New Apple Technology Rids Songs Of Swear Words

Here's one for the 1st amendment. Apple has been granted a patent named "Management, Replacement and Removal of Explicit Lyrics during Audio Playback" for technology that can automatically scan a song being streamed and edit out any swear words in the lyrics.

According to an article in Business Insider, the technology is different from automatic beeping of a swear word though. The system can detect an undesirable word then generate background music from the song in its place instead, so the transition is seamless.

Apple claims that the system may also work with books as well. For example, it could edit out words applying to sex or even full sex scenes from a book to make it more applicable to children.

Apple employs some censorship currently on Beats 1, limiting the content to anything without explicit lyrics. and the App Store has been notorious for keeping out porn or porn-related sites. That said, the list of "swear words" that the new technology works on will be undoubtedly controversial.

Apple hasn't said if it would actually employ the technology however, only that it's been granted the patent for it. If it's ever rolled out, it's bound to have free speech advocates everywhere up in arms.

(Photo Credit: Newtown Grafitti)

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Apple's New P2P Patent Is A Head Scratcher

Apple has just been granted a patent that allows users to legally share music and videos with friends by using P2P technology instead of downloading from iTunes. This is curious indeed, considering the considerable resources put behind the tech industry in trying to kill P2P in the past.

Apple claims that this will save bandwidth costs by having users obtain the desired media files from other users, but they'll still receive the necessary licenses separately from Apple. That's actually the interesting part of the patent - decoupling the license from the content. Instead of getting a file from iTunes, users just purchase the license, which requires virtually no bandwidth and drops the delivery costs to almost zero.

While the company takes the stand that this will make piracy less attractive, streaming has already made piracy a non-issue, so it seems like this is a technology that's an answer without a question.

That said, the patent was filed in 2011 when it was a little more relevant than it is now, which goes to show how fast things run in the tech side of the business. Check here for the full patent.