“Information wants to be free,” or so goes the slogan invoked a lot in relation to WikiLeaks. Information wants to be free – except when it’s a WikiLeaks iPhone app apparently. Then it’s $1.99.
It’s an unofficial WikiLeaks app, with no connections to the organization. The app’s maker Igor Barinov says that WikiLeaks will receive $1 from each purchase, and boasts that he’s earned $1000 already since the app appeared in the App Store yesterday.
Sponsor
Obviously, with no PayPal option, the money will be mailed directly to one of the accounts WikiLeaks has listed on its website.
But will it last in the App Store? Apple has certainly never been timid about booting apps from the store that it deems to have violated its Developer Guidelines. And there are probably several reasons it could use do so if it wanted in this case – the least of which being the “you don’t own this content” justification that Amazon used when removing WikiLeaks from AWS. And this time, it isn’t simply a question of whether or not WikiLeaks has “rights” to the leaked documents, but whether this app developer has “rights” to WikiLeaks’ leaks.
The WikiLeaks app simply re-presents the information from the WikiLeaks website, as well as updates to the organization’s Twitter account, formatted for the iPhone or iPad. While the app promises to keep you up-to-date on WikiLeaks information, even if the WikiLeaks servers are disrupted, there are over 2000 mirror sites that will do that too – for free.
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