No, I’m not dissing the iPhone, iPad, iPod, iMac, or iAnything. They are all good products, if possibly a bit overpriced (and in some cases slightly impractical in South Africa).
For those who don’t know, let me share a bit of background. Apple as a company are notorious for their lawsuits. And I mean they’re notorious even by American standards (and that’s saying something). Back in the days of the big PC boom (almost 30 years ago) this all started when Apple sued Microsoft for “stealing their design” (the graphic user interface and mouse), but in fact both Apple and Microsoft got those ideas from Xerox, who designed it. Later Apple changed their approach and sued Microsoft for stealing their GUI design and violating their working agreement (because Microsoft had secretly been developing Windows).
This just carried on and on and on. Some of the companies in Apple’s list of targets over the years include AT&T, Apple Corps (a record label founded by the Beatles), Cisco, New York City (“The Big Apple” – yes I’m serious!!), Woolworths, Amazon, Hewlett-Packard, eMachines, HTC, and most recently Samsung.
Over the last few months some people have even been saying that Apple can’t come up with any original ideas anymore, so they decided to rather start making money through lawsuits. Though it’s usually said as a joke, I’m afraid that there is an undertone of “it’s not impossible” in there somewhere. Let’s face it, they haven’t really come up with anything exciting since Steve Jobs’ death.
Yes, I understand that Apple Inc. is known as an aggressive protector of its intellectual property rights. But could there be a fine line between intellectual property and craziness? The internet is full of jokes about the subject these days. This just proves how ridiculous it has become.
I will end off today’s post with some of my favourite “Apple Lawsuit Memes”. Enjoy!
And one of the bests, that’s a bit to big to post here: http://9gag.com/gag/5250310
Hehehe, well yeah. Crazy Apple.
ReplyDeleteFunny though, I've just been chatting with a friend about something related: first worlders in general can annoy the crap out of me. So I'm generalizing, so sue me. Everything from overt health and safety rules, the way most of them take things for granted, can't stand on their own feet without a goodly chuck of socialism, their prententious shallow opinions on things going on in my home continent, and finally, the most evil love of red tape, bureaucracy and lawsuits.
I agree wholeheartedly! By the way, the words "I'm generalizing, so sue me." Pun intended? ;-)
ReplyDelete