Slashdot Mirror
Apple Claims Ownership of Shareware
(54)T-Dub writes "Cricket Media recently released 'Netflix Fanatic', an OSX based shareware app that lets you manage your rental queue without logging on to Netflix. An article on Think Secret reveals the reason behind it's mysterious disappearance. Apparently the developer's employer, Apple, has claimed ownership over the application's name and source code. The developer claims that under Section 2870 of the California Labor Code this is illegal. The law states that if a company has an employment agreement with provisions saying employees must assign the rights of their inventions to their employer, those sections do not apply if the employee developed it on his or her own time, without using the employer's equipment, supplies, facilities, or trade secret information. Within Apple, there's unsubstantiated speculation that Apple wants to include the Netflix Fanatic code in a new version of Sherlock." Also, they're presumably not too worried with employee morale.
Why is this story not in the Apple section? Do only positive stories go there or something?
I could care less, but not without a lobotomy
BTW, /. just rejected the following submission :
Apple just released a new 20 inch TFT iMac (other specs remain close to the existing 17 inch model. They also released a new bi-1.8GHz G5 Powermac.
This is whhat I called "innovation" : a cheap but powerful iMac with a 20" inch screen.
Would they rather call them evil than seducing ?
Trolling using another account since 2005.
The poor sap shoulda posted as AC, eh?
Stop by my site where I write about ERP systems & more
And I still don't use stickies. What a dumb application. "Let's model something from the real world but on the monitor!" Yeah, right. You have to LAUNCH the stickies app for it to show your stickies. Not very handy. If it were a built-in to the WM, I'd use it all the time, though. Attaching certain stickies to windows would be better than a separate application that does just stickies.
Heute die Welt, morgen das Sonnensystem!
Yea! This is my first mod 5 comment in weeks. The past 20 or so comments I have made have just fallen by the way side I guess. Or, something is wrong with slashdot.
This has nothing to do with capitalism. There isn't a real capitalist economy on the planet, just as there isn't a real communist economy or a real socialist economy.
:) ). Essentially you will end up with large corporations controlling every aspect of life. The world is moving in that direction. You can already get a sense of that by observing how some corporations are already bigger than most of the small countries. Or how a few corporations dominate many sectors (eg. media, military weapons, oil, movies, cars, computers, etc). Things will just get worse. All you need are for a few of these corporations to merge a few more times (so far, anti-monopoly laws block these mergers but just wait until they are stricken down).
I agree that we aren't practicing PURE capitalism. However, countries like USA are on the path towards pure capitalism. It is more capitalistic than ever. It has more "free" markets, has open capital flow, financial systems, etc that go along with capitalism.
USA (or for that matter most other countries) may not be practicing pure capitalism. But it is closer to capitalism any others. If it is not capitalism, then what is USA practicing? (Read my whole post first). Merchantilism? You mention things like pseudo-socialism, fascism, and plutocracy, but these are minor traits. USA practices more capitalism than these other competing systems.
What do you say to people like me who theorize that free markets and capitalism will lead to oligopolies and monopolies? I believe that the so-called free market will lead to oligopolies or monopolies (if you want detailed view of why, let me know: I'm willing to type it up
Anyway, under my theory, you will end up with what I call corporatism (I guess somewhat akin what you are calling corporte feudalism, although under my view, the system will be very "democratic" (in the veins of the present) and everyone will be "free" (as in American Dream: free to do whatever but only a few succeed and those that do control everything)).
What all this means is that the end-result is closer to capitalism than any other system. Even purists like you will probably count it as capitalism when it happens. Markets will be totally free, property rights will be strongly enforced, no corporate taxes, government intervention will not exist, etc. It's capitalism as capitalists like you want it to be. It's your dream except for one thing: instead of many little businesses ruling, you'll end up with a few large corporations. You might not want to call it capitalism but it will be for millions of people like me and others. In the end that's all that matters.
What does all this have to do with the original message? Well, the people who control the current system are capitalists. If a few corporations start ruling it must NECESSARILY be considered as capitalism. After all, if the CATO institute, perhaps the most powerful economic-oriented political body in the world right now, is driving USA (and other countries), then is it not capitalism? CATO institute doesn't get all what it wants. However, the fact that they are the most powerful body means that they influence the government the most (especially the right wing) and the corporations.
All the guys influencing the government, corporations, etc are CAPITALISTS. Read any economic book, or any speech given to CEOs, or what influences management (eg. Forbes, Wall Street Journal, etc) and you'll find that the capitalists have the power. If capitalists aren't running the show then who is? If USA isn't on the path towards capitalism, where is it headed? If Milton Friedman (God of capitalism) isn't influencing the world, who is? Karl Marx?
To put it plainly, USA is practicing capitalism! It may not be pure capitalism but it is a whole lot closer to it than communism, socialism, anarchism, theocracy, monarchy or any other competiting systems.
Having said this, capitalism is going to collapse
Sivaram Velauthapillai
Seeking the meaning of life... @slashdot of all places
Not exactly : if the main topic of this story had been YRO, I'd have avoided it as I do not care about issues which mostly happen over the Atlantic Ocean.
:)
Now, the topic was Apple, hence the expectation.
I do not exactly stand as a fan boy, Or maybe am I emphatical about most thing I will editorialize...
Trolling using another account since 2005.
I hear what you're saying...but when there's an MS, or maybe more pertinently, a SCO story -- you surely can't expect it to be all cheers for SCO, no?
What are you saying? That things happen on the eastern side of the Atlantic? ;)
-Turkey
I do not read SCO nor MS story, except when they announce new stuff.
The longhorn stories were interesting, after all.
But well, yeah, things happen my side of the Ocean : for example, Swiss people won the America Cup in 2003, which is... wow, especially for such a tiny mountain nation !
Trolling using another account since 2005.