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.
and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2... (Score:1, Insightful)
It's also possible that fake Steve is being... fak (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm just glad... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure someone is going to mod me for flamebait, but I never understand the people who insist Apple is the greatest company of the fan of the planet when there is plenty of proof that Apple is a corporation (for better or worse) on par with most corporations.
Control? (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm always confused by Apple on matters like this; a lot of these people are key in building & maintaining hype in Apple products. If Apple (apple legal?) had their way, it seems like there'd be... well... Apple.com and a few keynotes every year as the only way people would learn details of (and think of?) new products.
I'm a big Apple fan & I love their approach of using/contributing to open source software where it makes sense to improve their products - but their marketing and PR people seem at odds with their engineering attitude (especially with their solution-oriented attitude recently with iPhone, Apple TV compared to their key skill as a superb platform (NB. this point was blatantly stolen from Wil Shipley's blog)). I know PR people think about things completely differently from engineers but you'd think that was a company attitude, not just with the people making the magic
Actionable Items (Score:4, Insightful)
Since when was parody actionable?
Re:a joke? (Score:3, Insightful)
Seriously, read some of his ramblings about the SCOX saga. He's a paid shill.
Ah yes, Dan Lyons... (Score:5, Insightful)
Not exactly a paragon of virtue himself... and not above conducting business in public when it suits him, and in private when he can get away with it.
This guy also thought SCO was a sure winner and wasn't very polite about the Linux community.
Not shocking (Score:1, Insightful)
As I've been accused of being a MS tool in the past, I will always maintain they are the lesser of three evils when compared to the other contenders that could have won out. Apple and IBM.
So while it's currently "cool" to think of Apple as the hippy-happy company. Realize they are anything but. Job's paints a pretty picture. Just realize he's going to tell you which room and which wall to hang it on. Or he won't let you buy it.
Re:and when he shuts down...the fake steve jobs 2. (Score:2, Insightful)
So, yes this being a parody does factor into it, but mainly because Mac users expect that Apple will respect the creativity of its user base and the whole industry around it.
Is everyone on Slashdot a frigtard? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:EFF? (Score:5, Insightful)
Do you really believe that? Parts of this hoax were believable, but the EFF part was obviously a joke.
Re:sounds like some laws must have been broken (Score:3, Insightful)
People really started hating MS when they started this same stuff so Apple shouldn't for a second think they're somehow immune to that same wide-spread hate. I use apple products because I like them, but I'm not going to kid myself and think they're somehow "thinking different" in any aspect but product-design.
I've said ti before and I'll say it again (Score:3, Insightful)
But then buying Apple products is the same except it starts with a new house and works it's way back to the dress, car, and kitchen appliances which can only come from the same company that built the house.
I am constantly amazed with the people who flock to Apple when they do the same thing at the hardware level that Microsoft does at the software level and that is product line lock in.
The major reason Apple lost the numbers war to Microsoft is that Windows and it's related products were allowed to run on any IBM PC clone while Jobs wanted to control every aspect of the Apple and sued out of existence the very people who were trying to clone an Apple and extend the user base of Apple and Apple-like products. Microsoft doesn't really care about pirated software in third world countries as long as the computers are running Microsoft products. They have a foot hold on future sales when the dust clears from law suits and the users are socialized into thinking that Microsoft is the only product they can use. As long as it's not Linux/x386BSD/Apple they are willing to tolerate pirating because it extends the base of users of MS technologies.
While Apple may make a better product overall (remember Mac OS is FreeBSD under the covers) they will always be only a niche market because Jobs is a worse control freak than Gates. --
Seriously, people (Score:5, Insightful)
(2) The EFF would never say that.
(3) If Lyons has a contract to continue the blog, then his employer would most certainly be fielding the lawyers, because if anything were actionable, they'd be liable too. (duh) So his "I've already paid a ton for a lawyer" was another giveaway.
What's hilarious is that Real Steve Jobs (or at least someone acting on his behalf) took the time to reply to a few angry readers who emailed him.
Nice posts though. FSJ rocks.
Re:god (Score:3, Insightful)
Actually, scratch that. Linux kernel devs *do* look like assholes.
I do think it's kind of cool that one unsubstantiated blog rumor can make it to the front page of slashdot, and then get people to swear off buying products from a company. I hope that the small company I'm working at will someday be as loved/hated as that!
Re:It's also possible that fake Steve is being... (Score:5, Insightful)
If it's a joke, which it appears to be, I think Apple would be completely justified in going after him.
Re:Not shocking? Sue Me! (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:Not shocking (Score:2, Insightful)
Apple didn't lock anything down that hasn't always been locked down. Do you think Windows is an open specification? And Mac prices were only insane because RAM was insanely expensive. Apple shipped 32-bit color workstations in the 80s which PC tards compared to 256 color PCs and decided the Mac was more expensive. It was not. Compared to an equally equipped PC, it was the same price. The only difference was that Apple didn't sell cheap low end boxes that were obsolete at purchase (until they changed their strategy and started on the low end with the Mac LC in 1990). It also provided the OS for free.
You can look through old PC mags from the 80s and find $8-10,000 Macs, but you can also find $10-12,000 PCs like IBM's PS/2 line, which had similar high end equipment. Macs had SCSI when PCs had Centronics parallel ports and IDE.
Closed/Open didn't have any impact. Microsoft ripped off the Mac system software and then monopolized the PC market with exclusive contracts that prevented any alternatives from emerging. It's Microsoft that has jacked up the price of software. They set the price of Office at $500 and kept adding apps to it to kill off competitors. They set the price of the OS at $150 when most OS were free. Then they delivered shitty products for 15 years, and now their OS costs $300 or more.
Apple certainly screwed up under its mid-80 to mid-90s CEOs, but the errors were (perhaps) keeping the OS unlicensed and not making any effort to sell to consumers. Apple's past and present control is its greatest strength, and why Macs offer a much better experience. The uncontrolled environment in Windows is why PCs suck, and Linux offers little to help in that regard. It will offer a much cheaper replacement to Windows however.
Microsoft is everything about what's wrong in technology: non-interoperable, infatuated with adware, spyware friendly (WGA, Alexa), a proponent of onerous DRM (HD-DVD, WMV, PlaysForSure, Paladium), and enemy of open source development, and a price hiking monopolist. They also have no taste and deliver third rate products.
Your deluded, Dvorak-brainwashed generation will have to die off before technology can make any progress.
The New Apple Patent: WGA Evil or iPhone Knievel? [roughlydrafted.com]
Is it true that Apple is racing to duplicate Microsoft's infamously evil WGA, or is it possible that Apple's patent describes something entirely different that leaps over the heads of industry pundits and performs a spectacular arc over the rows of broken down vehicles underneath (some of which may be on fire), to land a new platform and win applause for doing so?
Re:Slashdot has a complete absense of humor (Score:5, Insightful)
If that doesn't tell you it's a joke... (Score:5, Insightful)
Shame on the lot of you. This is supposed to be a smart crowd here. Don't let your bias get to the point where you just look foolish. It's xmas, it's the weekend, but Apple lawyers are firing off quick replies that are increasingly brutal despite their previous emails all going directly public via FSJ? Come on, nerds, use your brains.
Re:It's also possible that fake Steve is being... (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:I'm just glad... (Score:3, Insightful)
I'm sure someone is going to mod me for flamebait, but I never understand the people who insist Apple is the greatest company of the fan of the planet when there is plenty of proof that Apple is a corporation (for better or worse) on par with most corporations.
They're not just "on par", they are one of the worst. I always get a load of crap when I point this out, but Apple is BY FAR the most evil computer company (there are certainly more evil non-computer companies). How many Bill Gates parodies are out there? How many Microsoft lawsuits do we see trying to crush them?
Isn't Apple supposed to be hip company with a sense of humor, and Microsoft the faceless robot terminator?
I really wish Apple fans would wake up and hold Apple to a higher standard. They get away with this kind of arrogant crap because they're not held accountable.
Re:Is everyone on Slashdot a frigtard? (Score:3, Insightful)
Judging from your other posts up above, you're just disappointed that you spent all that effort vilifying Apple over a story that turns out to be bogus.
A clarification or retraction is called for (Score:5, Insightful)
Apple does enough things that genuinely warrant criticism. Inventing a story like this, and publicising it as fact, is unconscionable.
Re:sounds like some laws must have been broken (Score:3, Insightful)
This is a perfect example of just how wrong-headed that approach is to privacy. None of the information that the lawyer dug up on Lyons is embarrassing or evidence of illegal activities. But the implied threat that a MegaCorp of essentially unlimited resources knows where you live and who is dear to you and wants you to know that they know is enough to convince many people to just give the MegaCorp whatever they want and be done with it.
That's bad on an individual level when it happens to regular joes. It's 1000x worse for society when it happens to people like journalists, whistle-blowers and politicians.
This guy just pulled off the biggest April Fools (Score:5, Insightful)
Not only has he baited those of us who read the FSJ blog, but he has also baited every Microsoft fanboy and Apple fanboy who read his blog, who don't read his blog, and now Slashdot.
If the Internet ever gave out trophies, this guy deserves at least 5. Maybe 6.
Re:I've said ti before and I'll say it again (Score:5, Insightful)
Really? I run Mac OS X and Windows XP on my Mac, and if I wanted to I could have my pick of Linux or BSD variants that work on Intel on my Mac.
And since my iMac is really nothing but a glorified Intel-based laptop on a stand, I'm not exactly sure what part of the hardware locks me in. Perhaps it's these proprietary USB and Firewire ports on the back that only allow me to attach Apple-only peripherals. Perhaps it's the built in Pioneer DVD-RW that Apple nicknames the "Superdrive" that allows me to only burn on Apple branded discs to Apple-only formats. (If only I could manage to read ISO files, perhaps even go as far as to mount them as a new drive when I double clicked on them). If only Steve Jobs wasn't such a channel-controlling, OEM bullying monopolistic control freak...
The point of the hoax (Score:2, Insightful)
I believe Fake SJ was attempting to point out how incredibly believable this scenario has become, due to Apple's declining public image. Five years ago, if someone had pulled a stunt like this, no one would have believed it. Today, people were emailing Real SJ, without any doubt that Apple would sue a satire. The absurd has become reality.
Facepalm (Score:2, Insightful)
Re:god (Score:4, Insightful)
I agree. Whenever any Apple-using friends of mine trot out the line that "Apple is a better company than Microsoft", I just point out stuff like this.
Re:Is everyone on Slashdot a frigtard? (Score:3, Insightful)
It is simple, people need heroes (Score:5, Insightful)
Humans are simple creatures, we need the world defined in goodies and baddies, that often means having to make the choice of the lesser of two evils, and not always getting it right.
Godwin time perhaps, in WW2 who are the goodies and who are the baddies? You have the axis and the allies. Well Japan and Germany clearly belong in the baddies groups, these are evil nations whose people have not a single redeeming quality. The role of Italy and and Austria is slightly more complex. Italy often seems to be able to shrug of the worsed of the holocaust.
But the goodies? The US of A? Hitler went to the east for lebensraum, the americans trekked to the west and killed the people already living there. What is the difference between a sign that says "Geine Juden" and "No Blacks"?
England? Talk about a country bend on taking over the world, it made an empire out of astraucities. The soviet union/russia? Well at least Stalin could never be called a racist, he had entire populations wiped out of all sorts. Equality of a kind I suppose.
Yet we must pick and in popular culture that often means we gloss over the "truth" to present one side in a better light. You might have noticed that in the recent WW2 tv series Band of Brothers absolutly no mentions is made of the US army policies regarding blacks or those with ancestors from Japan?
Part of the final solution was to deport jews to remote areas where they could be controlled/wiped out. Explain to me the motivations between Indian reservations and the rather diminsied population figures of native americans?
In WW2 there were only baddies, just that some at that particulair time were not as active as others and depending on your own background some weren't intrested in being very bad to you at that moment. Why string up a jew when blacks are so much more fun?
Yet we need to have a hero, and so we make one, by putting on blinders.
Steve Jobs is a figure in IT, there are many others, but he can be very closely linked to Bill Gates, an obvious baddy (although once seen as a hero freeing us from the evil IBM, a company that is now often seen as a goodie).
What really is the difference between Steve Jobs and Bill Gates apart from income? It is a well known part of computer history that it was Steve Jobs own (what is the word, incompetence, arrogance) that handed Bill Gates the PC market. Apple, IBM, Commodore, Atari etc etc all screwed up at a crucial point leaving Wintel to rule the market. A lot has been written about it already, including on slashdot.
But just imagine that Steve Jobs hadn't made what ever mistake it was he made and that Apple had come to rule the PC market, what then? Would it have been any better? Imagine that the holocaust had never happened, would the US be the evil country for its treatment of blacks, would it have continued like South Africa? How much did the realization of the holocaust change american opinion on its own treatment of a part of the population?
Apple has never been any more open with its software then Microsoft has. While MS software has always been bug prone, I have to say that the most crashy PC I have ever seen was running OS9. Supporting DRM, are we talking about Steve "Disney" Jobs here? Sony is often a villain when it comes to consumer rights, but when did Apple ever fight a legal battle FOR fair use?
But we need a hero, and so we make one, reality be damned. The sad part is that we got real heroes in IT, Stallman in front, but that person is WAY to much of a hero. People often insultingly try to compare him to Jezus but I personally see that as a rather important clue as to real heroes who truly stand for something. The person of jezus, if he was real, was a real pain in the ass for the powers that be, even his own followers. Really read the bible and you find a guy who was kicking against a lot of pedastals and upsetting people. Very confenient he was killed and that the pleps couldn't read and that the powers that be could tell their people what Jezus had RE
Re:sounds like some laws must have been broken (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:I'm just glad... (Score:3, Insightful)
I wish folks would quit giving that attention-whore Lyons any attention... especially when he's lying his ass off ;)
OK, it may be a hoax... but wasn't it perfectly believable that Apple would act this way?
Apple doesn't bother with this - it's a hoax (Score:4, Insightful)
But it sure gets danny a lot of free publicity. Danny is a pure fiction writer. Danny is laughing up his sleeve right now, because of the slashdotters he fooled.
Re:I'm just glad... (Score:3, Insightful)
OK, it may be a hoax... but wasn't it perfectly believable that Apple would act this way?
It is plausible for some corporations, but that's what makes trolls so successful to the uninitiated - that kernel of possible plausibility.
OTOH, Apple has never (to my knowledge) done any sort of astroturfing efforts - ever. No free blogger laptops, no fake 'bloggers' or 'commenters', no fake websites purporting to be 3rd-party fansites... none of that. That makes the whole thing implausible and unbelievable.
Lyons failed hard, which made it easy to spot for what it was... first off, astroturfing is handled by PR and marketing departments, not Legal. If a blogger says "no", then no amount of public assertion on Lyons' part would get any lawyers involved - Legal and PR would just say publicly that he's full of shit (in so many nice words) and that would be that. Even Microsoft was smart enough to keep their Acer Laptop fiasco confined to just the PR flack who got caught. Next up, astroturfing efforts would be kept more on the down-low, not splattered all over the place on recordable email.
Sorry, man... we all get trolled at one time or another. This was apparently your turn. :)
Re:Slashdot has a complete absense of humor (Score:2, Insightful)
Here's my suggestion for if a article ends up being fabricated: Post a retraction at the top of the article, or even remove the original article and create a new entry/article about how you discovered the original one was a fake.
Title change needed (Score:3, Insightful)