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to carry Adobe’s Flash video protocol on its mobile devices was a part of Steve’s personal vendetta regarding business disagreements with Adobe in the 1990s. Apple’s ban on Flash made it difficult for some publishers to offer their works as iPad apps. “I’d rather have a Wired magazine app that has some interactivity rather than one that is a glorified PDF,” Ryan wrote. “And you know what? I don’t want ‘freedom from porn.’ Porn is just fine! I think my wife would agree.” Steve partook in another round with Ryan, replying eight minutes later: “Wired is doing a native Cocoa app. So is almost every publisher. And you might care more about porn when you have kids…” (Cocoa is the application programming interface for Apple’s operating systems.)

Steve had addressed the pornography restriction in a previous e-mail that had been published the month before the unlikely exchange with Gawker. A customer named Matthew wrote to Steve saying he had a “philosophical issue” with how Apple conducts its business in regards to the company rejecting acclaimed political cartoonist Mark Fiore’s app and about locking out pornographic apps. “Apple’s role isn’t moral police,” Matthew proclaimed. Steve retorted: “Fiore’s app will be in the store shortly. That was a mistake. However, we do believe we have a moral responsibility to keep porn off the iPhone. Folks who want porn can buy and Android phone.” The message, typo aside, was clear.

Ryan Tate wasn’t done with his tipsy tirade. In his next e-mail, Ryan moved onto other topics and finally hinted at his employment with a media company by name-dropping his boss, Nick Denton, who founded and publishes Gawker Media websites. Ryan did not say he was a reporter. He and Steve debated over Flash some more and over publishers’ perception that, according to Ryan, “they HAVE to” spend resources on developing apps tailored to the iPad.

From: Steve Jobs

To: Ryan Tate

Wait - of course they don’t have to. They don’t need to publish on the iPad if they don’t want to. No one is forcing them. But it appears they DO want to.

There are almost 200,000 apps in the App Store, so something must be going alright. The magazine apps will be far better in the end because they are written native. We’ve seen this movie before.

Gosh, why are you so bitter over a technical issue such as this? Its not about freedom, its about Apple trying to do the right thing for its users. Users, developers and publishers can do whatever they like - they don’t have to buy or develop or publish on iPads if they don’t want to. This seems like its your issue, not theirs.

The two sparred for one final round in the heated e-mail argument. Ryan Tate compared Apple to Microsoft, for the time when the software giant required developers to rewrite their apps for a new operating system, and Ryan again hinted at his employment at Gawker and affiliation with Gizmodo, saying he doesn’t “like Apple’s pet police force literally kicking in my co-workers’ doors.” That refers to a report saying that California law enforcement officers forcibly entered the home of Gizmodo editor Jason Chen in April 2010.

From: Steve Jobs

To: Ryan Tate

You are so misinformed. No one kicked in any doors. You’re believing a lot of erroneous blogger reports.

Microsoft had (has) every right to enforce whatever rules for their platform that they want. If people don’t like it, they can write for another platform, which some did. Or they can buy another platform, which some did.

As for us, we’re just doing what we can to try and make (and preserve) the user experience we envision. You can disagree with us, but our motives are pure.

By the way, what have you done that’s so great? Do you create anything, or just criticize others work and belittle their motivations?

In this series of late-night, combative e-mails, Steve Jobs shines a light on his philosophy. His admiration for Bob Dylan and the messages in his songs had long been known, but they weren’t just ideals for Steve; he believed he was a revolutionary. Steve may not