Originally Posted by
sodascouts
I know I'm late on this, but what is even more disturbing about this Apple patent is that it's exactly the kind of "Big Brother" control that we all fear. Powerful lobbyists decide what they want, they pressure Apple, and Apple enforces their will. What's next?
Most police don't like you filming them. If Apple were to come under pressure from police groups, what's to stop them from patenting something that wouldn't allow you to film if a police scanner, easily detectable by the phone, was within a certain range? There are myriad examples of how this type of control could be abused easily in even more serious ways.
It's possible Android will follow suit... or it's possible Apple's monopoly, already diminishing, will fall further. That would be nice, actually! It's already happening elsewhere. Their attempts to prevent customers from playing music bought at the iTunes store on non-Apple devices caused me - and many others - to start purchasing my music from Amazon.
Also, how would it differentiate between those performers who are OK with recording and those who are not? Venue policies always say "no recording" but leave room for artists to override it. Many struggling artists WANT the exposure. I guess they're just screwed if this goes forward; their needs will be overridden by the powerful and wealthy artists who no longer need promotion.
Finally, while it will certainly decrease instances at least in the short term, Austin is right. There are always workarounds for the determined, and rogue programmers who will be happy to develop apps which "fool" the device.