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Comment by da_n | Hacker News Reader

I do agree that if a developer has some personal beef with a website that should not allow him/her to think they have the right to block it from their users. Apple wouldn't dream to go as far as to block google.com or samsung.com on their OS's for example just because they have some serious business disagreements. The fact is though we only really have one side of the story here, so hopefully Marco will explain his side of the story (perhaps on his podcast http://5by5.tv/buildanalyze).

To be honest though I simply cannot believe he would think such a thing acceptable, he seems like a pretty clued-in guy this would be a blunder of epic proportions if true, there's something more to this story.

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Having read more into the Marco/9-5Mac story and looking on Twitter, seems Marco has concluded the website does not want their content 'scraped' due to content in their articles being 'almost libelous'. Unfortunately he has taken the decision to block his users ability to save from the site as some sort of punishment against them. Can't see any real official explanation, and the error message is unhelpful. Unfortunately I cannot agree with his position, it is repugnant and seems to be a double standard (he has not blocked other sites which heavily criticise Instapaper). Shame, let's hope he sees sense.

Edit: he has lifted the block and apologised for putting it in place without the publishers explicit request, guess he saw sense in the end, everyone gets clouded by anger sometimes. http://blog.instapaper.com/post/31303984531

For the record. Apple has pushed Google Maps off the iPhone in iOS 6. Not sure they'll allow it either as it would 'duplicate core OS functionality'

And Google dragged their feet in updating it for years.

But that's different from doing a specific edge-case breakage with a petulant message.

Your first point is incorrect. Apple developed (and has always developed) the Maps app for iOS. The app is no longer using the Google Maps API - that is the difference in iOS 6.

So were you part of the meetings that decided this? Because I could, for the record, say that Google pulled its Maps app off of the iPhone in iOS 6.

I don't think either is an appropriate characterization of the situation. More likely, Apple had features they wanted that Google wouldn't license (eg turn by turn), so Apple decided to develop its own product. The license terms of the agreement for which Apple was paying Google included shipping the Google Maps app, so when Apple decided not to renew the agreement, they had to stop shipping a product called Google Maps.

> Because I could, for the record, say that Google pulled its Maps app off of the iPhone in iOS 6.

Someone with in-depth knowledge of the licensing agreements! You must know exactly what happened, based on your assertion of credentials, here.

> More likely, Apple had features they wanted that Google wouldn't license (eg turn by turn)

Wouldn't? Or couldn't? Do you know? Do you care? It seems your mind is made up despite not having the inside knowledge you assert.

You're right, I don't know (don't care, either). I was trying to make a point that there is probably a story that involved more than 1/2 a sentence.

My mind is not in the least way made up. I'm curious where that came from, honestly. That's a strong assertion that I actually tried to keep out of my post as I hypothesized what I saw as a plausible scenario given only whats been in the media.

I have no clue, and I highly doubt anybody posting here does, either.

> That's a strong assertion that I actually tried to keep out of my post as I hypothesized what I saw as a plausible scenario given only whats been in the media.

You said it was "more likely," implying you had some reason to believe it besides what people say on the Internet.

That's a good point. My intention was that it was more likely that there was a much richer story than "X is trying to screw Y". Thanks for explaining so I can make my comments closer to what I'm trying to say.

Guess I should have said more clearly, meant blocking in the browser. With Google Maps, I thought this was down to their license agreement expiring, and that Google reportedly have their own App Store version in the works. I suppose if the app is rejected by Apple on frivalous grounds this would be cause for concern.

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