Apple Desktops: “Notably Reliable” Says Consumer Reports
As I was in the supermarket, I noticed Consumer Reports magazine sporting an iMac (amongst other things) on its cover. This issue of Consumer Reports featured the most and least reliable brands according to surveys. While no laptop manufacturer stood out as reliable or repair-prone, “only Apple desktops stood out as notably reliable….”
For those of you unfamiliar with Consumer Reports, it is an independent publication that features no advertisements to ensure the magazine gives fair and unbiased reviews. The survey that named Apple desktops as reliable was comprised of over 950,000 readers and covered a time period from 2002 to mid-2006.
Sounds like good news for Apple and could easily become a “Get a Mac” ad.
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Sorry, it won’t happen. Consumer Report’s reviews are copyrighted and they do not allow reviewees to cite the reviews in advertisements. The best Apple could do is cite “a major consumer magazine” or some such.
Regardless of what rights Consumer Reports claims they have, they don’t actually have the right to stop anyone from citing their reviews, especially not in the form of a one-line quotation. It’s a quaint notion that Americans seem to have largely forgotten about called “fair use”. You can quote a short snippet, with attribution, of anything anyone says for any purpose, and there isn’t a darn thing the original author can do about it, except ask you nicely not to. Perhaps you’re confusing a policy and a request with a legal right.
Now quoting a large section of the review would be another matter altogether, and would be a matter for the courts to weigh as to whether it is “large enough”. The commercial nature of an ad would come into play in this decision. But not for a single line.
“Notably Reliable” made me laugh.
My 6 month old MB Pro just got back (yea AppleCare!) from having it’s notable motherboard, hard drive and power system replaced.
I’ve always wondered why they don’t advertise AppleCare more. In the 3 times I’ve had to use it (not bad considering the 11 macs I’ve owned) it’s been great and worth every cent.
It’s not a question of law, CR disallows use of their reviews as a matter of principle and anyone who uses them risks not getting reviewed in the future, or finding themselves the victims of an impromptu CR reader boycott.
The problem with CR is that their reports are skewed most of the time.
Even though I am happy to see Apple recognized in there, I have often seen CR bash products that were great and reward others poor ones. The problem is that the folks at CR don’t obviously do all the testing themselves and have little control over the outsourced tests, so I have been told.
Check out the Canadian version of CR. Much more reliable :)
Ken, you make me laugh. Your single individual experience means nothing for anyone else. That’s the whole point of Consumer Reports, is to provide us statistically significant reviews. I’m sure there’s a PC user out there who’s never had a problem, but that doesn’t mean that you or I will never have a problem with a PC.
Seriously, your individual experience is utterly irrelevant.
@DBL “It’s a quaint notion that Americans seem to have largely forgotten about called “fair use”. You can quote a short snippet, with attribution, of anything anyone says for any purpose, and there isn’t a darn thing the original author can do about it, except ask you nicely not to. Perhaps you’re confusing a policy and a request with a legal right.”
NOT TRUE! Fair use does not include commercial purposes.
SteveW is exactly correct. Fair use is very carefully limited to “purposes for which the reproduction of a particular work may be considered ‘fair,’ such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research.” Check out the US Copyright Office’s fair use FAQ at copyright.gov.
Ken, you said you had a problem with your MacBook Pro, right?
And this article in CR said that Apple’s desktops were notably reliable. So one would question the relevancy of your comment.
My iMac desktop crashes sometimes, but it is “Pretty Reliable.” But that isn’t what you want to hear from Consumer Reports, now is it?