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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.'"
Perhaps Apple is embarrased by this, but the behavior doesn't really offer proof. Apple has send Cease and Desist letters to sites posting service manuals and images out of service manuals many times before.
Hyperbole is the worst thing ever.
No, its not even a page. The SA forums have a *link* to a page on another server, owned by another entity. Even the original way it was an utter perversion of the law, but with a link its completely fucking ridiculous.
I still have more fans than freaks. WTF is wrong with you people?
Let's not forget that the site they're going after is this one.
Yes, they're going after a site with Mother Teresa with a Broken Finger and Pizza the Hut on the front page. The one that reviewed the Vore RPG (NSFW... RNSFW), and has a running section called The Horrors of Porn (NSF...NM). Going after them is a lot like shouting at a woodpecker to stop bashing their skulls into a tree, especially with the Legal Threats section so prominently featured on the front page.
Don't get me wrong, I love Something Awful. They're one of the few sites that believe in truth in advertising. I just wouldn't expect them to respond to legal threats in anything other than a deragatory comedy fashion. I expect a review soon that gives Apple's threatening legal letter a score of -48. Worst Legal Threat Letter Ever.
Actually, technically, they're going after the forums. 'cause those people on the forums really listen.
The ______ Agenda
Wrong, it has *EVERYTHING* to do with fair use, as evidenced by the letter from Apple:
By playing the copyright card, Apple themselves are making this about copyright, and thus (by definition) fair use is a factor.
Note that NOWHERE in the letter that Apple sent, do they mention trade secrets (which is what you believe is going on here.)
It matters alot where stuff gets manufactured. Especially in the case of Apple.
When everything Apple happened mostly in Cupertino, if Steve Jobs got a whim that something needed to be changed right that second, he could just take a golf cart over to the other campus, bark out some orders and probably %80 of them could understand the mans english.
Now he has to make a call to someone else. That person takes his orders to "make a plexiglass window with cool LED's" and translates them to "Blossoming lotus spreads its petals for the bees inside" That bad translation gets out to the manufacturing floor where %2 of the people *might* understand steves direct order and totally fuck it up. The other %98 percent say "That's a fucked up translation" and goes about building the machine like all the other machines being ordered on the line.
Finally, it takes a week or two for the first production run machines to arrive. QA back at ASUS realizes there's a %30 failure rate, but figure they'll take their chances on RMA's and refurbs. Apple just gets the cream of the crop machines to look at before the entire production run starts shipping.
The new machines are in stores, people are buying them not realizing %30 of them are ticking time bombs waiting to fail. Some do, folks get pissed off and return them.
There is some value in having your manufacturing 2 blocks away from your office. You have very tight nit control over quality, and changes to the assembly line can be done on a daily basis.
Finally, the reason i'm making this argument, this used to be part of the price of buying an apple. Apples used to be made to very high standards, at least compared to screwdriver shop PC's. I'm still a PC fan, you can't beat the satisfaction of "rolling your own" and saving a buck or two in the process, but that was never apples market. Apples market has always been "I just want to plug it in and it works" You can't have that guarantee with the shoddy overseas craftsmanship happening now.
Whether people who are NOT _their_ service providers have access to the manuals makes no difference to the quality of their service providers. What it benefits is the _competitiveness_ of their service providers vs those who are not apple authorized service providers.
In theory, they are illegally using one existing monopoly (the printing of apple service manuals) to gain an unfair advantage in another market (repair and other service on apple computers)
We've secretly replaced Slashdot with new Folgers Crystals - let's see if it notices.
No, you don't get it. Regular citizens don't have the resources to legally challenge anything. Half of whatever lease you have is probably not legally enforcible. Why? Because you don't know enough to really fight it or you don't have the resources to if a problem arises. If Apple is sending out these letters, I'm betting it's an informed and intentional legal strategy. It's not some corporate troll making decisions - that's not how the legal world works. It has nothing to do with common sense, employee stupidity, or the merits of the case. It's really about the resources to challenge the legality of Apple's assertions. Not to mention, of course, that in actual litigation Apple fares best by claiming all potential legally gray areas at the earliest date.