Apple Lawyering Up On "Fake Steve Jobs" 346
An anonymous reader sends us to The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs for a developing situation. Daniel Lyons, a.k.a. Fake Steve Jobs, made a post earlier today revealing that Apple was offering him some money (in the wake of the ThinkSecret shutdown) to close down his blog. He said he was interested in taking it. A few hours later, Lyons posted again revealing that Apple's lawyers had contacted him angrily, saying the details of the deal were supposed to remain private. Fake Steve replied 'we either deal out in the open, completely transparently, or we don't deal.' A third post gives details of Apple's lawyers' next response, going totally medieval on him. Since then the situation has calmed down a bit.
sounds like some laws must have been broken (Score:4, Interesting)
Aren't US Banks and financial institutions legally obligated to protect your private information such as the terms of your mortgage and the details of your bank and investment accounts?
Re:and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2. (Score:1, Interesting)
TIme to start up an "Apple Secretz" blog.
Regardless, what Apple is doing is not very bright in my opinion. Parody is still fairly well protected despite the best efforts of big business/government to remove that protection and it says FAKE right in the title...
a joke? (Score:3, Interesting)
I really do hope this is a joke, Apple doesn't have much to gain pulling a stunt like this...
Re:I'm just glad... (Score:4, Interesting)
Re:Guys... It's probably a joke. (Score:4, Interesting)
EFF? (Score:4, Interesting)
Assuming that this is true, this doesn't shed too good a light on the EFF. Isn't the EFF supposed to help bloggers that are being attacked by large corporations, regardless of what is posted on the blog and, in particular, of whether the person likes the EFF? At least, isn't that what people who donate to the EFF expect it to do?
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2. (Score:3, Interesting)
Comment removed (Score:5, Interesting)
Re:I'm just glad... (Score:2, Interesting)
Fixed that for you.
Re:and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2. (Score:3, Interesting)
Obviously I don't think that Apple is anywhere near there yet, but if they do lose their gilded status, it is going to cost them big time, where it hurts most, the stock price.
I was shocked personally, that they went with the iphone rather than taking advantage of MS' weakness to boost the numbers of macs being sold. Macs have a definite advantage of stability, largely due to the control that Apple has over the platform, there are a number of people that would love to have that sort of stability and interface design. Throwing the opportunity away on a product that would be just as popular in 6 months is absurd.
Re:Guys... It's probably a joke. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:god (Score:1, Interesting)
Love seeing all the pathetic strawman posts about how Apple is the new Microsoft, Apple is the new fascist incarnate Evil, Steve Jobs has devil's horns etc. Entertaining stuff!
Re:and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2. (Score:5, Interesting)
I remember back in the System 7/8 days when in a 0.0.x update they modified the CD-ROM driver to no longer work with non-apple CD ROM drives. All you had to do to "fix" it was go open the driver in ResEdit and change two bytes, but still.
Apple has always been about proprietary, closed in, locked down platforms. They've generally wanted to be Microsoft, but control the hardware too. None of this is new---nor should it be surprising.
Re:Not shocking (Score:3, Interesting)
My first computer was a TRS-80 at school, and an Colecovision Adam at home. Dude across the street from me had a 64 that we messed around with. Another friend had a 2e. Another friend had a Vic. I know there were plenty home options in the 80's. But by the late 80's early 90's we were seeing computers crop up on desks at work, and having experience with the software and OS was becoming a requirement for the workplace. Basically one had to win. For that reason, and for 3rd parties to focus on. IBM dropped the ball with OS/2. Apple kept everything locked up too tight. And Wintel was really the best, and most open, option at the time. That's all I was saying.
Lyons is funny, in a trollish sort of way (Score:3, Interesting)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rLpxX9vqr5c [youtube.com]
He says that intentionally introducing little errors (Lissabon vs Lebanon etc.) and watching the angry letters and corrections roll in is "better than sex".
The video is well worth watching, though, also for some other insights into how the business publishing world works (e.g., Icahn placing stories that paint a bleak picture of Motorola in order to get rid of Zander).
He may well have invented this entire legal stuff as a publicity stunt. If so, he may have crossed the line.
Real Dan Lyons can kiss my ass. (Score:3, Interesting)
How about fake journalist? Fake analyst? Fake intellectual?
The guy is firmly attached to the corporate teat, and things like
Linux scare him to death, because he can't figure out how to make
money on it. When Fake SCO came along, he started spouting anti-Linux
vitriol at every turn; here's just a sample;
"In other words, like many religious folk, the Linux-loving crunchies
in the open-source movement are a) convinced of their own
righteousness, and b) sure the whole world, including judges, will
agree."
http://www.forbes.com/2003/06/18/cz_dl_0618linux_print.html [forbes.com]
Of course, when it turned out we Linux supporters had it right all
along, Dan jumped off of the SCO bandwagon while it was hurtling
downhill at warp speed, and he nearly broke both of his ankles in the
process. His "apology" basically blamed Darl McBride, saying all Dan
did was repeat what Darl and company told him. Excuse me? You're
trying to pawn yourself off as a journalist, yet you take the word of
a litigious, all hat, no cattle wannabe cowboy, and then fail to
research the whole story?
If anything, Dan Lyons is an even worse shill than Rob Enderle - at
least Rob has the decency to reply to people directly, as he has done
with me on several occasions; Dan is too chickenshit to admit he was
wrong, on his own accord.
(I'd bring up the poor quality of his "blook" here, but that would
mean I'd have to detail all of the material he blatantly stole from
the regulars of the Yahoo SCOX message board, which I don't have the
time for right now; I will say that when you read the material there,
you've gotten exactly what you paid for; I don't see how Dan can live
with himself for trying to *charge* for it in print!) -saltydogmn on
Yahoo SCOX
P.S. Dan, if you're reading this, make sure to have Darl send me my $699/cpu invoice for running Linux on my computers; I have 3 of them, including this IBM laptop; 2 running Kubuntu, and 1 Xubuntu. Where should I send the check, and, more importantly, WHY? kthxbye
Cue real lawsuit in 3... 2... 1... (Score:4, Interesting)
It was all fun and games until he started flat-out lying about Apple and the EFF (just like he'd already flat-out lied about SCO and Linux). I wouldn't be a bit surprised to find either of them really suing them now, say for libel and defamation of character. Way to go, dumbass.
Re:sounds like some laws must have been broken (Score:3, Interesting)