Apple Challenges Bloggers Over iPhone Screenshots
January 14th, 2007
As written on OmniNerd by tomtolman…
“Since the iPhone announcement earlier this week, Apple has enjoyed a massive wave of free publicity from bloggers. Engadget’s live reporting alone had 10 million page views.
Turns out Apple is not happy about all the publicity. Someone has created a skin for Windows Mobile phones that looks very similar to the new iPhone user interface. Shortly after Paul O’Brian posted a link on an xda-developer forum to the interface, he got a cease and desist letter from Apple’s lawyers. The lawyers warn, “The icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law explicitly prohibits unauthorized display and distribution of copyrighted works. Apple therefore demands that you remove this screenshot from your website…”
Michelle Arrington of TechCrunch has accused Apple of going after the wrong person, “If Apple wants to go after the guy that made the Windows Mobile skin that looks like the iPhone, fine. But to bully bloggers who are simply reporting on this is another matter.” Arrington speaks from personal experience. In August Apple challenged him for embedding a YouTube video link to Mac OS X 10.5. In addition, Apple’s challenge raises a question if bloggers are permitted to post screenshots of the iPhone as thousands have done without concern from Apple’s lawyers. This news comes as Cisco is suing Apple for using the iPhone name which they claim to have trademarked in 2000.”
pr0xy k1ll3r (LiveandBeyond.com):
“I don’t think Apple is winning any goodwill by doing this. They do have the right to be protective about their product but not in this manner. Why not send a cease and desist letter to Google, as Google does link these blogs through it’s search engine?
Go after the creator of the Skin and ask him politely to remove it and not bully or harass bloggers who talk about or link it. Can these bloggers dissolve the product that is already uploaded on a server they have no control on?
Shame Apple.. Shame!”
The iPhone GUI in question (courtesy : http://www.techcrunch.com/)
Left: On the windows Mobile Phone - Right: On the Original iPhone
January 15th, 2007 at 4:12 am
Thanks pr0xy k1ll3r. I’m glad you liked my post on OmniNerd. I am suprised that Apple went after the blogger who posted to the skin instead of the skin creator. It seems to have worked though. I haven’t seen it pop up on the Internet anywhere else. Perhaps they went after the skin creator as well and we just haven’t heard of it yet.
January 23rd, 2007 at 9:24 pm
[…] Now about Apple, read this post, Apple Challenges Bloggers Over iPhone Screenshots. Think about who was the most important person of 2006, think about the important role bloggers have nowadays, Bloggers spread the word, in the not so distant futures bloggers may be able to make or break a product. Apple, watch out. Tags: Apple, iPhone, MicrosoftBookmark to: « 10 articles about SOA, SaaS, S+S, Identity and modelling | […]
February 24th, 2008 at 2:48 pm
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