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.

Comments

Sumi? Sosumi!

[Xenex]

Hell, even their 'witty' name is ripping off the name Apple Computer came up with for a system sound after predicting a lawsuit from Apple Records.

These guys at from the app-formerly-known-as-xtunes project need to learn a thing or two about originality!

great name

[babbage]

"sumi"? Wow, that's even better than BHA!

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... :-)

Re:Ugh

[babbage]

1. Apple comes out with cool software product

This isn't entirely correct. Yes, iTunes is Apple's product, and I don't doubt that they've put a good deal of work into it. However, the foundation isn't theirs, they just bought it off the people that developed the MP3 player SoundJam. I can't find a link with the details at the moment, but this will do for now:

By the way, if iTunes sounds a lot like SoundJam (reviewed here in October 1999), it is. SoundJam has some additional features -- a graphic equalizer, custom "themes" (a.k.a. "skins"), more visual effects, and better sound quality. But it also costs $50 and doesn't have iTunes' cool browser or fast search features. Frankly, I think iTunes is all the MP3 player most people will ever want or need. (For what it's worth, the same programmers wrote both iTunes and SoundJam.)

Ahh, of couse, also see SoundJam.com:

Important Information for Our Customers

Casady & Greene, Inc. ceased publication of SoundJam MP on June 1, 2001 at the request of its developers. We believe that SoundJam MP will continue to give our customers long and useful service, and, in keeping with our philosophy of putting our customers first, Casady & Greene will continue to offer tech support to SoundJam MP owners. The SoundJam development team is now working for Apple on their popular iTunes jukebox software, and will continue to work on exciting and innovative products for Mac users.

Anyway, I thought there may have been a Windows version of SoundJam, but at the moment I'm not turning anything up, Mac or otherwise....

Maybe the X Consortium should sue Apple

[JimR]

I can cope with Apple being a bit miffed about someone cloning their interface, but complaining about the name "xtunes" seems a bit rich coming from the company that called used exactly the same symbol (although not name) for their operating system as a popular and well established window system - X.

They also seem to be in a habit of calling their products after popular Unix programs that have been around for years - consider "Xserve" only only one letter short of "Xserver", and "eMac" is only one letter short of "emacs". Maybe their next product will be called "gre", "Linu" or "Mozill".

From someone who remembers when ical was a Tk/Tcl application.

Re:Sumi? = Sue Me.

[overunderunderdone]

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.

Sagan

[overunderunderdone]

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.

Re:Sagan

[jbolden]

They should have held their guns on BHA. In court Carl Sagan would have had to prove by preponderance of the evidence that:

1) He not a butt head
2) That fact was known by Apple at the time

Apple could have had quite a laugh as Sagan tried to establish legal criteria for being a butt head and showing that he did not meet them.

Where's the "forced" part?

[droleary]

It sounds like they got a simple cease-and-desist saying "It seem like a lot of what you have is derived from our product and we'd like you to make changes." They agreed and made changes. It's not like they defended the thing in court and lost. Apple may have been the bully, but these guys are the ones who just gave them their lunch money instead of making them fight for it.