Does The Cinemax App Violate Apple’s No Porn Rules?

style="text-align: left;">href="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screen-shot-2011-08-14-at-9-36-20-am.png">class="size-full wp-image-23070" title="screen-shot-2011-08-14-at-9-36-20-am" src="http://cdn.everythingicafe.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/screen-shot-2011-08-14-at-9-36-20-am.png" alt="" width="591" height="359" />

style="text-align: left;">HBO owned Cinemax has a rather sordid history of showing softcore porn and plentiful nudity late at night on their cable channel, but href="http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/max-go/id453560335?mt=8">their new iOS app has raised some question about Apple’s censorship rules. The app requires you to be an active subscriber to the channel, at which point you can stream all of their content — including the bits with full frontal nudity, which has caused the internet to href="http://gigaom.com/video/cinemax-ipad-porn/">explode in href="http://9to5mac.com/2011/08/14/scinemaxs-max-go-app-somehow-skirts-app-store-porn-police/">scandal.

style="text-align: left;">Here’s what’s worth noting about this. HBO’s streaming app has allowed sex and nudity for some time. You’ve been able to buy movies with sex in them and explicit books through Apple’s services for a long time.

style="text-align: left;">We’ve covered Apple’s inconsistent censorship href="http://www.everythingicafe.com/why-does-apple-censor-the-app-store/2011/06/23/">in some detail in the past.

style="text-align: left;">I think at least some of the reason for this getting away with this nudity is that it’s streaming content; that it comes from a major, respected partner; and that it’s incidental to the app as a whole, rather than its main thrust.

style="text-align: left;">It’ll be interesting to see if Apple reacts to this coverage in any way.