And they’d been doing so well with the ‘not evil’ thing. Apple’s new patent is for software that would sense when people are trying to film concerts or events with their iPhone, then automatically disable the camera. It’d be nice to see a concert without a thousand iPhones blocking the way, but Big Brother much?

The technology is sexy in its own evil way, though – organizers wanting to maintain exclusive video rights over events would place infrared sensors at their venues, which would shut down any cameras in the line of site. And I mean, if any cops happen to be exercising police brutality and don’t want that being recorded, I guess they could avail of the tech too? Maybe?

Says Cory Doctorow over at BoingBoing:

“This is part of an increasing trend to designing hardware and software that allows remote parties to override the instructions of the owners and users of devices. This trend, coupled with the increasing degree to which devices are privy to our secrets, our sensitive information, and even our biological functions, worries me an awful lot”

Even more worrying is this: without iPhone footage, imagine all the lost viral videos of Justin Bieber getting hit by stuff that you’d only get to read about.

[Source: BoingBoing]
[Image: AVC]