Cult of Mac Endorses App Piracy
I used to thing the Cult of Mac blog, was interesting, even though I found lead author Leander Kahney to be often a windbag. But after publishing an article not only endorsing app piracy but explaining, step by step, how to do it, I was quite shocked. The decision to publish such an article is so incredibly stupid and contemptuous of the developers that the blog often claims to support, that it can only be seen as link bait.
So the corrected version comes as even more of a surprise. This sort of comment is so idiotic that I really wonder of such journalists should be allowed to write for any “major” web site:
The intent for the Superguide is to be straightforward and frank — a one-stop shop for everything people want to know about jailbreaking. We don’t condone piracy, but it’s a fact that a lot of people jailbreak their devices to experiment with things like Installous. I find it dishonest and hypocritical when publications skirt around issues like this; like publishing BitTorrent guides and pretending that no one’s going to download a pirated movie.
However, it’s obviously disingenuous to say we condemn piracy in a post that shows readers how to pirate software. Personally, I’ve always believed publishing information is one thing and acting on that information is another. I’ve always liked publications that informed me about things we’re not supposed to do. I can then make my own moral decision whether to act on that information or not
The thing is, this has always been Kahney’s blog; its name comes from the title of a book he wrote. So it’s him or nothing, as far as I know. But this crap about publishing it because it’s available elsewhere doesn’t fly; if people are looking for such information, they’ll find it, but that doesn’t mean you should not only publish it but endorse such illegal activity. Kahney’s attempted explanation is disingenuous and suggests that he’s really not aware of what he’s writing about. I hope people stop reading his blog; I know I will.
Wow. I tried to find his fallacy on this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fallacies (would you believe there is a comprehensive list of fallacies?), but I didn’t see it. Maybe you could have more luck.
It’s like borrowing a friends car, parking it in the bad part of town with the doors unlocked, and then trying to absolve yourself of the blame when it gets stolen because it wasn’t *you* who stole it.