The Times demanded that Apple pull the app because it "infringes The New York Times Company's rights," and Apple acquiesced to the request. This is all according to a report from Kara Swisher at All Things Digital, who was notified by the developers when their application was pulled.
Pulse is nothing more than a sophisticated and highly stylized RSS reader (as seen below). Still, Senior Counsel Richard Samson wrote to Apple demanding the app be removed because it "makes commercial use of the NYTimes.com and Boston.com RSS feeds, in violation of their Terms of Use. Thus, the use of our content is unlicensed."
Samson also takes issue with the fact that "the app is delivered with the NYTimes.com RSS feed preloaded, which is prominently featured in the screen shots used to sell the app on iTunes."
What Samson doesn't appear to realize is that the application is driving traffic and page views to The New York Times website, making it a more visible media source to downloaders. The rub is that this is a paid application, arguably much better than the Times' own app, and thus it could be said that Pulse monetizes Times' content better than the Times itself. Embarrassing as it may be, it's still no more criminal than any other paid RSS reader on the market.
We're guessing that Apple only pulled the app because of its relationship with the Times, but both parties are guilty of some very poor decision making. Hopefully cooler heads will prevail and the app will return to the App Store.
Update: All Things Digital reports that the app [iTunes link] is now back in the App Store.
