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xtunes Forced to Change Name, Appearance by Apple Lawyers
A user writes, "xTunes was an Open Source project that replicated much of the interface, functionality, and ease of use of iTunes. Apple's army of lawyers has forced them to change their name and redesign the interface." The new name of the project is sumi.
See, several years ago, Apple used Sagan as a codename for one of their prototype systems, after the well-known astronomer Carl Sagan. After they got sued for using the namee without his permission, engineers started calling their prototype BHA instead -- as in, "Butt Head Astronomer". :-)
I like the way the Sumi people are tweaking Apple back now... :-)
DO NOT LEAVE IT IS NOT REAL
closer observation reveals sumi sounds alot like "sue me", I think all their wit is perfectly intact.
The poster realizes that. That's why he noted their name was "witty".
He was pointing out that name and the "wit" that inspired it was an imitation of Apples system sound sosumi (So sue me) that was Apples jab at Apple Records which sued them over the name "apple" but their suit failed because at the time Apple computers couldn't (or couldn't very well) record music. When Apple added that ability they also added the "so sue me" sound.
After they got sued for using the name
;)
It was more than just using his name without permission. All the code names for that generation of computers were named for scientific hoaxes: Cold Fusion, Piltdown Man, and Sagan. Something of a slight of Sagan's work
As you mentioned when Sagan sued they changed the name to BHA (Butt Head Astronomer) and when he sued yet again the changed the name to LAW (Lawyers Are Wimps)
Unfortunately xTunes/sumi is not all that witty because it is just as unoriginal as Apple is claiming their product is. Apple has a system sound named Sosumi (So sue me) to tweak Apple Records of Beatles fame which had sued them over the name "Apple". Apple won the suit because at the time you couldn't do sound recording on an Apple computer. When Apple included that ability they included the sound Sosumi. It seems to me a decent part of wit is originality. The xTunes folks are coming across as the bore at a party which finds the same old joke hilarious every time he repeats it.
According to Think Secret, Apple's head of MacOS X software development admitted that they were already in the midst of developing Sherlock 3 when Watson was first released. Given that Apple didn't want to throw away the money they had already invested in Sherlock 3, and didn't want to spend more money licensing Watson, they didn't have much choice other than to continue working on S3 and ignoring Watson.
Despite what Karelia would like to believe, Apple didn't "rip them off"; Watson just happened to be following a path Apple was already taking. And considering that Apple was spending a lot of time playing up Watson (to the point of offering the programmer a job working for them), I think they behaved as well as could be expected.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net
From an earlier SD post...
According to Think Secret, Apple's head of MacOS X software development admitted that they were already in the midst of developing Sherlock 3 when Watson was first released. Given that Apple didn't want to throw away the money they had already invested in Sherlock 3, and didn't want to spend more money licensing Watson, they didn't have much choice other than to continue working on S3 and ignoring Watson.
Despite what Karelia would like to believe, Apple didn't "rip them off"; Watson just happened to be following a path Apple was already taking. And considering that Apple was spending a lot of time playing up Watson (to the point of offering the programmer a job working for them), I think they behaved as well as could be expected.
--R.J.
Electric-Escape.net