this post was submitted on 27 Jan 2024
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Yeah. I mean, the actual reverse engineering is something Apple wouldn't be able to stop them from doing. But anyone who thought Apple couldn't stop them from using that reverse engineering to connect to iMessage was delusional. And if it had become more of a cat and mouse situation where Beeper was able to keep gaining access, Apple would have sued the pants off them. Apple, as shitty of a company as they are, have every right to control access to their own APIs.
No matter what the technical reality of Beeper was, this was like claiming God couldn't kick you out of Heaven if they wanted to.
Apple has army of devs, a bottomless wallet, and is extremely petty and controlling about their garden. If you found a hole in the wall, they'd go as far as to build a whole new wall just to stop you. And they can do that, because it's their garden. You have no power there.
I support what Beeper tried to do, but it was never going to work. Apple's garden needs regulation to crack open, you can't do it with software.
Don't talk about your fantasy religion
Like Microsoft had every right to control access to their operating system?
Oh wait...
ikr internet Explorer? but safari a ok
Depends on the context about which you're talking.
I'm talking about accessing a service which Apple is in control of the infrastructure and has specifically put in place access and authorization controls.
In this instance, if Beeper wanted to reverse engineer the API, make their own implementation, and offer their own messaging service that's fine. More power to them generally.
But unless Beeper comes to some sort of agreement to allow interoperability with Apple's iMessage (or Apple is forced to allow it by government action) then they can't take it upon themselves to use exploits or spoofing to gain access without authorization. You might think it sucks that Apple has kept their API closed and that it's a bad idea, but that's their prerogative. It's just like when Twitter closed their API or when Reddit priced everyone out of using their API, except Apple never had it open to start with.
Saying you've put access controls in to a public service isn't an argument. It's a confession. Anti-competitive behavior is illegal. And forcing the traffic through infrastructure you set up specifically to wall it off is Anti- Competitive. Just because neo liberals got in control of things does not mean we need to normalize corporate governance.
Everyone using Beeper was authorized to access those APIs. Apple didn't like how they were accessing those APIs.