About That BitTorrent-Enabled iPhone App? Too Much Publicity

This is what happens when you get press coverage for a product that does something that Apple doesn't want in the App Store: you get booted. IS Drive is being kicked out of the App Store, the developer, Derek Kepner, has Tweeted, saying:

Just got a call from Apple. They're taking IS Drive down. I'm seeing what I can do. I have a feeling I won't be able to change their mind.

Admittedly, we were among the sites that outed IS Drive as being BitTorrent enabled. As we noted previously, it wasn't a generalized BitTorrent app, but it does use BitTorrent capabilities to be an ImageShack Drive Client.


While Apple told Kepner his app was being rejected because of Section 22.4 of the App Store Review Guidelines, which states that “Apps that enable illegal file sharing will be rejected,” Kepner noted that ImageShack Drive requires a subscription, which pirates aren't going to pay.

“There are users who have no intention to pirate anything. When designing this app, it was very important to me to not bother those users with the option to pirate.

“Users who are interested in piracy aren't going to pay those subscription fees. There are many legitimate uses for ImageShack Drive. I don't think it's fair to punish legitimate users for the actions of morons who think my app will help them pirate.”

Additionally, as we noted as well, you can use Safari to help foster piracy as well. As we've also noted, despite Steve Jobs war against porn and statements that Android is "for porn," Safari is pretty good at that, as well.

We doubt Apple will change its mind, as it will likely ignore Kepner's arguments, just as it ignores Safari's porn-finding capabilities.