Comments on: Apple Gets Legal Push-back Over Takedown Request

By: Apple Backs Down in Syncing Lawsuit

Apple Backs Down in Syncing Lawsuit — Thu, 23 Jul 2009 14:32:48 +0000

[...] down the pages and sought legal assistance. The Electronic Frontier Foundation took the case and Odioworks v. Apple was [...]

By: bizgrav

bizgrav — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 08:16:53 +0000

“…it’s about the site in question hosting discussions of how to circumvent the DRM in the database.”

Maybe I don’t agree with the statue then either: does the CIA sue AT&T when spies use the telephone to conduct illegal activity? Neither should the wiki site be held responsible for what members choose to post. Dangerous precedent.

I love Apple, but I love free speech more. Gooooooo Freddie!

By: Jeve Stobs

Jeve Stobs — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 15:35:21 +0000

The whole argument over DRM is completely moot since Apple’s AAC DRM system has been already been broken. The only reason the iTunesDB protections exist is to keep users of non-Apple software from being able to use their hardware. Unfortunately for zealots like Gazoobee and the rest of you, reverse engineering hardware for the purposes of interoperability is completely protected behavior under the DMCA, so Apple will in all likelyhood lose this case, as they deserve.

What I find most sad about this is the degree to which people are defending the company. Had this situation occurred 10 years ago and Microsoft was threatening Apple developers for, say, reverse engineering their SMB protocol so that Mac’s could access Windows file shares, Apple users would have been up in arms with their pitchforks. Now that it is Apple acting monopolistic, it’s all ok apparently.

By: krye

krye — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 12:58:14 +0000

Looking at what the Microsoft & Linux communities have to put up with, I’d say that we’ve got it pretty good. Top notch hardware, top notch software. If enough of you shit were you eat, you just might ruin it for all of us. Where do we go after Apple?

By: Christina Viering

Christina Viering — Wed, 29 Apr 2009 11:57:20 +0000

Good points!

By: Gazoobee

Gazoobee — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 21:56:19 +0000

This is a really poor article.

First, Apple *doesn’t* actually have a history of “threatening a blog or web site if they don’t remove some content” and they *don’t* regularly threaten these people with court cases either. If the author was older than fifteen or so and had been covering tech news for longer than just this year he would know that.

Secondly, the argument is *not* about “… using iPhone/iPod hardware with non-Apple software alternatives to iTunes…”, it’s about the site in question hosting discussions of how to circumvent the DRM in the database. It’s totally valid to use a DCMA takedown order for that. This is what the whole statute was designed for whether you agree with the statute or not (I don’t actually).

You are creating the impression here that Apple is the “bad guy,” that they are used to “bullying” small fry, and that this one noble young company has “stood up for freedom” or some such bull crap as that.

NONE of this is true. This is 100% spin by someone who reads too much of teh “web news” and has no experience, no connections and no actual information on which to base their “stories.”

How many crappy, misleading, poorly researched and totally made up stories does this author have to publish on this site before the corporate masters see what a complete waste of space his writing is? This is embarassing, re-hashed junk that offers no insight at all.

By: Mike Perry

Mike Perry — Tue, 28 Apr 2009 20:57:48 +0000

BluWiki may just be showing some tactical good sense in not defying Apple’s lawyers while they sue. “Publish and be damned” may sound macho, but if you lose, you can be damned with punitive damages. This way, a loss means, at worst, that they pay Apple’s legal fees and, given the relative size of the two, a court may not call for that. On the other hand, if they win, they could win big: legal fees and damage for them and a ‘stop harassing them’ order from the court to Apple. Lawyers don’t like to lose, particularly if the lawsuit is high profile. A defeat could make Apple less likely to threaten others in the future.