2010年剛開始便遇上麻煩。

最近Conceptable接連收到兩封信，都是為了Reading這個app，兩封認真的公函，同樣內附了Reading的screen shot一大堆，一封來自香港某報章，一封來自一間負責本地傳媒內容發佈版權的公司，投訴指Reading的部分內容抵觸了香港的版權條例。

其實Sean在08年尾寫Reading時，只為方便自己每日閱讀港聞。那個時候香港的iPhone users比現在少得多，App Store亦幾乎沒有local的apps，反正Reading都寫了出來，何不放上App Store做free app，與香港的users分享這個我們自覺幾好用的程式？

Reading的第一個version很簡單，只是普通不過的純文字RSS Reader，卻得到出乎意料的正面反應，於是我們繼續想、繼續做，希望讓user用Reading用得更方便。在後來的version，我們多次增加function，例如聽取了iPod Touch user的意見令Reading容許用家offline讀新聞等，每一次user看得見或看不見的update，其實也費神費時間，不過每次在街上看見人用Reading，覺得這個app可能令香港多了幾個人讀報、讓人拿少幾份推倒樹木換來的免費報紙，也算為消失中的熱帶雨林出了分力吧。

說回這次投訴，我和Sean也要承認是自己在版權問題上疏忽了。本來簡單的解決方法是只刪除相關的內容，取消快取內文，Reading仍可繼續operate提供有限機構的新聞RSS Feed。但思前想後，若這個原本能讓user閱讀不同傳媒以不同角度報導同一則新聞的Reading程式，變成了只一、兩間傳媒報導的發放渠道，Reading也失去了原本的意義。因此我和Sean決定暫時停止Reading的服務，直至我們figure out Reading的新定位。

感謝各位user一直以來支持和意見。我們會好好利用開發Reading的經驗去發展其他新project，希望不久將來會再做出另一些你們合用的local apps。

Sean and I have finally received feedback from the iPhone Developer Program regarding our app Reading 悅讀港民.

We got a REJECTION – with the most dragging and illogical (at least to us) reason.

Here’s is the reply.

“Thank you for submitting Reading 悅讀港民 to the App Store. We’ve reviewed Reading 悅讀港民  and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store at this time because it is not appropriately rated. Our review indicates that the application content is not consistent with the current rating. Reading 悅讀港民 allows unfiltered access to the internet, where content with mature or suggestive themes can be accessed. Applications must be rated accordingly for the highest level of content that the user is able to access.
Please visit iTunes Connect to resubmit your binary and rate your application appropriately.”

Ok. They are not satisfied with our RATING. For those who may not know, developers rate their own applications at either a 4+, 9+, 12+, or 17+ levels. And these ratings, of course, give an idea to the buyers that the application should be clean, or with content mildly or “fiercely”, touching violence, offenses, sexuality or whatever that is not appropriate for children under that certain age.

We made Reading, a news reader. We rated it 4+, because when we have looked at the other news reader worldwide -

Yahoo! news – 4+
Wall Street Journal s – 4+
USA today – 4+
Reuters – 4+

Ok, to be fair, for some reasons, NY Times is rated 12+

Anyhow, now they are suggesting, we should rate Reading APPROPRIATELY before a resubmission, and that is… we actually had no idea, a 12+ maybe?

Well, we are confused. Too much blood or nudity in our news?

Btw, we see another similar story here -

http://www.pcworld.com/article/168619/app_store_rating_system.html

One last thing, we tried to be a nice good kid to react this asap. But the iTunes Connect doesn’t allow me to change that rating on the “Edit Information” page. The radio buttons are disabled.

I am using Safari 4.0.

Update : Jul 21 9:30

We emailed Apple for more information about the APPROPRIATELY rating and here is the reply.

When the user goes to tap “瀏覽原文“ in the new details page, Reading 悅讀港民 brings up browser access.

Well, all Twitter client should rated 17+.

iPhone selected the best porn provider, Google, as the default search engine of iPhone.

And the Safari actually is a 17+ application but they are so kind to bundle it.




Update : Jul 28 9:15

We got another rejection of our suggested 9+ rating. 17+ Rating resubmitted.

Related Reading by Sean : http://guruhk.wordpress.com/2009/07/18/reading-3-0-相關事宜/