Recently I saw an article saying, Japanese law forced Apple to open up browser restrictions on iOS.
But this got me thinking, why couldn’t Apple just tell them to fuck off by saying that iOS is meant to be that way cause we are the ones who designed it and the ones who own it. And if you want a change, go make your own products.
Don’t get me wrong, I hate big-tech controlling peoples lives, but aren’t these kind of laws; telling a maker to make the product in a specific way, eliminating creative freedom?
They can’t do that any more than a restaurant can ignore food safety laws because their food is ‘meant to be like that’ or a driver can ignore speed laws because their car was made to go fast.
Most large companies have different implementations in different countries to comply with their laws. Apple opening up iOS in Japan doesn’t mean they have to open it up everywhere. Same with how some games have to tone down blood and gore for certain countries, but that is localized and not worldwide.
On the other hand, car laws in California don’t apply to the rest of the country but manufacturers usually implement the laws everywhere because it is cheaper for them to do so.
In both cases, the reason they comply is because laws are laws and if they want to do business in a certain location they must comply.