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Apple Threatens Steve Jobs Doll Maker With Lawsuit
redletterdave writes "Apple has allegedly threatened to sue Chinese company 'In Icons' over its eerily realistic 12-inch action figure of Steve Jobs, the company's late founder and CEO. The 1:6 scale model, which was said to be distributed by DiD Corp. in late February, comes with the clothes and accessories popularized by Jobs, such as the black faux turtleneck, blue jeans and sneakers. The figurine is packaged in a box that looks like Walter Isaacson's 'Steve Jobs' biography cover, and also comes with a 'One More Thing...' backdrop, as well as two red apples, including one with a bite in it. To make it extra creepy, the doll's realistic head sculpt features Jobs' famous unblinking stare. Apple reportedly wrote 'In Icons', telling the Chinese manufacturer that any toy that resembles Apple's logo or products, or Job's name or appearance, is a 'criminal offense.' Attorneys believe a Steve Jobs action figure released after his death violates the 'right of publicity,' which is a state law that protects one's image, voice, photograph, identity or signature from being used commercially without consent. Furthermore, California's Celebrity Rights Act in 1985 protects a celebrity's personality rights up to 70 years after their death."
Personally I think it will make a good addition to the sequel to Team America World Police.
you didn't know? Steve was just a droid running the iI app
If they REALLY wanted to stop it, simply threaten to pull the manufacturing and bring it back to USA. Then Chinese gov. will stop it.
I prefer the "u" in honour as it seems to be missing these days.
No, never!
The Turing Heat had to steal the Phillip K. Dick automaton head to keep it from going sapient. The small but spunky Jobs Droid snuck under their radar and reached critical neural connections state just after this story broke.
warning! this product contains a likeness known to the state of california to cause lawsuits and frivolous torts.
"They were pure niggers." – Noam Chomsky
it is a Chinese company. They sooooooo dont give a sh** about California law. Oh, and count the rest of the world in as well :)
Delta-Mike November Bravo Tango
This definitely reeks of a personality cult, in the most disturbing, North Korean sort of way. Nobody has the rights to Dear Leader's image but us, and how dare you produce false idols. At least they didn't keep his body in state on the Apple campus...
I understand that he's been cryogenically stored in a sealed underground chamber in their new headquarters, surrounded by iPhones with his picture on them.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
From the article: "To make it extra creepy, the doll's realistic head sculpt features Jobs' famous unblinking stare."
I'd have thought I'd be even more creepy if the doll had eyes that rolled around...
Or blinked.
The higher the technology, the sharper that two-edged sword.
Well I'm buying one right now!!!
Good thing Apple sued, otherwise I might have never known about this.
Think I'll pick up a Barbara Streisand doll too while I'm at it....
Thou shalt not make unto thee any graven image of Steve, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth. Thou shalt not bow down thyself to them, nor serve them: for i the JOBS thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me; iExodus 20:4-6 (SJV)
He's at Disneyland with Walt in suspended animation