I’m equally amused and bemused by the language in the iTunes license agreement where you’re forbidden to use iTunes to control nuclear reactors. This just consistently strikes me as a very odd thing to put into the license for software that is (mainly) used to buy and play music.
My curiosity finally got the best of me and I wrote to iTunes customer service to express my surprise. Do they have a frequent problem with people using iTunes to control nuclear reactors and such? Rather than trying to enforce such restrictions via the software license, wouldn’t it be easier (and safer!) to simply remove that functionality from the software?
A customer service person wrote back within 24 hours with a very well-written and courteous response. She identified one of the two sections that raised my eyebrow, but aside from repeating what was in there, declined to elaborate on why it might be there, directing me instead to their Legal Department.
I’m quite disappointed. I thought for sure a company like Apple would have a more creative response.
Perhaps I’ll have more luck writing to Larry Page and Sergey Brin about Google Earth.
2 thoughts on “Apple's Weapons of Mass Destruction”
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I think you may enjoy this site, It’s a series of letters a former high school classmate of mine wrote to a large variety of individuals/corporations asking a large variety of questions, along with the answers he received. Some of them are a little dated since he began the ‘project’ back in the early 90s.
The link’s missing, but the premise sounds similar to The Lazlo Letters, a collection of letters Don Novello (aka “Father Guido Sarducci”) wrote to various business and world leaders as well as their responses.
It’s possible that this influenced my decision to write to Apple. 🙂