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Following yesterday's letter from four U.S. senators that asked Apple, Google, and Research in Motion to remove applications that could help drunk drivers evade police checkpoints and other law enforcement efforts, RIM has agreed to the request, saying such applications will soon be removed from its BlackBerry App World.
"RIM's decision to remove these apps from their online store proves that when it comes to drunk driving, there should not be an app for that," New York's Democratic senator, Charles E. Schumer, said in a statement released this morning.
Schumer had been joined in the effort by fellow U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
The group didn't name specific apps in its letter, which was addressed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt; Scott Forstall, Apple's senior VP ofiPhone software; and James L. Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis, co-CEOs of RIM. It did, however, cite an application with a database of DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoints, and one that crowdsourced finding those same checkpoints and sharing them with a user base of "more than 10 million."
Each of the three mobile application marketplaces has its own set of rules and guidelines. Apple introduced its own formally back in September, following criticism that its approval process did not clearly spell out what application makers were and were not allowed to include short of the code itself. RIM has one in list form, which you can see here, that outs anything "that is illegal (e.g. against any criminal, civil or statutory law or regulation)." As for Google, its Android Market policies page splits apart the do's and don'ts on this page, highlighting similar illegal activies including the "promotion of dangerous and illegal activities," with a penalty of apps being denied, or the creators having their publishing accounts terminated.
According to the announcement by Schumer's office, those apps--which remain unnamed--are being taken down by RIM within the next day or so. What's unclear is if the application developers have been given a heads up or a chance to remove the features prior to any action. CNET has reached out to RIM to find out if that's the case. Meanwhile, both Apple and Google have not yet responded to a request for comment on the original letter.
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"RIM's decision to remove these apps from their online store proves that when it comes to drunk driving, there should not be an app for that," New York's Democratic senator, Charles E. Schumer, said in a statement released this morning.
Schumer had been joined in the effort by fellow U.S. Senators Harry Reid (D-Nev.), Frank Lautenberg (D-N.J.), and Tom Udall (D-N.M.).
The group didn't name specific apps in its letter, which was addressed to Google CEO Eric Schmidt; Scott Forstall, Apple's senior VP ofiPhone software; and James L. Balsillie and Michael Lazaridis, co-CEOs of RIM. It did, however, cite an application with a database of DUI (driving under the influence) checkpoints, and one that crowdsourced finding those same checkpoints and sharing them with a user base of "more than 10 million."
Each of the three mobile application marketplaces has its own set of rules and guidelines. Apple introduced its own formally back in September, following criticism that its approval process did not clearly spell out what application makers were and were not allowed to include short of the code itself. RIM has one in list form, which you can see here, that outs anything "that is illegal (e.g. against any criminal, civil or statutory law or regulation)." As for Google, its Android Market policies page splits apart the do's and don'ts on this page, highlighting similar illegal activies including the "promotion of dangerous and illegal activities," with a penalty of apps being denied, or the creators having their publishing accounts terminated.
According to the announcement by Schumer's office, those apps--which remain unnamed--are being taken down by RIM within the next day or so. What's unclear is if the application developers have been given a heads up or a chance to remove the features prior to any action. CNET has reached out to RIM to find out if that's the case. Meanwhile, both Apple and Google have not yet responded to a request for comment on the original letter.
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