Use*s of *he Bri**sh iTunes sto*e have fo*nd son* titles and artist names a******d by some inconsistent c*nsorship. And if you had to read that twice, you’ll understand the problem.

Over the last few days, there’s been a seemingly inexplicable selection of words which have had letters blanked out in the catalog. They include ‘hot’ and ‘bum’, with even Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ (or ‘T**n’ as Apple had it) falling victim.

There was also bad news for some famous singers, with Messrs Cash, Mathis, Winters and Rotten all earning the first name ‘J****y’.

The BBC reports that at the height of the problem, it was fine to be ‘gay’, but those of a sapphic persuasion were rebranded ‘l******s’; meanwhile you could commit ‘murder’ but doing so would make you a ‘k****r’.

Apple has blamed the issue on a glitch in its database system used to asterisk out words which the company genuinely believes might be offensive. Looking at the examples, it’s certainly conceivable the problem is not so much a technical error as it is using an overly cautious list of words, in the same way some corporate e-mail systems block innocent messages. That would certainly explain why the only forename affected appears to be Johnny, which is also British slang for a condom.

At the time of writing, most of the more obvious errors have been fixed. However, the filter appears to be specific to the category. For example, in the Mary Poppins soundtrack, Dick Van Dyke gets the appropriate credit for each song he sings in (though no credit for the worst London accent in movie history). However, the soundtrack of his TV vehicle is still ‘The Dick Van D**e Show’.

It’s not the first time overanxious filtering has caused problems. Residents of a town in Britain were once unable to register their location in AOL profiles because the system believed an obscenity was hidden in the name Scunthorpe.

Related:

Entry was posted on Monday, October 27th, 2008 at 4:08 pm under Adult content, Apple.

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