Apple Quashes pBop

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Posted by pudge on Friday March 19, 2004 @10:12PM from the oops dept.

mojotunes writes "The pBop (nee pPod) MP3 player mentioned on Slashdot a while back has been officially pulled by its creator StarBrite Solutions, apparently because of legal pressure from Apple. Well, duh. Who didn't see that coming?"

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not a very helpful link... by MatrixBandit · 2004-03-19 22:20 · Score: 5, Interesting

It's funny how the the slashdot article is actually longer than the original source.
Seriously, does anyone have any useful links on this, as to exactly how they were infringing on Apple, and not just the obvious speculation?
1. Re:not a very helpful link... by baryon351 · 2004-03-19 22:24 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  It copied the iPod interface pixel for pixel, and put it on a Win CE powered pocket PC.
  
  Not just making a nice MP3 player out of a pocket PC mind you, but making one completely identical to an iPod's interface - along with graphics to represent iPod controls.
2. Re:not a very helpful link... by krymsin01 · 2004-03-19 22:29 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Links? Here is a longer article with background info.
  
  --
  stuff
3. Re:not a very helpful link... by 1u3hr · 2004-03-21 03:08 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  Here's a German site with a demo download, and a bunch of screenshots.
History Repeating by Trurl's+Machine · 2004-03-19 23:52 · Score: 5, Interesting

Reading similar stories, I always have the same feeling of deja vu. First Apple introduces some new gagdet or a new user interface concept. Then it gets immediate bashing from both pro-Apple and anti-Apple camps - how ugly, dysfunctional and stupid it is! Then we see an avalanche of various clones of the new Apple gizmo for Linux or Windows. And finally we hear a common outrage when Apple sends its famous "cease & desist" letters and the avalanche indeed ceases and desists. We have had that with Aqua, Dock, iTunes etc. - now we have it with the iPod...
1. Re:History Repeating by byolinux · 2004-03-20 01:37 · Score: 0
  
  I don't think anyone ever bashed the interface on the iPod. It's the mp3 player that my mother was able to figure out in less than two mins.
  
  --
  Join the Free Software Foundation
2. Re:History Repeating by CptTripps · 2004-03-20 01:59 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Put yourself in their shoes. Every time they 'invent' something, about 6mos later, someone copies it (this time EXACTLY) and the world is amazed when Apple sues them over it. Remember the eMachines 'iMac' clone back on 2000? Remember the operating system that Microsoft copied back in 1983?
  
  Can you blame them?
  
  --
  
  My .sig can beat up your honor student.
3. Re:History Repeating by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 03:49 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  For example, CmdrTaco had following to say about the iPod: "No wireless. Less space than a nomad. Lame." Other trolls on the same page were about the same... so there you go. The experts had spoken, the iPod was truly "lame", while the superior ultra-compact Nomad was the way to go.
4. Re:History Repeating by TechniMyoko · 2004-03-20 04:17 · Score: 1
  
  If windows 1 was a copy of a mac OS, Id hate to see it. And last time I checked, Win1 and the Mac os back then were INSPIRED (not copies, as that means it would have to actually look/act the same) by a Xerox GUI
5. Re:History Repeating by clifyt · 2004-03-20 06:01 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  Gates never saw the Xerox interface. Jobs did.
  
  Jobs bought the interface off of Xerox and Xerox invested heavily into Apple at the time.
  
  The first GUI for mac looked NOTHING like the Xerox one other than it used a mouse and graphical elements. Some of the Mac / Lisa guys were already working on graphical elements and a folder hierachy that became the basis of the Mac. Add to that the common elements and it was a completely new interface.
  
  The first few iterations of Windows were lame attempts to copy what Apple had licensed and were now legal owners of, as well as everything else.
  
  Mac wasn't inspired by Xerox, but influenced by it. Windows as directly ripped from the Mac to the point its engineers decided to do things like throw menus in different locations and button positions in highly odd locations simply to prove it wasn't.
6. Re:History Repeating by TechniMyoko · 2004-03-20 06:46 · Score: 0
  
  Ive heard otherwise. Gates and Jobs saw the interface. And when Jobs found out he freaked on Gates in a public display of jackassery.
7. Re:History Repeating by Rick+the+Red · 2004-03-20 07:26 · Score: 2, Interesting
  
  Jobs bought the interface off of Xerox and Xerox invested heavily into Apple at the time.
  Can you site sources for these apparantly contradictory claims? I doubt either is true. Indeed, I recall Xerox being quite upset with Apple over the Lisa/Mac. Perhaps you're confusing Xerox with McIntosh, who were paid for the use of the name.
  
  --
  If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
8. Re:History Repeating by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 07:49 · Score: 0
  
  It's not just the interface, it's the whole package. When it was announced, everyone was talkin' smack about why the iPod sucked. Don't believe me, search the Slashdot archives.
9. Re:History Repeating by raga · 2004-03-20 09:31 · Score: 5, Informative
  
  Gates saw the Mac interface, not the Xerox interface (which, btw was quite different from the Mac interface.
  Here is the story as recounted by Andy Hertzfeld (one of the original "software wizards" to work on the Mac OS).
  This story by Bruce Horn (who worked at Xerox, and later was hired by Apple to join the Mac team) is a good recount of how the Mac interface came about.
  cheers- raga
10. Re:History Repeating by raga · 2004-03-20 09:36 · Score: 5, Interesting
  
  Checkout this reply.
  Everything you wanted to know about Mac development by the guys who did.
  cheers- raga
11. Re:History Repeating by Rick+the+Red · 2004-03-20 10:50 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  While a facinating history, none of those stories tell of Xerox investing in Apple or of Jobs paying Xerox for the Mac's user interface.
  
  --
  If all this should have a reason, we would be the last to know.
12. Re:History Repeating by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 13:22 · Score: 0
  
  I can't recall the source, but I recall reading that there was strong evidence that the ripping off done by Gates&Co. also included the wholesale lifting of chunks of Apple's code. This is reputedly why the settlement of the famous "Look and Feel" lawsuit included MS making a strong investment in Apple and agreeing to continue making Microsoft Office products for the Mac platform for a number of years.
13. Re:History Repeating by MoneyT · 2004-03-20 13:33 · Score: 4, Informative
  
  Xerox got something like $1,000,000 in Apple stock for access to their dev teams and information about the designs.
  
  Jobs told Xerox:
  
  "I will let you invest a million dollars in Apple if you will sort of open the kimono at Xerox PARC" And Xerox agreed buying 100,000 shares of Apple stock at $10 a piece, which later split to 800,000 shares worth 17.6 million when Apple went public[1]
  
  In regards to Apple "stealing" the interface, PARC's director said:
  "Just like the Russians and the A bomb; they developed it very quickly once they knew it was doable."[2]
  
  [1] Apple Confidential by Owen Linzmayer P. 53
  [2] P. 54
  
  --
  T Money
  World Domination with a plastic spoon since 1984
14. Re:History Repeating by raga · 2004-03-21 06:50 · Score: 3, Informative
  
  Here's the story about Xerox investing in Apple.
  
  Xerox invested $1 million in Apple by purchasing 100,000 shares at $10 each. Furthermore, Xerox signed an agreement with Apple to never purchase more than 5 percent of Apple's shares. Within a year, these shares split into 800,000 worth $17.6 million when Apple went public.
  
  cheers- raga
15. Re:History Repeating by BobTheLawyer · 2004-03-21 12:01 · Score: 2, Insightful
  
  it's because most geeks have no concept of style, or even an understanding that other people have a concept of style.
16. Re:History Repeating by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-21 23:08 · Score: 0
  
  Yeah, because Gates is such a decent, likeable mofo.
17. Re:History Repeating by Talez · 2004-03-25 14:07 · Score: 1
  
  Heres my favourite quote:
  
  "The LCD display is too small, it remains to be seen what the power consumption or usability of the backlight is, the four buttons (five, actually, I suspect) are likely insufficient, and probably rather modal. I dare not imagine how badly they've ginnied up the volume control. Apple's support for ID3 is woefully insufficient on iTunes and on iPod. (so is everyone else's, more's the pity)"
Except that.... by Big+Sean+O · 2004-03-20 02:37 · Score: 2, Informative

Microsoft _announced_ an operating system in 1983, Windows 1.0 didn't ship until 1985.

There's lot's of early Mac history at the Folklore site. Lots of pictures that show what passed for fashion among geeks in the 1980s.

My favorite, our man Steve Jobs in his bowtie period, best left for your own searching so I don't get modded-down for posting a link akin to Mr. Goatse.

--
My father is a blogger.
1. Re:Except that.... by transient · 2004-03-29 07:41 · Score: 1
  
  best left for your own searching so I don't get modded-down for posting a link akin to Mr. Goatse
  Uh... sure. Here you go.
  
  --
  
  irb(main):001:0>
The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Crash+Culligan · 2004-03-20 02:56 · Score: 5, Insightful
Then it gets immediate bashing from both pro-Apple and anti-Apple camps - how ugly, dysfunctional and stupid it is! Then we see an avalanche of various clones of the new Apple gizmo for Linux or Windows. And finally we hear a common outrage when Apple sends its famous "cease & desist" letters and the avalanche indeed ceases and desists.

Yeah... says something, doesn't it?

So the sequence is:
1. Apple creates something
2. People claim that the design [sucks | is ugly | is useless | is stupid | won't sell | clashes with my duvet]
3. The thing in question sprouts wings and takes off (metaphorically)
4. People copy the crap out of it
5. Apple sends in the lawyers
6. People stop copying
...right?
Step 1 is natural; they design stuff. Step 3 isn't guaranteed, but they seem to come up with quite a few hits, now don't they? Step 4 is also quite natural; if one of something is good, then a copy of it will work almost as well with a fraction of the effort! Step 5 is natural given step 4; if they don't protect their designs, then everybody will make money off of the popular ones. And step 6 is natural because, hey, lawyers are involved.

That leaves step 2: people saying that Apple's designs are bad. It farts liberally in the face of step 3, so it must have something to do with step 1: the fact that Apple made it.

And now I'm scratching my head and wondering why.

What does Apple do that makes them so evil that people will decry their products without even a second glance? Why do certain journalists feel the need to predict its imminent downfall for verging on 30 years? How do so many become so thoroughly programmed to be so hostile?

And no, I don't have the answer. That's why I'm asking.
--
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
1. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by oneofthemany · 2004-03-20 03:15 · Score: 5, Insightful
  
  Good question, I suspect that apple get no more criticism for its new products than any other company, it just tends to be that apple's launches are higher profile and so, as a consequence, is the criticism.
  
  Perhaps another answer is that apple takes more risks with its products and produces genuinely 'different' things, and new 'different' things are (almost) always challenged before they are accepted.
2. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by justMichael · 2004-03-20 04:36 · Score: 4, Interesting
  
  I think the reasons that Apple takes a beating are:
  
  1) People fear that which they do not understand.
  
  2) The Mac doesn't have any software for it, it can't be any good.
  
  3) You can't walk into just any store and buy/get help with an Apple product or software.
  
  4) The percieved high price of Apple products.
  
  Now, I could be way off, these are just my perceptions.
  
  Personaly I felt the same way. Up until OS X, I never liked the pre Aqua UI, still don't.
  
  I started watching OS X when it first came out, when OS X got strong (about 10.2) I decided it had matured enough. I just happened to be in the market for a portable, I bought a PowerBook when they first started shipping 1GHz. Never looked back.
  
  There are still 2 things I do on my Windows box; Play games and my Finances. I already had my games for the PC and I don't want my Financials on a portable machine.
  
  BTW: I NEVER thought I would see the word "duvet" used on Slasshdot ;)
3. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Lars+T. · 2004-03-20 06:27 · Score: 1
  
  Maybe there is still hope for this world, and most of those people reject because it is made by Apple, not because it is new ;-)
  
  --
  Lars T.
  To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
4. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by JGski · 2004-03-20 07:28 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Apple strives for an elite, artistic aesthetic standard, and on top of that much (I won't say all) of their technology matches that aesthetic. They have excellent industrial design. They think about the user experience (unlike many Windows & Linux developers).
  For USians in particular, our history doesn't lend itself to adulation of the elites or of people that are perceived to have airs of being the elite. There is a grudging acknowledgment, once Apples has proven its products, that appeals to the practical appreciation of the technology, but there's a subcurrent of feelings of inadequacy which manifests itself when companies like Microsoft boldly state that they invented when it's obvious Apple was there first. The Microsoft appeal is probably at least partly "yeah it sucks, but Windows is one of the boys, at least - not prissy or artsy dilettante".
  Beyond the outward cultural aspect, there is also the personal demons element. Apple (due to Steve's personality and reality-distortion-field) sort of acts like the smart, popular and good looking kid who knows exactly how smart, popular and good looking he is - yeah, that triggers all sorts of adolescent insecurities, even with people how haven't been adolescents for decades. Apple seems to seduce and some folks feel unconfortable with being seduced like that. (I happen to like but I'm a bit of hedonist! :-) )
  Watching how Mr. Bill, and Microsoft in general, respond to things Apple leads me to think that these factors are at play. I'd put many Linux folks who hate Apple into the same bucket though, only in different proportions. Rationally Apple is Unix and a closer cousin now, most of the issues raised always seems to be more emotional than rational. (The proof will come from how people reply/moderate this I guess :-) )
5. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by coolmacdude · 2004-03-20 07:46 · Score: 0, Redundant
  
  The Mac doesn't have any software for it, it can't be any good.
  
  Bullshit. OS X has over 10,000 apps, many of them equivalent to or even better than comparable Windows versions.
  
  --
  
  -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
6. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by justMichael · 2004-03-20 08:55 · Score: 2
  
  umm, you do realize that I was giving the point of view of those who don't use a Mac and therefore don't like Apple, right?
  
  I will also assume that you missed the part about my owning a PowerBook and that I only game on Windows because I already own the games...
  
  If you walk into Best Buy, Circuit City and many small shops, you wont find any Apple software.
  
  I did not say it was factual, but it is a common perception by the masses.
7. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Midnight+Thunder · 2004-03-20 09:16 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  That leaves step 2: people saying that Apple's designs are bad. It farts liberally in the face of step 3, so it must have something to do with step 1: the fact that Apple made it.
  
  It is well known that any design that stands out enough is going to create a reaction. The more it stands out, the greater the reaction. The only thing is that this draws from both ends of the spectrum: those who say it is the worst thing ever and those who say it is the greatest. You can't please everyone, and it is foolish to think you can. Your average PC maker causes no reaction, simply because they produce the same stuff as the other company. Only the absurd and the different stand out.
  
  --
  Jumpstart the tartan drive.
8. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Midnight+Thunder · 2004-03-20 09:20 · Score: 4, Insightful
  
  Bullshit. OS X has over 10,000 apps, many of them equivalent to or even better than comparable Windows versions.
  
  I always like to give the following answer to the people who argue there is less software on the Mac: there probably is, though if there is so much choice on the PC, why is everyone still using MS-Office?
  
  The answer is that people appreciate quality.
  
  --
  Jumpstart the tartan drive.
9. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by coolmacdude · 2004-03-20 11:01 · Score: 1
  
  LOL! sorry about that. You may take my reply as directed at those same people.
  
  --
  
  -You may license this sig for only $6.99.
10. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Unregistered · 2004-03-20 14:26 · Score: 1
  
  people dislike apples's designs at first because they "think different," so it takes a while for people to get used to the new thing at which point they realize it is a good idea and copy it.
11. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 21:53 · Score: 1, Interesting
  
  Actually, the Best Buy in our area (Bay Area, CA) has started carrying a few Macs. Unfortuantly I haven't seen any mac games being sold since they started, but they have a G5, iMac, Powerbook or two. There always seems to be someone looking at them too.
12. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by pastafazou · 2004-03-21 05:05 · Score: 2
  
  Here's my experience with that situation. I used to be a PC nut. I'd build them, fix them, play games on them. When people would say that macs were better, I'd laugh at them. I had played around with one before, and because it didn't have a command line, I wrote it off as useless. Besides, it was more expensive, and you couldn't get any software for it. So whenever I heard someone say 'Apple' I'd begin my rant on how Macs were "overpriced, no software, expensive to fix, blah blah blah". All the same crap I'd heard a hundred times from other PC nuts. Then I got a job as a technician in a store that sold both PCs and Macs, and I was trained on how to fix the Macs. What an eye opener! Over the course of a few years, my perception of Apple computers completely changed, so much so that I bought one myself. I'm now working as a PC only tech again, but I'll spend the extra $$$ to own a mac because it's a total bargain for what I'm getting. Overpriced? Not! My current machine has been running for 2+ years without a problem! The only time it gets restarted is when there's a software update, the rest of the time it's on 24/7. The amount of time the average PC user wastes trying to solve problems/crashes/viruses, trying to install updates etc, makes the Mac a bargain by comparison.
13. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-21 05:27 · Score: 1, Funny
  
  The smart people were popular at your school? Lucky bastard.
14. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by tuxedobob · 2004-03-21 11:22 · Score: 1
  
  Wow. I think that's an... anti-troll.
15. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by tuxedobob · 2004-03-21 11:25 · Score: 1
  
  Oooohhh.... that's a good one. I like it.
16. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by tuxedobob · 2004-03-21 11:32 · Score: 1
  
  It farts liberally in the face of step 3
  
  Somebody please mod that funny.
17. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by jazuki · 2004-03-22 04:19 · Score: 1
  
  Midnight Thunder opines:
  I always like to give the following answer to the people who argue there is less software on the Mac: there probably is, though if there is so much choice on the PC, why is everyone still using MS-Office?
  
  The answer is that people appreciate quality.
  I read this and was about to laugh my ass off. Then I noticed that this had been moderated Insightful, and not Funny, and now I don't know what to think.
18. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-22 06:49 · Score: 0
  
  Micro$$$oft Sux0rs!!! HAHA, they said it was QUALITY, they must be joking!! LOLOLOLOL!!!!
  
  Grow up.
19. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by quasimodal · 2004-03-22 15:26 · Score: 1
  
  Because the people that hate whatever it is are all Windoze faggots... and they have as much integrity as Billy Gates. But what would you expect from Gates, his father's a lawyer.
  
  --
  Fight Spam! Join CAUCE! == http://www.cauce.org/
20. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-22 23:23 · Score: 0
  
  I don't know what to think either, but I know how to feel:
  
  Sad.
21. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by ChuyMatt · 2004-03-23 10:13 · Score: 1
  
  I suppose you are also making a connection with apples work=Art, as art is supposed to get a reaction, positive or negative, or is is not good art. Is that why everyone is so simply *meh...* with MS? Because they have not approached their design as art? It would also explain why the kind of people who tend to have a major taste for art are more drawn to Apple products...
22. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by trudyscousin · 2004-03-24 08:15 · Score: 1
  
  I have the answer. It's in the title of a song from Hotlegs (the group who would later become 10cc, in case you ever heard of them):
  
  You Didn't Like It Because You Didn't Think Of It.
  
  Step 2 comes from industry journalists, I promise you, not the 'people' as a whole. (Anyone else who derides Apple has simply been reading too much John Dvorak.) The reason they're journalists is that their own originality and inventiveness is in their ass; otherwise, they might be sharing in the role that Apple plays every day.
  
  Step 3 comes from those who actually buy the technology (and who apparently don't read or care about what industry journalists have to say).
  
  --
  Those who can, do. Those who can't, write technology blogs.
23. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by GeffDE · 2004-03-24 14:04 · Score: 1
  
  You can walk into CompUSA and other stores that are actually actually computer stores and find Apple software, but I must say, it is not much.
  
  --
  It has been a nervous year, with people beginning to feel like Christian Scientists with appendicitis.
24. Re:The Peoples' Hate Affair with Apple by GeffDE · 2004-03-24 14:10 · Score: 1
  
  I'm glad someone beat me to the punch on that. If you hadn't I really would have needed the tranquility.
  
  --
  It has been a nervous year, with people beginning to feel like Christian Scientists with appendicitis.
Well, duh. Who didn't see that coming? by Thing+1 · 2004-03-20 06:36 · Score: 1

Um, me? First I've heard of teh product.

--
I feel fantastic, and I'm still alive.
it's hardly a copy by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-20 07:27 · Score: 5, Informative

the pPod was hardly a copy, at least not functionaly. all it had going for was the "look" of iPod. it's basically an mp3 player with a skin that looked like an iPod - not an emulated iPod, as it seems to be implied.

didn't play AAC. doesn't work with iTMS. etc. etc.

i'm surprised it got as much coverage as it did.
1. Re:it's hardly a copy by bennomatic · 2004-03-21 11:02 · Score: 1
  
  You're right; it really only got coverage because of speculation that it was going to be quashed by Apple.
  
  --
  The CB App. What's your 20?
2. Re:it's hardly a copy by TALlama · 2004-03-22 05:35 · Score: 1
  
  This is one of the reasons why Apple stops things like this: it appears to be Apple-endorsed, but it doesn't live up to the actual product. It's at best a pale shadow of the real thing, so in addition to copying the design they spent R&D on, it dilutes the brand.
  
  --
  - The Amazina Llama
Duvets on Slashdot by Crash+Culligan · 2004-03-20 13:24 · Score: 4, Funny

BTW: I NEVER thought I would see the word "duvet" used on Slasshdot ;)

Then you're obviously not browsing at a low enough threshold. >:)

(Okay, I admit it, I used Search to find that one. But the fact that it was there... And, smileys look strange when you have to type them as >:) -- and lemme tell you, that one looked even stranger. Damned recursion!)

--
You cannot truly appreciate Dilbert until you read it in the original Klingon.
1. Re:Duvets on Slashdot by justMichael · 2004-03-20 13:36 · Score: 1
  
  heh, not only not a low enough threshold, I would have had to have been reading someones journal
Techie vs. Designer by Baumi · 2004-03-20 19:54 · Score: 4, Insightful

Sure, from a technical POV you're right - it's still the same old PDA underneath and it doesn't play anthing it didn't play before. However, not only software engineers spend (or should spend) ages perfecting their part of the product, designers do the same thing.
And if you asked a product designer, they probably wouldn't care whether it can play back AACs or all the other stuff: It has the same look & feel, it uses exactly the techniques and designs perfected by the people who came up with the iPod.

There's more to a device than just its functionality - the failure to understand that is exactly what has lead to a flood of software with unintuitive UIs.
Uh oh by TechniMyoko · 2004-03-21 13:00 · Score: 0

I'm next
1. Re:Uh oh by System.out.println() · 2004-03-21 15:30 · Score: 2, Informative
  
  I don't see you charging money for that?
  
  Which is a key difference... There are iTunes skins for windoze music players, and iPod skins as well.... they don't go after them because they don't charge. (Of course there's always a good chance you're just trying to get some free linkage, but I'll give you the benefit of the doubt....)
  
  That said, I wonder how WinPLOSION (formerly called WinExpose) has survived this long.
  
  --
  I've got more mod points and GMail invi
2. Re:Uh oh by TechniMyoko · 2004-03-21 15:53 · Score: 0
  
  actually, Im hoping an ipod user will help me, my current beta testers are useless. I need all the menus im missing
3. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-22 02:38 · Score: 0
  
  Trademark and design patent violations have nothing to do with whether or not something was charged for. There's a much simpler explanation for why Apple hasn't crushed these things under the Iron Thumb of the Law: they're too small to bother with.
4. Re:Uh oh by System.out.println() · 2004-03-22 12:13 · Score: 1
  
  And pBop wasn't small? Until it got mentioned on slashdot, which I think was after the legal pressure had already started, I doubt pPod/bop was any bigger than the skins and such.
  
  Disclaimer: It's entirely possible I'm talkiing out of my ass.
  
  --
  I've got more mod points and GMail invi
5. Re:Uh oh by Anonymous Coward · 2004-03-23 05:02 · Score: 0
  
  Anyone used WinPLOSION? Looks pretty good. Definite copyright infringement, but pretty good all the same...
6. Re:Uh oh by the-surgeon · 2004-03-23 08:27 · Score: 1
  
  No. But, I hope Apple sues those bastards soon.
Freeware vs. Commercialware? by hethatishere · 2004-03-21 16:18 · Score: 1

I have to wonder how much of Apple's continued pressure had to do with the fact that Starbright was copying Apple's interface design AND making a profit off it at $15 dollars a pop.
Apple after all expends a great deal of money and effort researching design and interfaces for their products. Should other companies be permitted to proft from them? I don't think so.
Should other companies be able to use another companies' intellectual property in ways that:
A. Aren't profitting directly from the creator's hard work.
B. Aren't competing with original companies own products.

I think then things become less clear cut, at least for me.

--
Something intelligent here.