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Man Who Teaches People How To Repair Their MacBooks Alludes To Apple Lawsuit (gamerevolution.com)
New submitter alzoron writes: After the failure of New York's Fair Repair Act, independent third-party unauthorized Apple repair shops seem to be under attack. Louis Rossmann, owner of Rossman Repair Group, INC has uploaded a somewhat vague video alluding to his Youtube site, where he posts videos about repairing out of warranty repairs, possibly being shut down. Several sources (Reddit, Mac Kung Fu, 9to5Mac) have been speculating about this and whether or not Apple is behind this. Game Revolution reported on the video (Link is to cache version of the site since the report has since been removed), breaking down each section of the video. 6:52: Louis informs viewers that they can download YouTube videos. 7:41: Louis mentions that YouTube channels have a "finite lifespan," often because a large corporation has the power and money to shut them down. 8:42: Louis shares that he's happy when he's lived a difficult life so that he can be strong for the immense challenge that is ahead. 10:06: Louis shares that he is going to have to fight from his point onward. 11:22: Louis states that all his videos may soon be gone. 11:32: Louis mentions that his business may disappear. Given what Louis has mentioned, it's apparent that Louis has been threatened by Apple likely for condemning its policies to a growing subscriber base, but also for showing users how to repair its hardware without going through Apple support.
UPDATE 7/1/16: The headline has been updated to clarify that the lawsuit is unconfirmed. We'll continue to update the story as it develops.
UPDATE 7/1/16: The headline has been updated to clarify that the lawsuit is unconfirmed. We'll continue to update the story as it develops.
This guy has a massive pariah complex, and great job feeding it, slashdot.
It appears the guy is using Apple-copyrighted schematics. If he wants his youtube videos to stay up it's really simple to just not put them in the video. Just draw your own representation of the part of the circuit you are working on and put that up.
http://lkml.org/lkml/2005/8/20/95
Self-promoter promotes himself with vague claims. Also, you're supposed to be mad at Apple because someone -- possibly a lawyer who wants to file a class action lawsuit -- has figured out a way to personally benefit if enough people are mad at Apple.
There is *speculation* that takedowns are coming from Apple, but no actual evidence and generally speaking DMCA notices have names (at least of a law firm) attached. As news sources go, Reddit forums rank right up there with the National Enquirer. There are plenty of legitimate reasons to bash Apple: political censorship, slumping software quality, etc. No need to invent fake ones.
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This guy is a modern hero. He works extremely hard to make the world a better place. He's well-spoken, selfless, and kind. I'm glad people like Louis Rossmann are out there in the world, doing what they do.
He reminds me a bit of Mister Rogers. Someone who you can look to and say: "This is how all people should be. This is how all people should act." And then smile.
Thanks for helping us out, Louis. I hope we can find some ways to help you out, too. Remember, don't be hesitant to take help from people. There are a lot of us in your court.
fifth sigma, inc.
The Clayton Act made both substantive and procedural modifications to federal antitrust law. Substantively, the act seeks to capture anticompetitive practices in their incipiency by prohibiting particular types of conduct, not deemed in the best interest of a competitive market. There are 4 sections of the bill that proposed substantive changes in the antitrust laws by way of supplementing the Sherman Antitrust Act of 1890. In those sections, the Act thoroughly discusses the following four principles of economic trade and business:
price discrimination between different purchasers if such a discrimination substantially lessens competition or tends to create a monopoly in any line of commerce (Act Section 2, codified at 15 U.S.C. 13);
sales on the condition that (A) the buyer or lessee not deal with the competitors of the seller or lessor ("exclusive dealings") or (B) the buyer also purchase another different product ("tying") but only when these acts substantially lessen competition (Act Section 3, codified at 15 U.S.C. 14);
mergers and acquisitions where the effect may substantially lessen competition (Act Section 7, codified at 15 U.S.C. 18) or where the voting securities and assets threshold is met (Act Section 7a, codified at 15 U.S.C. 18a);
any person from being a director of two or more competing corporations, if those corporations would violate the anti-trust criteria by merging (Act Section 8; codified 1200 at 15 U.S.C. 19).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/...
Specifically product trying (Act Section 3, codified at 15 U.S.C. 14).
Apple has been tying its products together for years:
Really the FTC needs to step in and annihilate this behavior, if they can't play fairly, then they don't deserve to play at all.
No, the "weld the hood shut" approach coupled with the snobbery dickishness of their design and marketing teams about their products puts me off even accepting a free idevice, let alone buying one. I would join this man in feeling joy in repairing them for other people, simply because it is disruptive to those pretentious fucks in cupertino.
Joining those picks in denialism about the quality of the products does not earn any brownie points, ac.
I suppose I should rejoice at error 53, GPU failures with no extended warranty, and touch IC flaws. Thank you for creating a device where the touchIC becomes desoldered from the board right outside of warranty. God bless your souls!!!
No, man. When something isn't the way it should be, you say something about it.
I would say the title could have used some work... it's jumping to a conclusion.
what I find particularly amusing is that in 2013-2014 they finally figured it out. 2015-2016 machines use almost the same designs but the fans don't spin up for an additional 10-20c over the older models... WHY!!! :(
Well, Apple might as well just shut up shop now. Random Internet guy is gonna stop buying their products. Apple better be quick to make a press release to try contain the near-irreparable damage that your post to Slashdot is going to do to their bottom-line and stock price.
This guy has a massive pariah complex
I've always wanted to live in one of those!
systemd is Roko's Basilisk.
Education and commentary is a fair use exception to copyright. He was clearly using them for educational purposes and commentary and therefore they are almost certainly fair use.
I would say if this is does not constitute educational fair use than I do not know what is. You can only see tiny snippets, you are missing all of the information required to actually design this product.
I don't see why this is "front page news" at this point. The video is all innuento. No facts. Nothing concrete. Nothing corroborated. There is no news story!
It appears the guy is using Apple-copyrighted schematics.
IF that's their beef, then I hope Rossman takes them to task for it.
Board schematics are a factual description of a physical object. Factual information cannot be copyrighted; 1st amendment issue. You can patent the board, but that doesn't allow you to prevent dissemination of facts..
Except, the case he makes probably better be that they are non-copyrightable..... Because in past videos he has mentioned obtaining the schematics from illegal Romanian FTP servers.
If the copy of the work you possessed before 'using' it was illegal in the first place, and used the work for commercial gain, then fair use defense will be hard.
If he gets challenged on the use of dodgy schematics in his own repair jobs, and that's not defensible, then he could face Disgorgement of every $$$ he ever earned from repairs after he obtained those .....
"Board schematics are a factual description of a physical object."
You've obviously not dealt with electronics much. If it was just a netlist, I might agree, but drawing good schematics is an art requiring skill.
"National Security is the chief cause of national insecurity." - Celine's First Law
Fair use, he doesn't make the them available in whole, and the videos are educational in nature.
YANAL, and you have misinterpreted the distinction between facts that cannot be copyrighted, and a particular representation of facts that can be copyrighted.
For instance, I can open the phonebook and copy the entries into a separate database and sell it, because the phone numbers themselves are facts that are not covered by copyright, see [1]. But I could not photocopy an entire page of the phonebook and sell it elsewhere without permission. Similarly, I can take the same ingredients/methods in a recipe book and republish those recipes, see [2]. But I cannot simply photocopy the recipe book and sell it as my own. To quote [2] at length (my emphasis):
So the question here is did the defendant copy the schematics verbatim or he did he read the schematics and produce a different form of the same factual information separately? Until you answer that question, you cannot reach the question of whether he violated Apple's copyright in the schematic.
[ And, FWIW, I haven't seen the schematics he posted versus the originals, so I can't answer that question and take a side. ]
Further Reading:
[1] Feist Publications, Inc. v. Rural Tel. Serv. Co., 499 U.S. 340, 347 (1991)
[2] Publications International v Meredith Corp., 88 F.3d 473 (7th Cir., 1996)
Clarity is a functional requirement, So clear vs. not clear can't be grounds for copyright-ability. To count as a creative work, it must be improbable that someone else would independently make an identical work. It is not unreasonable to assume that in some areas two skilled people has some significant probability of ending up with the same result.
Error 53 is because of crappy repair places that, when replacing a cracked screen, replace the entire front assembly (which the Home button with the TouchID sensor is attached to) because it's faster and easier, rather than moving the existing Home button to the new front assembly like they should.
And then, because the original TouchID sensor inside the Home button is cryptographically paired to the CPU's secure enclave but the "new" one is not, the operating system gives Error 53 and refuses to boot to make it hard for people to break into your phone with a compromised TouchID sensor.
The solution is not to go to shitty repair places that don't do the job right. And if you *did* go to a shitty repair shop, the Apple Store will pair your "new" TouchID sensor to the CPU's secure enclave for you so that it'll work again. Or, plug your iPhone into your computer, and iTunes can disable the check (though this obviously makes your device less secure).
A "bad " novel is just as eligible for copyright protection as a good one. Skill does not make the resulting work eligible for copyright. I don't categorically agree or disagree, a specific schematic may or may not count as a creative work in the definition. Put the ten best novelist in the world and ask them to write a book with 22 specific plot points, you have zero chance of any two books being the same. If you ask the 10 best schematic drafters to draw a circuit with 22 components, I would bet there is more than a zero chance that two would be the same, (and this is the level at which Louis shows the schematics). If you are diagramming something with 350 components, and 15-20 sub-circuts (depending on how you want to divide them), then that final tangible collection certainly is eligible for copyright protection.