Throughout the month of August, Nullriver‘s NetShare application, which allowed iPhone users to utilize their handset’s 3G/EDGE connection as means of connecting their computers to the internet, was in a constantly wavering state of peril. After a brief (as in hours) stint on Apple’s App store, it was taken down. Days later it returned, albeit only for a brief while.
After nearly a month of silence, Nullriver is reporting that Apple has decided that NetShare is permanently banned from the App store.
I won’t get into the argument of whether or not Apple should be removing applications that do not explicitly violate the terms of service, because that argument is happening in a million places around the internet at any given time. I will mention, however, that this specific decision is absurd. Anyone technically capable of playing with NetShare is more than capable of jailbreaking their handsets and installing tethering applications of their own. This decision gives an entire group of people, uninterested by custom themes or fancy-pants video applications, a reason to jailbreak when they wouldn’t have bothered before. Without any real gain, the decision maker has essentially forced the tether-hopeful end user to cross into the realm of unauthorized use.
Way to go.