Apple Sics Lawyers on SomethingAwful

bheer writes "Apple has sent a threatening letter to SomethingAwful about a post in its forums that describes how to fix the overheating in some MacBook Pros by applying thermal paste properly, according to a post on Gizmodo. The post includes a brief excerpt from Apple's Service Source Manual which Apple wants removed. Gizmodo continues: 'the real problem [is] that the image shows the extremely sloppy manufacturing process that is causing the MacBook Pro to run at temperatures as high as a 95 degrees Celcius under full load.'"

Comments

Karma whore

[Anonymous Coward]

The thread in question:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?s= &threadid=1864582

Lowtax's response:
http://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?th readid=1867138

Posted anonymously to avoid accusations of karma whoring :)

End of thread

[jmorris42]

Let me save everyone the trouble...

Apple is acting like Apple always does... like an asshole. They are caught out in a fairly major QA problem and trying to lawyer their way around it. Same as every other large company. Mac fanbois will of course totally defend their noble defense of their 'intellectual property' even though this case is a textbook example of fair use. The fanbois will also 'like totally defend the quality of Apple hardware against that Dell crap.' And while they have cause for that in general it will stink of slavish devotion because of just how busted Apple is on this case.

That 'bout cover everything?

sounds like a job for...

[steak]

leonard j. crabs

http://www.somethingawful.com/legal/

The problem is...

[Galston]

The problem is that Something Awful aren't hosting the picture, it is hosted by someone else elsewhere. Something Awful only have a link to the picture in a thread not the actual picture itself.

Fair Use

[TubeSteak]

How is posting sections of a service manual fair use? Service providers and others who are given access to those manuals sign an agreement that they will not do the very thing that was done.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_use#Fair_use_und er_United_States_law

In determining whether the use made of a work in any particular case is a fair use the factors to be considered shall include--

1. the purpose and character of the use, including whether such use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes;
2. the nature of the copyrighted work;
3. the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole;
4. and the effect of the use upon the potential market for or value of the copyrighted work.

1. The use would qualify as " nonprofit educational purposes";
2. ummm, it's a service manual;
3. SA used a tiny portion "in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole"; and
4. This use should have zero effect on any "potential market for or value of the copyrighted work"

I'm not really sure how to address your second point. It's either irrelevant, or Apple should be claiming SA divulged Trade Secrets.

Re:fair use

[Anonymous Coward]

This material isn't published, all Apple service manuals are considered confidential trade secrets.

As Linuxmop pointed out below, the entire manual is here (and now it's on my hard drive). If it was a trade secret, it isn't any more.

http://www.repairyourmac.com/macbook-pro.pdf

Not just one page

[Yjerkle]

The post includes a brief excerpt from Apple's Service Source Manual which Apple wants removed.

I have mod points, but I couldn't find anyone pointing this out to mod up. The post includes a link to the entire service manual. Apple's complaint is NOT about the single page showing the thermal grease, it's about the posting of a PDF of their copyrighted service manual in its entirety. Now, they're still threatening the wrong person, since the file is hosted somewhere else, but there is real infringement going on.