand, I can see why they made the decision. Torrents are the hot topic right now with the PB trial and looming EU elections. As a company policy, I would certainly play the wait and see card that Apple seems to have played.
As for Apple themselves: Great products, but often they over-reach in their restrictions. I suppose it’s the price I pay for my Macbook to work more worry-free then either my Windows or Linux boxes…
the collective most stupid replies to a torrentfreak story ever.
why the hell are the iPod rich fu*kers downloading torrents? Rich bastids should spend more cash like the idiots they are.
sue me because i’ve got 10 forks and two cars. In fact, also please reject my commentary because transmission of words and computer keyboards are also often used to infringe copyright (ever heard of copy and paste)?
Wait, this is just a remote control app. Next thing Apple will be banning VNC apps for the iPhone.
If you have a Nokia phone, there is an actual bittorrent app called SymTorrent , here:
http://amorg.aut.bme.hu/projects/symtorrent
Apple sucks!
Guess I am an iDiot as I own iPhone… So far there is no real competitor to it in things I use it for but damn it really is well decorated prison :( List of things I wanted to do with it and was not able because of restrictions just keep growing and not to say that it still lacks stuff like copy/paste or normal file system(and second it will probably never get like iPod did not).
Anyways yay for future Android phones and PRE for being open and unrestricted to innovation by third parties(Apple seems to have Monopoly on innovation on their platform…)
Apple can fuck off and Jobs can go to hell.
Really loving my e71 now. Theres just something nice about having a device in your pocket thats torrenting stuff.
Apple start to be the new Microsoft, Ihate Apple !
Hilarious video to think about something else : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IlFL-uJ4hmw
It’s not an MPAA conspiracy. BitTorrent has (had) deals with all the same MPAA members and has not once compromised the BitTorrent/uTorrent client. Unless you think BitTorrent has more leverage than Apple or nobody at Apple can negotiate for shit, this is 100% Apple being assholes.
android FTW!!!
Pfft. Who cares. Don’t buy Apple products people, stop following your friends and actually think about the product you’re buying.
Apple products are too restrictive and owned buy Jews, so what do you expect.
Apple’s logic is so flawed that it is hard to take them seriously.
It is as if the App review process is run by a team of Sarah Palins and Mike Huckabees.
Should Apple remove the mail feature because it is possible to send spam via it? no. Should they ban the iphone altogether because criminals can call each other and communicate? no. Should Apple get its head out of its ass? Yes.
The i(diot)Phone is an expensive overrated piece of junk anyway.
I think…
Apple’s logo has one bite taken out of it, because the apple is poisoned and the person who tried to eat it fell into a deep sleep.
Apple’s logo is colorful and fruity; it had the colors of a rainbow, because Apple’s plan was to lure the female and gay community with fantastic dreams about refreshing fruity kisses from royal heroes.
Apple has always aimed to corner the female/gay market, trap it into a deep manipulative sleep, disarm all whom sleep of their privacy and freedoms, then wake everyone after the market can no longer recognize how Independence was replaced by slavery and an evil Monarchy.
Apple = Witchcraft!
54 doesn’t read here often.
bboooo….
I’ve never been a fan of apple.
I’m not a fan of any company that considers proprietary as innovation.
So where do i download this app…?
That’s basically saying that if I were under 21 and I go into a 7-11 and buy a stack of red cups and they say that I cannot buy the cups because they “could” be used to drink alcohol. Fuck Apple.
I’ve reviewed Apple and determined that I cannot support a company that is often used for the purpose of making money and profiting from others.
@15
The rumored ET carts that ended up at the landfill were actually programmed by Atari. One of the best third party software publishers for the old Atari VCS/2600 was Activision, which was founded by former Atari programmers who were tired of being treated poorly by Atari. Your example was badly flawed as Activision was known for programming much better games than Atari at many points in the old VCS days.
God… I feel old.
If you gave your money to Apple, you knew you were throwing it away. Shame on you.
Anyone with any a sliver of technological savvy knows all Apple products are trash. Especially the iphone. So who cares? Ditch your locked, glitchy iphone & blackberry and get ANY windows mobile phone and go nuts!
@59
are you joking? The iphone has lots of “competitors” most of which it is losing in sales to I might add. Most PPC’s are more efficient, easier to use, faster, and have better software/support than the iphone. Open your freakin eyes and put down the kool-aid…christ…it’s amazing how easily people are brainwashed by marketing.
an apple a day keeps the freedom away
This is ridiculous. If you have Symbian there is SymTorrent(http://amorg.aut.bme.hu/projects/symtorrent), in Windows Mobile you have wmTorrent(http://www.wmTorrent.com),iPhone ? ….lame
Managers are, have always been, and probably always will be, of the most stupid people in the world :(
By the way, we should ban all photocopiers, optical media burners, etc, as they surely MIGHT be used for copyright infringement as well. Or let the MAFIAA implement a special chip that will compute hash of each piece of paper run through the machine and compare it with their blacklist… we will end up having MAFIAA microchips implemented in toilet paper as well, who knows, maybe someone will start copyrighting/patenting pieces of sh*t as well… :o)
Attention: Mac computers use the internet which is then used for infringement. Ban.
Musicians are making music and that’s leading to infringement. Ban.
Humans are seeing stuff and remembering it. Ban.
@ #10 Jim:
No you’re wrong, completely. FUD ALERT, FUD ALERT, FUD ALERT!!!
The iPod originally came into existence because of a niche in the marketplace for a hard-drive based player for the fast growing new audio format when all the competitor mp3 players at the time were small capacity (128Mb, 256Mb) flash-memory based players. The first gen iPod was only 5Gb after all, but that was enough to hold a reasonable number of albums so that you didn’t have to carry loads of CDs or tapes around with you.
My mp3 collection is completely legal (in as much as I’ve encoded all the albums I’ve bought over my lifetime including vinyl, tapes, Minidisks and CDs augmented by legal downloads), but is still too big for the largest iPod, so your assumption that illegal downloads created Apple’s marketplace for the iPod is completely flawed.
You also forget to take into account any of the iPod’s other uses – storage for Photos, Videos (TV Shows, Movies, Music Videos), Calendars, Documents, Contacts and not forgetting it’s a portable hard-disk too, so there are many justifications for owning a larger capacity iPod beyond just filling it with music.
But to reiterate – suggesting anyone with that much music is an illegal downloader is not only erroneous, but most likely a reflection of your own failings in life and lack of appreciation for the vast world of music out there. You could probably fill several 160Gb iPods very quickly if you only ever downloaded legal free music given away by independent artists – and it’s almost always much better quality (in musical terms) than anything being released by a major label.
Stop trying to spread FUD, and stop believing it yourself!
@59: “Guess I am an iDiot as I own iPhone… So far there is no real competitor to it in things I use it for but damn it really is well decorated prison :( List of things I wanted to do with it and was not able because of restrictions just keep growing and not to say that it still lacks stuff like copy/paste or normal file system(and second it will probably never get like iPod did not).”
Dude, are you a goddamn moron? ever heard of Windows Mobile for God’s sake?
Perhaps you should do just a little research before you buy your next phone.
“So far there is no real competitor to it in things I use it for”
I find it extremely hard to believe that there isn’t equivalent or better options on Windows mobile for whatever you’re talking about – and even if there isn’t just use the iPhone emulator which seems to run a tad slower than iPhone… well, only if it’s a CPU intense app, otherwise it’s faster.
I never get why people are so enamoured of iPhones when Windows Mobile is so much better – although does require a little expertise. But that’s what you get for having many times more power in terms of choices and what you can do.
Hell, I see my HTC Touch HD is can be found cheaper than iPhone – sorry, Apple users are ripped off again.
@ M-RES
you are correct about how the ipod came into existence. but it didn’t get popular because of that.
and besides its illegal to encode your disks as they can be used to infringe 3rd party rights
so according to you just because you have legal music then all or at least 90% of ipod/iphone users have legal music. if so then why the hell is there piracy at all
Why even put an internet browser if your scared of the internet?
You can just download files from rapidshare, megaupload, etc.
“We’ve reviewed your portable web browser and determined that we cannot post this version of your application to the App Store at this time because this category of applications is often used for the purpose of viewing pornographic material from the Internet. We have chosen to not publish this type of application to the App Store.”
Another good reason not to buy anything from them :)))
Apple does shit like this all the time with iPhone apps, they’re known for it, just look up “app store reject”.
i thought when a company has shit products they try to make it better, this just makes apple look stupid,
compliments to lack of sales to the dumbass who thought of this.
lan3y
I guess that means that an app that allowed you to “search Google” could not be allowed because after all, people can find and download warez from the sites they found on Google.
Apple’s rejection of this application makes about as much sense as the above statement I provided. It’s a shame a perfectly good application and technology is very often associated with only ONE of its many uses (and that one just happens to be the illegal type of usage). It’s not like the app had embedded thepiratebay.org or torrent searching capabilities.
Last Time i Check Torrent Sites Are Not Illegal. Torrents Are Used For Good All The Time Is It Not A Moral Wrong Doing To Judge People On A Single Beliefe
macfags go figure >.>
oh well just another reason why they will never achieve more than 25% of the computer market.
Coming soon to a theater near you.
Share Wars : The Counter-Productive Menace
Featuring Apple as Anakin, a future lord Vader on his quest to become the biggest and best jedi ever, only to succumb to the dark side.
Silly pirates, iphones are for indiekids!
@CluelessCakes
Windows Mobile? HAHAHAHA!
Microsoft is the single worst DRM monster in the entire tech industry. Trash Apple, fine. But don’t go around suggesting MS as a solution. That’s just embarassing.
If you want an open platform, go for some variant of Linux.
@78 and @84
So firstly things I bought iPhone then. Mmm well when I bought HTC G1 was not even out yet and there were only rumors about Nokia phone so then there were no clear competitors and now when they are out for few reasons I would say that they are not true competitors tough they are good in their own way.
Now things why I bought it:
1) Was multi-touch and in that it does not have competitors still as far as I know. You may argue that this is just a toy thing but for me it is future of interfaces as it allows to simulate many input interfaces single-touch/mouse or keyboards just can’t. Of course it is new yet unpolished possibility that is not properly used often but it those cases I was used properly… Damn that felt good :)
2) and 3) eBook reading and video watching. Here iPhone 3.5 inch is not enough but still decent in compariosn to G1, Nokia 5800 and coming PRE… I would actually like 4′ or even 5′ screen instead to have more pleasure reading eBooks but no Phone has anything like that so far… At least any reasonable phone(saw some crazy Chinese things or something)
4) Another thing is iPhone graphical capabilities. I am computer graphical programmer my self and iPhone has not powerful but video card(rather chip)… At the time of buying it there was aether no such information on other phones or it was known that they do not have it.
5) And finally I read RSS feeds as papers now on a go so Wi-Fi and browser was a must. Flash would be nice but eh…
So in conclusion.
No competitors in 1
Almost no competitors in screen size. iPhone screen is already little it smaller then I want but most other phones in same category have even less(pity Pre has small screen :( ) I agree there are some HTC current;y with better screens tough it is pretty hard to get them here as local operators do not support any of those as of yet.
Not completely shore but as far as I can tell no competitors in 4 aether.
And in 5 plenty of competitors most of which will have Flash soon(while noting is known about that for iPhone) so here iPhone lags and will lag behind…
So my count here in iPhone vs competitors is
iPhone 2.5 : 1.5 on those topics.
Also I would agree that it is little bit biased as I am software developer with interests in computer graphics and games which makes multi-touch and 3D so important to pick phone based on that. Important experience for the future as I see it :)
@10 You nailed it!
Apple. Who need them? It is for incompetent idiots. By the way, Transmission is not just a BitTorrent, but it also contain a web-ui and console terminal. What you can do is set up a port forward and no-ip.org (so you remember your domain name instead of numbers) and use any browsers for your torrent including the one on your Android. :)
Are there actually people using an iPhone unjailbreaked?
I have had a similar situation with my application, to monitor uTorrent, here is the whole story:
http://www.cloudgoessocial.net/2009/05/19/µmonitor-rejected/
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