Apple's Still At It: Rejects Tiger Woods Cartoon App

By: E&P Staff Apple rejected an iPhone app that collected editorial cartoons about Tiger Woods because it "ridicules public figures," Daryl Cagle reports on his blog.

Cagle is msnbc.com's editorial cartoonist who also distributes his work and others to newspapers and Web sites. His cartoons are also distributed through applications on the iPhone and iPad, which he has been looking to expand by developing apps on specific topics.

Apple approved the "Msnbc.com Obama Cartoons" app that shows the latest editorial cartoons about the president.

"But Apple rejected our app on the topic of Tiger Woods," Cagle wrote. "It seems that Tiger crosses an editorial line at Apple."

Cagle includes the letter from the Apple "App Review Team" rejecting the app:

"We've reviewed Tiger Woods Cartoons and determined that we cannot post this version of your iPhone application to the App Store because it contains content that ridicules public figures and is in violation of Section 3.3.17 from the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement which states:

"'Applications may be rejected if they contain content or materials of any kind (text, graphics, images, photographs, sounds, etc.) that in Apple's reasonable judgment may be found objectionable, for example, materials that may be considered obscene, pornographic, or defamatory.'

"If you believe that you can make the necessary changes so that Tiger Woods Cartoons does not violate the iPhone Developer Program License Agreement, we encourage you to do so and resubmit it for review."

Cagle compares the rejection to undemocratic states.

"Editorial cartoons are the best measure of the freedom of a nation," he wrote. "Cartoonists in Cuba have never drawn Fidel Castro; cartoonists in Egypt can't draw their President Hosni Mubarek; cartoonists in China don't draw their president Hu Jintao. Authoritarian regimes always turn first to control the cartoonists, and forbid them from 'ridiculing public figures.'"

"I don't want Apple deciding which public figures I may ridicule," Cagle concluded in the blog.