Apple competition, EFF

The EFF warns of ways Apple could "permit competing app stores" but make them useless for independent distribution of software -- or, perhaps, useless specifically for the Free World.

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2022/12/heres-how-apple-could-open-its-app-store-without-really-opening-its-app-store

This is an important issue and the warning is important too. Sad to say, the article shows how little the EFF values users' freedom.

When Apple removes an app store for allegedly failing to meet its security obligations, it could take a long time to figure out whether the action was warranted, and during that delay, the suspended app store’s customers could lose access to the media they’ve purchased,

If you have "purchased media" through an app, why in the world would you "lose access to it" if that app ceases to function? Is the EFF assuming that the "media" is covered with digital shackles, so you can't play said "media" except through a nonfree program that tracks and restricts you? It looks that way. Even worse, EFF's statement legitimizes such shackles.

Here we see the values that EFF's position is based on:

In the case of audiobooks, Apple uses its high fees to clear the field of competitors for its own product, Apple Books, which sells books that are permanently locked (through Digital Rights Management) to Apple’s platform.

Incredibly, that’s the best outcome of Apple’s “app tax.” In other cases, companies simply pass on Apple’s commission to Apple’s customers by raising prices (since everyone who sells via an iOS app must pay the app tax, they all raise prices). Even that is better than the worst outcome, where products and services never come to market because they can’t be profitable after paying the app tax, and the products won’t sell if the app tax is added onto their sale price.

The "worst outcome" according to the EFF would be the lack of some sort of convenience. In the digital world of today, much worse outcomes are possible, and indeed likely.

The usual outcome of anything digital today is that it offers you all the convenience you might want, but it snoops on, tracks, and restricts the users.