Eucalyptus

Technologizer reports: [edited]

Eucalyptus is an iPhone application that that lets you download and read books from the expansive Project Gutenberg library of free public-domain works. Judging from its Web site, it’s comparable to Amazon’s Kindle application – except all the content is free, and the interface looks to be prettier. The asking price is $9.99.

Except Apple rejected the program for including material that is “obscene, pornographic, offensive, or defamatory.” The material in question is the Kama Sutra, which has been offending (and intriguing) people for centuries. It’s not included with Eucalyptus – no book is – but it’s available at Project Gutenberg, and you can therefore use Eucalyptus to read it.

If the mere fact that an app could be used to download something dirty was enough to ban it from the iPhone, of course, Apple’s own Safari would never have made it onto the phone

My guess is that Apple’s policies don’t really ban Eucalyptus. It seems far more likely that the app fell victim to an overzealous and underinformed member of Apple’s staff who twisted the intent of the App Store’s rules and applied them in a way that nobody ever meant to enforce them.

Thanks to Conrad for the Eucalyptus link
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