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lawsuits posts

Filed under: Hardware, Hacks

Psystar: What's the French Word for Lawsuit?

Yesterday, Mike posted about the new commercial hackintosh from Psystar. Many of our readers noted that, wow, that was a lawsuit waiting to happen -- or as Fake Steve put it, Psystar is French for "We're about to go out of business". Update 11 am Tuesday: InformationWeek is reporting that Psystar believes that Apple's EULA is anticompetitive and violates US monopoly laws. Interesting.

Here are a few of the high points that TUAW is aware of:

The Mac name Using "Mac" in the product name was probably a bad idea. Psystar just re-named the platform to "Open Computer" instead.

Pre-installing Leopard It would seem that installing Leopard on non-Apple hardware is a violation of Apple's EULA. Virtualization vendors such as Parallels and VMware have already acknowledged this constraint in their product development; otherwise, both would offer VMs capable of running Leopard on any PC and not just on Mac OS X Server.

Unlicensed PC_EFI It looks like Psystar is using an EFI bootloader without properly acknowledging the actual author or receiving permission to distribute the software.

If you haven't yet checked out the discussion thread on Digg, I encourage you to do so. It's especially useful with its discussions about hardware limitations and hackintoshes.

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Rumors, Apple

RIP Think Secret

Always provocative, sometimes right, often wrong, Think Secret was our scandalous favorite rumors site and now it is gone. According to the Settlement page listed at their site, Apple and Think Secret have ended their lawsuit and Nick Ciarelli has shut down the site.

Goodbye Think Secret, we'll miss you.

Thanks everyone who sent this in.

Filed under: Hardware, iPhone

New iPhone class action filed in NY over iPhone SIM lock-in, international roaming fees

You know what they say: let the good times class action lawsuits roll! Or something like that. The latest in what I'm sure is to be a long list of iPhone-related class action lawsuits was filed in New York today over the iPhone's SIM card lock-in, as well as what the plaintiff alleges is Apple withholding of information on roaming data charges. The plaintiff, Herbert H. Kliegerman, wants the iPhone unlock code, and he also wants to restrain Apple from selling iPhones without disclosing both that the included SIM cards are locked to AT&T, and that users could incur roaming data charges when traveling internationally. We have a PDF of the lawsuit (sent to us directly by the plaintiff), but considering the facts that:
  • Kliegerman's complaints seem to have much more to do with AT&T's practices than Apple's
  • US SIM cards, to my knowledge, are always locked to their particular provider, meaning travelers have always had to purchase some kind of other phone service or an international SIM
  • There's plenty of information available at AT&T's site about their international roaming practices, as well as extra plan options to provide for international calls and data usage
I don't think Kliegerman has much of a leg to stand on. Plus, he sent this to us himself, which reeks of digging for 15 seconds in the spotlight - but who am I to shoot down his hopes? Anyone, particularly those who travel and know more about US mobile phone company practices, care to place some bets as to how far he'll get with this?

Filed under: Hardware, iPhone

Let the iPhone class-action lawsuits begin

I hope somebody somewhere made a bit of cash from betting on when the first iPhone class-action lawsuit would appear, cuz this one gets us off to a strong start: Gizmodo is reporting that Jose Trujillo has filed a lawsuit over one of the most hotly debated un-features of the iPhone: its non-removable battery. Quoting from the lawsuit:
The battery enclosed in the iPhone can only be charged approximately 300 times before it will be in need of replacement, necessitating a new battery annually for owners of the iPhone.
How anyone could think the iPhone battery's longevity could be any different from the plethora of other Lithium ion-based devices we've been living with for so long is beyond me (especially since it's been officially put to rest time and time again), but I guess in today's world, someone had to fill the village idiot's shoes by using lies and mis-information to bring a lawsuit against this moment's hot new gadget. Anyone want to place bets on just how far this might get?

[via The iPod Observer]

Filed under: Apple Corporate, Bad Apple

Apple versus Microsoft

So what's the real difference between Apple and Microsoft? Microsoft tries to bribe bloggers. Apple sues them. It would be hard to come up with a joke as odd as this real-life situation. Someone posted a link to a site that used iPhone screen shots to skin Windows Mobile phones. Let me repeat. It was a link to an external site. He received a cease and desist order from Apple's lawyers.

"It has come to our attention that you have posted a screenshot of Apple's new iPhone and links that facilitate the installation of that screenshot on a PocketPC device...While we appreciate your interest in the iPhone, the icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law explicitly prohibits unauthorized display and distribution of copyrighted works. Apple therefore demands that you remove this screenshot from your website and refrain from facilitating the further dissemination of Apple's copyrighted material by removing the link to http://forum.xda-developers.com, where said icons and screenshot are being distributed."

Between an Acer Ferrari and a cease-and-desist letter? I'd prefer the Acer, thank you very much.

Filed under: Apple Financial

Class action lawsuits filed against Apple

Just when you think Apple's financial woes have begun to recede, Forbes.com alerts us to a slew of recently filed class action lawsuits that all have the big fruit in their sights. First up is yet another complaint alleging that Apple has created a monopoly by tying iTS purchases to the iPod and only the iPod. Even though suits like this have come and gone, the court has interestingly denied Apple's motion to dismiss.

Next in line is a suit over the MacBook's iBook G4's "abnormally high rate" of logic board failure. This suit was filed Nov. 7th, and Apple still has time to respond.

A third suit is coming from PhatRat Technology LLC, who is calling patent infringement on the Nike+iPod product. A response from Apple is still pending here as well.

Last (though possibly not least?) is a securities class action suit against the company and "certain current and former officers and directors" over all this backdated stock option grant business.

That's about everything Forbes has on the Apple lawsuit list for now. Think it's still worth it to wish Apple a happy new year?

Apple settles iTunes UI lawsuit

Someone at Apple has had to keep the checkbook on call lately. After forking over $100m to Creative for an iPod UI patent spat, Apple has just settled a second lawsuit, this time over various basic elements of the iTunes UI and functionality. We reported this way back in June of '05 when Contois Music Technology originally filed their lawsuit alleging that Apple employees witnessed some of their features at a mid-90's trade show, then promptly ripped them off. The list of duplicated features includes sorting music by genre, artist and album, as well as moving music to a portable device.

This time around, details of the settlement weren't disclosed, so it's anybody's guess as to how much they had to dig out of the couch cushions. Engadget hit it on the head: patent lawsuits are an ugly, expensive beasts, and Apple probably moved quickly to simply settle and walk away to fight another day. After all, it can't be easy being such a large target on top of the coveted DAP industry - especially when you might have stepped on someone else's toes to get there.

Filed under: Hardware, Apple Financial

Apple pays $100m to Creative in patent lawsuit settlement

Remember all that talk of Creative beating Apple to the punch with patenting various elements of the iPod's UI? Today these talks came to an end, with Apple whipping out the checkbook, and Creative (I'm assuming) throwing a party. That's right: Apple has shelled out USD $100 million to Creative for "a paid-up license to use Creative's recently awarded patent in all Apple products." Fortunately, Apple might be able to get some of that cash back if Creative is successful in suing their way to profitability licensing their patents to anyone else.

There is yet another bright side for Apple, however: Creative has also hopped on board the 'Made for iPod' program, and has a slew of accessories on the way for everyone's favorite little DAP, such as speaker systems, headphones and a family of X-Fi 'audio enhancement products.'

Isn't it great when everyone can just get along and play nicely together - especially when $100m says so? Check out Apple's press release for the rest of the details on the settlement.

[via MacMinute]

Filed under: Analysis / Opinion, Audio, Bad Apple, Apple

Apple gives up on Asteroid suit

Remember that rumored Firewire breakout box (codename: Asteroid) for Garageband that was leaked to a few websites? You know, the one that Apple decided was important enough to sue said bloggers to find out who their sources were? Ahh, I thought you would.

Apple won the first ruling which would have made the websites turn over their sources, if said websites hadn't won the appeal. Apple has decided that it isn't worth their time to try and appeal that appeal, and so it looks like the bloggers won.

Finally, I can safely blog about all the inside Apple information I have.... so any Apple employees want to give me any dirt?

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