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Apple vs Apple -- Judgment Day
DaphneDiane writes "According to the Times Online Apple Computer successfully defended themselves vs the suit brought by Apple Corps." If you are looking for background on the case we had talked about it earlier. I'm just relieved that the battle of two bazillion dollar companies turned out well. Phew. And, of course, Apple Corp has filed an appeal already.
>If I want to slap another stick of RAM into my machine, I should be able to without being a licensed Apple technician. You can, dude. Always could. Never seen a Mac I couldn't upgrade. Why do you spread this falshood?
They sued because if they won, it'd really be easy money. I'm no expert in such things, but it sounds like they had a pretty decent case. Apple Computer had signed a contract, and although the judge agreed with them that it wasn't violated, they certainly appear to be close to violating it. If not in a technical, legal way, then maybe in a more general sense. Fortunately for the computer company, those little technical details in law are quite important.
But when it's all said and done, I think we're better off having Apple Computers win. Over the past couple of decades, they've contributed far more to the world, and that makes them more deserving of profits than Apple Records, which is basically just coasting on some hard work from decades ago. Even though I don't like the iTMS DRM all that much, I find it hard to argue that any else has done nearly as much for online music sales, and it'd be a shame for an old contract to slow down progress on that front.
One time I threw a brick at a duck.
This could very well be a mistake on my part in that I have never seen or heard of anyone able to do that.
Probably. Most all Macs take standard PC memory. Since almost the beginning. Even the first PowerMacs used a slight variation of normal SIMMs. Many brands of PC memory worked in them. Add to that how easy the cases on Macs open up, I get the feeling you've probably just never seen and played with a Mac up close.
On top of that, I thought that their machines had a temperature sensor that would trigger it to internally mark itself as VOIDED if the case was open and the temperature in the room wasn't low enough.
Yeah, not sure where you got that from. They have no special hardware in them like that at all. And, I can't remember ever seeing a Mac with a sticker on it to keep you from opening the case. I've opened up pretty much every PowerMac ever made, was an Apple certified tech at a store for a few years. They really have no clue if you open the case and put in your own ram, harddrive, PCI/video card, NIC, modem, etc. All of these devices can be bought 3rd party, and there is no rule that I've ever heard about installing these voiding warranty. We sold 3rd party hardware all the time, and told them how to install it if they asked.
They flat refused to sell him a new drive without him bringing the machine in so they could install it saying that in order for his warranty to remain valid they had to send the failed drive back to Apple for testing. He asked what would happen if he bought a 3rd party drive and replaced it himself and was told that his warranty would be voided and he could be subject to up to $20,000 in fines for violating his "customer agreement".
If this story is true, then that reseller was blatantly lying, and needs to be bitchslapped for consumer fraud. This is not the way Apple works things.
Now, about sending the dead drive back, yes, they do have to send defective parts back *if they replace them under warranty*. However, if he just bought one straight out, even a 3rd party one (yes a standard PC version of a CD/DVD drive will work!), they can just sell it to him, at a slightly higher cost (as they don't get a discount by sending the broken one back). And, there is no such thing as a fine for adding your own hardware, or voiding a warranty. That's such bullshit. The problem is, they don't make much money on hardware sales. They make their money on labor. So they end up fucking Apple customers, and dragging Apple's name through the mud to make a profit.
Personally, I'd tell your friend to report that store to whatever consumer protection agency handles your state. They probably didn't break any laws, but lying to consumers about made-up fines and their rights is not acceptable.
The name was a joke that John Lennon made, "Let's call it Apple Corp" ('corp' being pronounced 'core').
Much as I love the Beatles, I'm glad that Apple lost this silly case (and that Apple won)
There's a story at macworld uk and el reg
Quote from Apple Corp's lawyer:So - the fight continues!
There are shills on slashdot. Apparently, I'm one of them.
FYI, "Moron in a hurry" isn't necessarily meant to be insulting under English law. It's the language that a judge used in a case there some years back in dismissing a trademark-infringement suit, so it's an established phrase. This was explained in the comments of a previous Apple-Apple /. article here.