Posted in Apple, FSF at 5:55 am by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: Should Free software supporters just let Apple be? Should Apple be defended?
I HAVE just been involved in a discussion about Apple’s nature in Groklaw.net. For many months I have abstained from bringing up the subject as I foresaw it leading to unnecessary friction. The straw that broke this camel’s back is Groklaw’s suggestion that hypePhone 4 has no exceptional antenna issues and that claims about those antenna issues originate in (or got exaggerated by) Microsoft. So anyway, I raised the subject politely and received polite answers from regulars of Groklaw, as in those who regularly participate in the discussions.
It has taken up a lot of time this morning and it’s basically about whether we — Free software or GNU/Linux supporters — should defend Apple or not. Apple is no "David" (as in David versus Goliath), but that’s not the point. The point is that Apple does a lot to harm software freedom and the Free Software Foundation definitely agrees about that. Over at Slashdot there is currently a discussion about the arrogant nature of Apple and some of its customers. To quote just the opening:
It’s not exactly official, but should also surprise no one: According to a new study the psychological profile of iPad owners can be summed up as “selfish elites” while have-not critics are “independent geeks.”
Over the years I have sent about 1,000 E-mails to Groklaw (probably more than that), but Apple is the only issue where I disagree with Groklaw. So my question is, am I misled in my criticism of Apple? Is the truth perhaps somewhere in between (between the stance of Techrights and the stance of Groklaw)? Thoughts welcome… █
Summary: Another new case of DMCA abuse (bogus takedown request as means of censorship) shows why the likes of ACTA are a threat — not a treat(y) — to people’s freedom and why DMCA should be weakened or repealed
THIS post does not deal with software, for a change. LiberalViewer spoke to YouTube/Google earlier this month about DMCA abuse and fair use (see video above and bear in mind that it’s only part 1). These are important issues which increasingly impede or facilitate our freedom of speech on the Web.
Last year we wrote quite a lot about Microsoft’s laptop bribes [1, 2, 3, 4], which are a way of earning positive reviews for Microsoft products, notably Vista 7. Fake reviews of Microsoft products are not uncommon and they are sometimes posted by former or existing employees of the company. Over the years we have given several examples and offered concrete proof.
It is with some delight that we found out a corrupt reviewer getting busted over a fake review. This reviewer then resorted to DMCA abuse rather than apology, retraction, or stepping down from what now seems like a corruptible ‘publication’, namely Benchmark Reviews, which typically just excerpts (copies) almost everything from Phoronix and perhaps other benchmark/review sites. Here is what TechDirtwrote about it:
Reviewer Caught Posting Marketing Material As A Review… Uses DMCA To Takedown Site Of Guy Who Exposed Him
Duncan writes in to alert us to what must the mother of all stories of a guy caught doing something questionable online, who then goes to amazingly great lengths — including publishing private info, blocking users, changing content surreptitiously and (finally) using a bogus DMCA takedown to takedown the entire site of the guy who caught him. It’s quite a story, so let’s start from the beginning.
Read on as it gets interesting and the takedown request is clearly a bogus one. So get ready for the likes of ACTA, which introduce yet more draconian terms that hinder sharing for purposes of criticism (fair use). The whole situation around DMCA is made worse by the fact that there is burden of proof on the accused. What a ridiculous law and how sad it must be that Google, based on the panel discussion regarding YouTube, prioritises the MAFIAA at the expense of YouTube users when it comes to balancing fair use. See the full series of videos and you will find out that Google is quite pretentious about it (or maybe it’s just that spokesman of theirs).
Guess who among the software CEOs is a fan or a proponent of the DMCA? The guy who has stakes in Disney, Steve Jobs. That’s right, but he’s losing:
AFTER YEARS of taking a very conservative approach to the US Digital Millenium Copyright Act (DMCA), the US Library of Congress has issued a wave of rulings that all but turn the law on its head.
Every three years, the Library of Congress reviews its policy on the DMCA and releases its opinions about how it should be interpreted.
This time the Library allowed widespread circumvention of the CSS encryption on DVDs, under some conditions. And in an opinion that sails up the nose of Steve Jobs it has ruled that jailbreaking Iphones qualifies as “Fair Use”. It also will let punters crack their legally purchased e-books in order to have them read aloud by computers.
EFF Wins New Legal Protections for Video Artists, Cell Phone Jailbreakers, and Unlockers
San Francisco – The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) won three critical exemptions to the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) anticircumvention provisions today, carving out new legal protections for consumers who modify their cell phones and artists who remix videos — people who, until now, could have been sued for their non-infringing or fair use activities.
Here is another new article titled “Why Fair Use is Not Just Acceptable, It’s Essential for the Future”
The Library of Congress added a number of ambitious new exceptions to the Digital Millenium Copyright Act’s prohibition of breaking copyright technologies today, most notably concerning iPhone jailbreaking and unlocking.
Too bad for Apple, eh? That company which Groklaw seems to be defending for reasons we cannot understand. █
Summary: Terrible mistake from Apple could cost not just Apple customers in terms of security but also cost others who share the same ‘pipes’
ANY update served for security purposes is one which is crucial in preventing chaos and enhancing confidence. It’s not about adding features. Older versions of software tend not to be maintained, thus for security reasons it’s important to make updates and upgrades free. That’s the case with almost every GNU/Linux distribution, which is why most people use the latest version of the Free software that’s available. This contributes a great deal to security. According to some sources, Apple wants to charge for IOS updates:
TOYMAKER FOR THE WELL HEELED Apple, reeling from having to give away rubber bands to make its Iphone 4 work, is about to charge Ipad users to upgrade to the latest version of the Ithings OS.
Microsoft is having many security issues at the moment [1, 2, 3, 4] (we are completely out of sync with Microsoft news) and Apple may be following similar footsteps if it discourages people from using the latest software free of charge. There ought to be laws to encourage or enforce this for the benefit of one’s surroundings (Techrights is still under fire from Windows bots today and there are occasional downtimes as a results). Siemens too is having security problems with Windows at the moment [1, 2, 3] and removing the Windows worms “could disrupt power plants”.
Siemens has made a program available for detecting and disinfecting malware attacking its software used to control power grids, gas refineries, and factories but warned customers who use it could disrupt sensitive plant operations.
Wonderful. So Windows not only contributed to the Deepwater Horizon disaster [1, 2] but also to problems at power plants. Will they ever learn that proprietary software is not reliable or dependable? █
Posted in Apple, Deception at 12:46 pm by Dr. Roy Schestowitz
Summary: It is suggested by the New York Daily News that Apple knew very well that hypePhone 4 had problems but decided to ship it anyway
ACCORDING TO THIS article that we missed at the time, Apple knew it was releasing a product with reception issues. As The Inquirerputs it, “Apple knew that the Iphone 4 was a lemon.”
According to the New York Daily News, Jobs knew that there was a problem with the reception, but he thought Apple fanbois would be more impressed with the sleek design.
Summary: Apple resorts to FUD tactics against Linux-based phones that capitalise on Apple’s failures
Apple’s hypePhone 4 is both a technical failure and a public relations failure (because Apple refuses to apologise for the technical failure). Yesterday we explained why Apple's phones are hostile towards the users and Apple is hostile towards Android. Steve Jobs and his group have resorted to spreading FUD about other phones, hoping that this would somehow redeem them from their own PR mess. Today we have another new example where “Apple attacks Droid X antenna,” at least according to CNET’s headline.
This is turning into one of those charming cage matches in which wrestlers desperately try to maim each other with chains and chairs and blows to very private regions.
In a new video, posted to both its own Web site and to YouTube, Apple attempts to show that the dazzling new Motorola Droid X, which many seem to rather appreciate, also has something of an issue when it comes to being held in the Death Grip.
It’s nice to know that Apple applies its “Mac and PC” FUD tactics in its game against Linux too. It shows that Apple is indeed no friend of software freedom (some people are still in denial over this), that Apple is an elitist, and probably a dishonest company too. Who would want to make business transactions with such a company? According to this report, Apple may be going after youngsters with their DRM and artificial scarcities (which are generally discouraged in education). More on that angle in the next post. █
Summary: Apple’s arrogance is costing it dearly and Apple continues to exclude GPL-licensed software from its store; the Linux-based MeeGo shows early signs of expansion
ACCORDING TO this subscribers-only article from LWN, Apple is again going head-to-head with GPL-licensed software. Linux.com has this snippet from the article:
In light of the recent GPL compliance complaint made by the Free Software Foundation against Apple’s App Store, which sells and distributes software for Apple gadgets, it was probably inevitable that other problem applications would surface. While there are various opinions on whether the App Store can legally distribute GPL-covered binaries…
Apple is infinitely arrogant. It has been like this for a long time, even before its resurgence. Apple could easily allow GPL-licensed software to be put in its “Store” and then actually comply with the licence. It’s not hard. As Bradley Kuhn (SFLC and FSF) put it some days ago, Apple still pretends to be open, whereas Motorola is at least frank and upfront about its hostility towards handset freedom in Android.
Curiously enough, Apple is currently annoying competitors by pointing fingers at them as ‘damage control’ for the hypePhone 4 cockup [1, 2].
Handset world: Don’t speak for us, Steve Jobs
[...]
Hui-Meng Cheng, chief financial officer at HTC, told The Wall Street Journal on Monday that “the reception problems are certainly not common among smartphones,” and a representative from Samsung said that it “hasn’t received significant customer feedback on any signal reduction issue for the Omnia 2,” one of the phones that Apple singled out as suffering from similar reception issues if held in a way that blocks the antenna.
If Apple’s goal is to alienate people and parts of the industry, then it’s doing pretty well. Let’s wish it the best with this elitist strategy.
Apple’s big competitor in phones at the moment is Android, but as we argued some days ago, there are other Linux-based contenders, including the world’s leader which is Nokia. At Nokia, Android is a forbidden word because they work on MeeGo and this new press release is an encouraging sign of growth for MeeGo, which is less restrictive than Android and thus more worthy of advocacy. Dirk Hohndel spoke about MeeGo at OSCON (keynote).
Today is the first day of the main OSCON event here in lovely Portland, Oregon, and we were fortunate to have a MeeGo presentation during the opening keynotes. Here is a brief summary of what Dirk Hohndel covered during his time on stage.
Sadly, one of MeeGo’s backers is Intel, which is corrupt for reasons we mentioned in the previous post. Intel bribes, lies, obstructs justice, colludes, and even attacks charities like OLPC. Nokia’s main problem is just its policy regarding software patents and DRM (none of which is a crime, just an ethical issue). Let’s keep MeeGo Microsoft-free. █
Summary: Google and Mozilla offer bounties for spotting bugs; Microsoft says no to the idea (proof that proprietary software is embarrassed about showing weaknesses)
Microsoft has no plans to follow in the footsteps of Mozilla and Google and pay researchers cash rewards for the bugs that they find in Microsoft’s products.
Right at the moment a Safari user visits a website, even if they’ve never been there before or entered any personal information, a malicious website can uncover their first name, last name, work place, city, state, and email address. Safari v4 & v5, with a combined market browser share of 4% (~83 million users), has a feature (Preferences > AutoFill > AutoFill web forms) enabled by default. Essentially we are hacking auto-complete functionality.
Summary: Another Microsoft proponent (the current Microsoft-Watch editor) joins the band which predicts doom for Microsoft’s next attempt at phones, which are not even out yet
“Even Microsoft-watch.com doesn’t seem excited by Windows Mobile 7,” says Tim, the editor of OpenBytes who links to this post from Microsoft Nick, a big booster of the company. He reckons that Vista Phone 7 is “D.O.A.” (dead on arrival).
Microsoft didn’t bother to send me one of the Windows Phone 7 prototypes they’ve been circulating to media over the past week–which is okay, because I had my hands full reviewing the Samsung Galaxy S–but I’m hoping they’ll see the light over the next couple of days, if only so I can jump into the review fray.
A lot of those reviews seem very polite. There’s some praise for the Windows Phone 7 operating system, which attempts to aggregate Web content and applications into subject-specific Hubs, as opposed to arranging individual Apps on a grid-like home screen. And then there’s Galen Gruman, who basically went nuclear.
There is plenty more material showing what I think is the gradual loosing of control of “territories”, one only has to look at any tech forum or blog post where people post about alternatives. Even two years ago, the site Microsoft-watch was renowned as a meeting place for Linux users (in fact I met many online friends there who I am still in contact with.)
It seems like many Linux users are now buyers of Android phones. Google activates over a million such phones per week. As for Apple, it is still fighting against its own customers, but they sometimes find their way around artificial limitations:
How a 15-yo Kid Tricked Apple With a Disguised iPhone Tethering App
[...]
Inside, the app contained hidden code that made it a full tethering application—a program that allows you to use your iPhone as a 3G modem. Using this ability you can surf the web from your computer, using the iPhone as a bridge to the internet. You can do this using your iPhone’s preferences too, but that way you will have to pay the additional $20 per month that AT&T wants you to pay for this kind of service. That is $20 extra on top of whatever you are paying for your iPhone data plan. With Handy Light, the tethering service was completely free.
That’s one of the things which are totally wrong with Apple; they deliberately limit the capabilities of their products and block customers. What kind of customer would tolerate this kind of treatment? Apple is having a ‘Novell moment’. █
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