Yes, Virginia, any idiot CAN file a lawsuit!
Congratulations, Stacie Somers of San Diego County! You're the first jackass of 2008!
Well, OK, technically, since the suit was filed on December 31, you're the last jackass of 2007. But as it's already prompted some very silly analysis that we'll have to deal with this year, we're going to put it on the 2008 books, nnkay?
The tip o' the old antlers on this one goes to a friend of the Macalope's who happens to be a lawyer (and a woodland gnome, incidentally), who forwards it on with the one-word summary "Crazy."
Well put, woodland gnome!
So, what's your beef, Stace?
It alleges that Apple has constricted the market by not enabling iPods to play content in the Windows Media Audio (WMA) format, Microsoft's copy-protection technology.
And how! This reminds the Macalope of the time he successfully sued Sony for using the Memory Stick instead of SD. And then the time he successfully sued Microsoft for using FAT32 instead of HFS. And then the time he successfully sued Hamilton-Beach because their cone-filter coffee maker only takes, well, cone filters.
The Macalope likes flat-bottom filters. They're flatter. On the bottom.
The suit contends iPod-owning consumers can only buy music from iTunes, an unlawful tie-in that violates U.S. antitrust laws.
Boy, that sure is true! It sure would be nice if we could buy music to play on our iPods from some other place -- like, say, a popular online retailer or an independent-friendly MP3 site.
Too bad.
Boo, Apple.
Down with our evil, oppressive overlord Steve Jobs.
Uh, yeah.
Well.
Good luck, Stacie Somers of San Diego County!
But you say, "Macalope, our system of jurisprudence is not based on luck, but on well-reasoned arguments based on the code of law and legal precedent!"
That is why the Macalope says: good luck, Stacie Somers of San Diego County!
Mythical beast and rumormonger extraordinaire, the Macalope writes about all things Apple for the CNET Blog Network. Read more at The Macalope: An Apple blog. He is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
I wonder though if an iTunes rival is behind this, not hoping for a legal victory but wanting to provide a stream of FUD in the media to slowly take a bit of shine off the iTunes/iPod...
Pretty soon Apple will be declared a monopoly because it doesn't allow Dell to build iPods or Mac Minis.
Yawn.
I smell Microsoft.
BINGO
Wake up. These class action lawsuits are FUD. Professional black PR. They get coverage all over the internet, and reprinted in newspapers everywhere. That's a lot of discrediting of Apple for very little money. This is not the first "monopoly" class action suit. Where are the others? Where are the scratched Nano class action suits. Where are the Nike/Apple "running-shoe tracking" suits? etc. etc. etc.
The plaintiff is Stacie Somers, a San Diego-based attorney represented in this case by a gaggle of class-action specialists: Craig Briskin and Steven Skalet of Mehri & Skalet, Alreen Haeggquist of Haeggquist Law Group, and Helen Zeldes.
This is either a FUD attempt or just simple extortion. If they can get other gullible folks to join the class, they know that Apple will eventually settle, "without admitting any wrong-doing." As a person with ethics, and as an Apple stockholder, I'm disgusted.
"Can we talk Stacie into suing Sony?"
Maybe we can talk Sony into suing Stacie.
I'm sure the MPAA's not going to look too kindly on her storied career in TiVo piracy:
http://blogs.sun-sentinel.com/movies/2006/03/the_continued_b.html
Despite what the MTV generation may have done to your vocabulary, a Jackass is an animal and no more offensive to say than calling someone "stubborn as a mule".
But why would anyone spend significant amounts of money for litigation on the Supreme/Internation Court level? It's bad for competition. Microsoft paid $613 mil in fines because the company initially refused to release the source code (which is private, mind you) for some aspects of its of Windows. Then, media companies argued that bundling WMP discourages users from utilising any other media program, so XP N had to be released.
If the Europeans can do it, why can't we?
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by markld1955
January 11, 2008 10:46 AM PST
- How could we ever get along without lawsuits and lawyers? What a waste of time!
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