Steve Jobs bans Wiley titles

I missed this bit of looniness out of Silicon Valley this past week, but Katie Hafner's got it covered in today's New York Times: Steve Jobs's Review of His Biography: Ban It.

The imperial Jobs has decreed that no Wiley & Sons book shall be sold at any of Apple's retail stores.

As it happens, my book Darknet, published by Wiley, goes on sale next month, and its subject matter is aimed squarely at the innovation-loving technology crowd that the Apple stores target.

Nice going, Steve. Punish your customers.

From Katie's article:

In an image-obsessed fit of pique, Apple Computer has banished books published by John Wiley & Sons from the shelves of Apple's 105 retail stores - all because of Wiley's plans to publish an unauthorized biography of Mr. Jobs, Apple's chief executive.

It is not clear whether Mr. Jobs or anyone else at Apple has read the book - "iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, which will go on sale next month. ...

In recent months, Apple showed its penchant for secrecy by suing a Harvard student who operates a Web site for Apple enthusiasts, accusing him of trying to induce Apple employees to divulge company trade secrets. It also filed lawsuits to stop leaks of company information on several Web sites that traffic in Apple news.

Cross-posted to Darknet.com.