Which means those acts need to create a “profile” for Steve Jobs’s social network. An Apple (AAPL) document making the rounds (Apple has confirmed its authenticity to me) explains how. You can read the whole thing at the bottom of this post.

Most of it concerns technical specs about things you don’t care about, like video formats. Here’s one part you might be interested in–some of Apple’s edicts regarding the content of artists’ profiles:

• Videos, photos, and text posts should not contain pornography, hate speech, racism, nudity, or any references to or depictions of drug use.
• Posts should not include advertisements or links to sites outside of iTunes.
• Posts should not contain links to other content providers.

The first item is sort of obvious, but still worth noting. Because theoretically, if the Beatles ever do make it to iTunes, they’re going to have a hard time promoting some of their songs. Like this one.

But that rule seems like the kind of thing that Apple can change or ignore at will–just like its “no porn except sometimes” ban in the iTunes app store. And anyway, artists have always found ways to put up with, or ignore, these kinds of restraints.

The rules about not posting to links outside of iTunes are more worrisome. Because it’s telling music acts to ignore the digital assets they’ve painstakingly built up on MySpace, Twitter, Facebook and anywhere else on the Web.

Makes sense for Apple, but not for anyone else.

artist_bestpractices_1.0-1

Ahead of the International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination on Sunday, three groups in Europe issued a statement indicating alarm at the use of social-networking sites to advance “racist and xenophobic views, especially among young people.” And last week, the Simon Wiesenthal Center released a report saying that racist and terrorist groups were relying more on social networks than they have before.

This is the second year that the Wiesenthal Center’s annual report covering hate groups on the Internet has highlighted the use of social networking. And Facebook last year faced questions about Holocaust-denial groups using its site.

Read the rest of this post on the original site

There, Internet service providers, and we’re talking all of them, have agreed to block access not just to sites and newsgroups alleged to contain child pornography, but to those alleged to feature materials promoting terrorism or racial hatred as well.

“We can no longer tolerate the sexual exploitation of children in the form of child pornography,” Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a speech today. “We have come to an agreement: access to child pornography sites will be blocked in France. Other democracies have done it. France could wait no longer.” And then, pledging her support for the “fundamental liberty that is Internet access,” she added: “This is not a question of creating a Big Brother on the Internet.”

Well, not yet anyway.

There, Internet service providers, and we’re talking all of them, have agreed to block access not just to sites and newsgroups alleged to contain child pornography, but to those alleged to feature materials promoting terrorism or racial hatred as well.

“We can no longer tolerate the sexual exploitation of children in the form of child pornography,” Interior Minister Michele Alliot-Marie said in a speech today. “We have come to an agreement: access to child pornography sites will be blocked in France. Other democracies have done it. France could wait no longer.” And then, pledging her support for the “fundamental liberty that is Internet access,” she added: “This is not a question of creating a Big Brother on the Internet.”

Well, not yet anyway.