iDiots

The AP reports that Apple has responded to a new book about Steve Jobs entitled iCon Steve Jobs: The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business by yanking all the books by the publisher, John Wiley & Sons, off the shelves of its Apple stores. MacWorld confirms the story and adds good detail:

"I was told late last week that Wiley had been talking to Apple for a while," [author Jeffrey] Young told MacCentral. John Wiley & Sons Inc. provided Apple with a copy of the manuscript to verify facts.

"Apple didn’t have any factual issues, but they just didn’t want the book to be published, apparently," said Young. Not publishing the book isn’t an option, however.

Especially now that it's become a cause célèbre, and a guaranteed bestseller, thanks to their heavy-handed tactics. When will they learn that corporate censorship, while perfectly legal, almost always backfires -- especially when the target is a publisher, and the topic is one of great interest on the Net? As long as companies are in the thrall of the cult of the corporate personality, apparently never.

(If, on the other hand, you are a member or friend of the cult and don't want to offend the Great Man, why, try this title by my old college friend Alan Deutschman. Blurb- and review-wise, it sounds like the same book, which of course is a totally unfair assumption to make. But why shouldn't Alan get a plug just because no one tossed his opus into the bonfires?)