11 July 2013

Apple for the day

Apple, fortunately, has a lot of money to spend on lawyers, as Jacob Davidson explains in Time:
In 2012, the Department of Justice accused Apple of conspiring with publishers to raise eBook prices. Publishers had been chafing under Amazon’s discount eBook prices, and the DOJ believed that Apple had helped them conspire to switch to a new licensing model using the iBooks store.
Winner: The Department of Justice. Apple was found to have “facilitated a conspiracy” between the major book publishers. A new trial will be held to determine damages, but Apple has vowed to keep fighting the charges.
In 1994, Apple engineers codenamed the Power Macintosh 7100 as the Carl Sagan, hoping the computer would sell “billions and billions” of units, a reference to one of Carl Sagan’s catchphrases. But the late astronomer, worried that that the internal-only codename would be construed by the public as an endorsement, sent the company a cease and desist letter. Apple complied—and changed the codename to BHA, short for “butt-headed astronomer.” So Sagan sued for libel.
Winner: Apple. A judge dismissed Sagan’s claims of libel, noting that “one does not seriously attack the expertise of a scientist using the undefined phrase ‘butt-head’”. But Sagan sued again (this time alleging that his name had been misused), lost again, and then appealed that decision. Apple and Sagan finally settled in 1995, ending the brouhaha.
Rico says he remembers the 'butt-head astronomer' flapdoodle from his time at Apple... A classic:

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