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USB-IF Slaps Palm In iTunes Spat

Posted by kdawson on from the gimme-some-skin dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The USB Implementers Forum has finally responded to Palm's complaints that Apple is violating its USB-IF Membership Agreement by preventing the Pre from syncing with iTunes. It's found in favor of Apple. Worse, it's accused Palm itself of violating the Membership Agreement by using Apple's Vendor ID number to disguise the Pre as an Apple device."

5 of 600 comments (clear)

  1. Talk about a pathetic article by falcon5768 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Seriously can we keep business politics out of this? You may not like Apple but a lot of people from day one called into question Palms legality on their faking out iTunes from this very reason all the way down to the very fact that nothing said Palm even had to use iTunes as they could have used a third party player, a plugin for iTunes like Blackberry and WinMobile users use without any complaints from Apple, or made their own software . Just because you dont like the outcome does it in any way mean that the outcome wasn't the right one.

    --

    "Slashdot, where telling the truth is overrated but lying is insightful."

  2. Re:Palm Got What They Deserved by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Why syncing with iTunes need to be authorized?

  3. Think of Barcodes by MosesJones · · Score: 5, Insightful

    To all those people who think "What is the big deal about faking yourself as Apple?". The point is that these are reserved identifiers in the same way as barcodes are reserved identifiers.

    Would it be right for Palm to use the iPhone barcode for the Pre? Clearly not.

    So here is another case where there is a specific rule around reserved identifiers and Palm broke the rules. Their alternative is to opt-out of the USB group and do it themselves without its blessing or just suck it up.

    Complaining about the rules of a game after joining the table and playing a few hands is just dumb.

    --
    An Eye for an Eye will make the whole world blind - Gandhi
  4. Re:Palm Got What They Deserved by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Not only does it not need to be authorized, it is also legal to circumvent any and all obstructions which have been put into place to prevent syncing with iTunes, per explicit exemption in the DMCA for creating compatibility.

  5. Not surprising. by clone53421 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Palm claimed Apple was violating the spirit of the agreement by using their vendor ID to lock iTunes to their products.

    Palm used this to justify breaking the actual letter of the agreement by using Apple's vendor ID to trick iTunes into thinking Palm devices were iPods.

    So, guess who got in trouble? The guy who actually violated the agreement, of course.

    --
    Alexander Peter Kristopeit bought his basement from his mommy for one dollar.