08.10.11

Apple is Killing Jobs, Killing Products

Posted in Apple, GNU/Linux, Google, Patents at 4:40 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz

Summary: Apple becomes a destructive company, not a productive company, as it seeks to ban products that exist in the market rather than compete fairly against them

APPLE is an abhorrent company with a powerful brand that it invested a lot to build. Apple is not truly an innovator in any area in particular; Apple merely assembles some bits it finds around itself and then integrates them. That’s what a lot of creation is really about.

Apple’s latest assault on Linux is a subject we wrote about early in the week. Basically, as part of the trend of “Using Patents to Stifle Competition”, “Apple Pulls a Fast One on Samsung” by having its Linux-powered product banned from Europe. Meanwhile, Steve Jobs’ close friend Larry Ellison carries on attacking those same products with patents and with copyrights, although Google seeks to throw out the latter weapon:

Google: Judge, Throw out the Copyright Claims of Oracle

This was my opinion from Day One. You cannot claim copyright on a language. Google’s developers write in Java and cross-compile to Dalvik, using Google’s stuff, not Oracle’s.

“Judge Slams Google for Inadequate Diligence” says one headline, but we mostly try to stick to Groklaw as a source. Microsoft has some lobbyists pressuring journalists to push its own cartel’s propaganda against Google, as recently confirmed in Germany (one of the leading anti-Android lobbyists is based in Germany).

“Microsoft has some lobbyists pressuring journalists to push its own cartel’s propaganda against Google, as recently confirmed in Germany (one of the leading anti-Android lobbyists is based in Germany).”Anyway, Apple has surely become an embargo company, whereas Microsoft mostly pressures for patent tax. “Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1 banned in EU,” heralds The Australian and “Apple gets Samsung Galaxy Tab banned in E.U. with moronic ruling,” says ZDNet. “No rest for the patent extortionist company,” wrote one GNU/Linux advocate in response to this. To quote: “This decision has nothing to do with patents or copyrights. It has nothing to do with the lawsuits swirling around Android. This particular case was just about the design, the look of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, and that’s it. Now, I want you to click on this PDF copy of (European] Community design no. 000181607-000. Now, take a long hard look at it. What do you see?

“I’ll tell you what I see, it’s a freaking tablet. Yes, it looks like an iPad. But, it looks just as much like every tablet that’s ever existed or ever will exist. It’s a tablet.

“Where have I seen this before? Why, I remember! I recall my distant cousin Nichelle Nichols, that’s Lieutenant Uhura of Star Trek to you, “using” a tablet on the Enterprise back in 1966. I’m not the only one to have noticed the Star Trek/Apple iPad connection. Back when Apple introduced the iPad, actor Brent Spinner, aka Commander Data of Star Trek: The Next Generation, tweeted, “Didn’t Captain Picard used to play with a pad like that in his ready room? STAR TREK STRIKES AGAIN!!!” Yes, yes he did.”

“I didn’t think it could get any stupider than the US Patent Office and its idiot patents. But apparently Europe one-ups the United States in pure stupidity,” the advocate responds angrily. “Apparently a single judge in a regional court in Germany can issue an injunction against a corporation for the whole EU without allowing the corporation to defend themselves, or even informing them that the action is about to take place. And all this over a “rectangular shaped tablet with rounded corners.” There must be five million examples of prior art here. How much is Apple investing in the bribing of judges and those who issue bogus “community designs?”

“Apple can go to hell.”

Apple still pretends to be a technology company while it fact it’s a marketing mobster, just like Microsoft. And to make matters worse, the British press says that “Apple sues Motorola in Europe over Xoom tablet” (so it just wants to ban all the competition). Well, the British press claims that the “Apple injunction startles Samsung” and the Australian press has the headline “Tablet wars: Apple seeks to destroy rival Galaxy”. Slashdot summarises as follows: “In a stunning and painful decision for Samsung, Apple got a German court to issue a preliminary injunction against the Galaxy Tab.”

Then they cite the pro-Microsoft lobbyist from Germany, the guy who attacks Android on a full-time basis (he is probably being briefed by Microsoft’s PR departments, which organise coordinated FUD), often by distorting or making up claims. Jan Wildeboer, who loves to expose this lobbyist, writes that “Apple stops Samsung from offering Galaxy Tab 10.1 in Europe”, noting:

German court grants injunction to Apple. German article here. Quite some more, but thy all paraphrase the original article that was sent out by dpa.

Apple, it is time to grow up and face competition the way you should. Not in courts. In the market. The Galaxy Tab 10.1 is a damn fine piece of hardware with a brilliant display, as far as I have seen.

Apple apologists love to portray Apple as a victim here, using cases like this one. But it’s a pathetic defence which helps show that advocacy of Apple has become like some kind of religion, where even atrocious, inexcusable, anticompetitive acts can someone be justified. As Google recently stated, Microsoft and Apple are banding togather to attack the Linux-based Android, assisted also by Oracle. As ECT puts it:

A top Google lawyer has publicly called out the company’s three biggest patent enemies — Oracle, Microsoft and Apple — accusing them of undertaking a “hostile, organized campaign against Android.” Hours later, though, Microsoft punched back with evidence that Google turned down Redmond’s offer to join together in securing patents Novell had put up for sale.

Apple is part of a patent cartel and it is a shameful aggressor. We need to explain to people why they should boycott Apple and expose it for the rogue operation it has become in recent years. █

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