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Apple censors shut down BitTorrent app client

Developer slipped by iTunes app storekeepers by not mentioning the protocol

Apple has removed a previously approved BitTorrent client from the iTunes app store - though even the developer admits it only got approved 'cos it didn't mention the protocol.

IS Drive slipped by the Apple censors by making no reference to BitTorrent, connecting instead to the ImageShack service, which provides server-based torrent downloads to paying members. In this way, IS Drive could provide access to BitTorrent content without running the protocol on an iPhone, enabling it to slip past Apple.

But it couldn't last, and sure enough on Monday Macworld reported on the application, reprinting a story from Macworld UK under the headline "Apple approves first BitTorrent iPhone app", which was enough to grab the attention of Cupertino and get the application pulled within 48 hours.

"[IS Drive] will not be designed to easily break the law and I hope no one intends to do so. But if a user is determined to break the law, what business is that of mine or Apple's?" asked the developer, while talking to TorrentFreak.

It may be none of Apple's business, but that doesn't mean it won't choose to get involved, and while the developer continues to argue that his application doesn't break any of Apple's published rules, even he seems sanguine, tweeting: "Not sure if I can change Apple's mind, but I'm trying." ®

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