10.29.12
Appalling Apple Apology
Summary: Apple gets yet more flak for retracting none of the FUD it spreads against Linux-based and Open Source rivals
Apple refuses to issue a real apology for lying about Android devices [1, 2]. Humility is a weakness — not a merit — at Apple. Apology is only Apple mythology. The company continues to be criticised for this. See the following:
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Does Apple’s website notice satisfy the court order?
For a company (and whose website) known for simplicity and brevity, the notice is surprisingly cluttered.
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What Apple Gets Wrong In Its Samsung Apology
That Apple statement is something of a masterpiece actually. Absolutely true in each and every word and sentence and rather misleading as a whole.
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Apple turns U.K. legal loss into new Samsung attack
A week after Apple lost an appeal at the U.K. High Court, the iPhone and iPad maker has followed the court’s requirement to publish a notice its U.K. home page stating the court’s finding that Samsung didn’t infringe its patents.
But not in a way that shows any contrition. Instead, Apple used the notice as a new opportunity to make its case against its tablet rival.
What will the British court have to say?
Here in the UK, Dr. Glyn Moody highlights an “excellent historical summary” of what has been happening with software patents in the EU. It comes from a pro-software patents blogs run by lawyers in London, but it is based on Engelfreit’s understanding and opens as follows:
Whatever happened to all those unending and vitriolic arguments over patent protection for software in Europe? The following is a special treat for those readers who yearn for those far-off days when anonymous and occasionally even named commentators could hurl abuse at one another, armed mainly with a battery of unsupported assertions, religiously-held beliefs and appeals to self-evident truth. It is a guest post by Arnoud Engelfriet — a man who, by qualification and technical skill — is at least as well qualified…
For Apple to stop hurling abuse at Linux outside the US it is essential that software patents are kept out of Europe (and beyond). It’s only the US where Apple is treated favourably.
We are satisfied to see many who cease buying Apple. Voting with one’s wallet can be effective. The OSI’s president recently dumped his Apple gear as well. Apple is not a friend of FOSS; not even close. █
Content is available under CC-BY-SA
Michael said,
October 29, 2012 at 6:02 pm
Apple did wrong and claimed that the U.S. courts found the Android tablets to be infringing when they were not found as such (the phones were). Shame on Apple for this and they should be heavily “dinged” by the courts. No excuse at all for this from Apple.
With that said, the idea Apple was ordered to issue an *apology* is a complete misrepresentation of the truth – Apple was not ordered to do anything of the sort. You are telling lies on the level that Apple did with their claims… but there will be no court reprimand against you. Maybe their should be – would love to see Apple sue you for repeatedly lying about them.
mcinsand said,
October 31, 2012 at 11:52 am
Apple needs to stop drinking its own Kool-aid, especially as they are starting to learn the hard way that Jobs’ reality distortion field only works on cultmembers. Marketing someone else’s innovation may count as an ‘innovation’ among the lemmings, but those that think know better. Copying others’ features may be ‘innovation’ in the Apple manual, but people that have been around tech know better. What Apple does do well is to repackage and make shiny, but they go too far when they try to claim drastically, insanely above and beyond just being marketers. In the US, they only won because the jury foreman failed to apply actual patent law in what is becoming very apparent as a vindictive move against Seagate through Samsung; when the objective jury was leaning towards finding for Samsung, he swung into action to make arguments that were 180° against both the law and the judge’s jury instructions. Then, there was the judge, where at least one Appeals court ruling (so far) has ruled that she ‘abused her discretion.’
Apple needs to stick to what it does best, to take others’ creations, assemble and make shiny, and then sell to the cult. Claiming to actually participate in technical innovation and, far worse, to try to claim that others copied what Apple first copied, is only getting them mired more deeply in staining their own name.
The judge ordered Apple to show some contrition in their lying, and Apple raised the digitus impudicus (reference the books by Julian May’s Saga of the Pliocene Exile) to Samsung, the European Court, and people that objectively pay attention to tech developments and trends. Do you think the judge will let this contempt go unaddressed?
Michael Reply:
October 31st, 2012 at 12:28 pm
Empty of any content… just spewing bizarre insults to please the Stallman cult. Got it.
That is what Apple has been saying: it is not right to "slavishly copy" someone else, to use their term, and market it as your own. You are agreeing with Apple here.
Apple has never said that copying others is "innovation". To the contrary, they have been very clear that are *against* companies copying each other’s products.
This shows a complete lack of understanding of how Apple has heavily alterned multiple markets: the music market, the desktop computing market, the tablet market, and the smart phone market. There is a valid reason Apple is seen as one of the most innovative companies in the world – and why they have the highest user satisfaction ratings in each of those markets. This is something you clearly do not understand. Your lack of understanding, however, is your own challenge, not Apple’s.
Both companies were saying the other had used their patents illegally. Each argued their cases. The evidence against Samsung was massive even before the trial (I have linked to some of it in comments on this site) and more came out in the trial.
Again: you are demonstrating your own ignorance of the tech industry. Apple is far from perfect and there are many honest accusations and problems you could point out – but to do so you would have to drop your bias and work toward becoming educated and honest. I do not think that is likely. I am sure you think you are right, but keep in mind it is 100% predictable you will never back any of your claims that Apple merely takes others creations and assembles them. You cannot back this because it is completely absurd.
For that matter, you are trying to make Samsung look like the good guys here. This shows you know nothing of Samsung. Apple is no more evil than Samsung Electronics who has been:
convicted of willfully copying others and fined over 1 billion dollars
fined the second largest US anti-trust fine for price fixing DRAM chips
found guilty in the EU for the same price fixing scheme
was involved in a price fixing scheme on LCD screens
They are hardly the "good guys" in the silly battles going on.
Apple did wrong in giving statements which were false about other court cases and for that they should be punished. But they were never told to apologize. That is a fiction made up by Roy.