Wow. Project Gutenberg’s Eucalyptus iPhone app was just denied from the iPhone store because the catalogue’s inclusion of the Kama Sutra is considered “objectionable”. Despite the fact that Gutenberg contains a huge selection of canonized literary text, the reality is that Eucalyptus is just a button to a skinnier version of the website. The button/app has nothing to do with the content beyond saving readers the time of typing the URL into the browser.

Strangely, this sort of moral censorship on a button/app has huge implications on both the publishing industry and society. One piece of “objectionable content” in a massive library can stop the public from gaining access to some incredibly useful information. In the future, how will this effect open learning and distance education?

The Adventures of Huck Finn was first banned from libraries for its “coarseness, deceitfulness and mischievous practices” and then again in the 50s for its usage of derogatory racial slang. Isn’t it strange that Mark Twain can be considered “coarse”, “racist” and now a classic, all within the span of a century?

Regardless of who makes it into the iPhone store, I’m just glad that there are still people producing art and culture for the love of it.