Infuriated
Important: This post an April’s fool joke. I am noting it here because a lot of people have got upset about it. See my following post for related information.
original post starts here
Apple, the scum of the earth, what the fuck are you up to?
Minutes ago I was contacted by by some Melissa Sumthing, from Apple, claiming patent coverage one some parts of the Xesam spec. I was arguing that it was merely a spec, but she did not react to that. I was not really prepared to counter the lawyer-lingo so she thwarted me quite bad. Anyways I will take down xesam.org until further notice.
This makes me want to ask 2½ questions.
- How fast can we (L)GPL3 the entire Gnome stack (and any other GPL2 software)? Will this make any difference? (this is the ½ question)
- What does this do to the Webkit involvement in the FOSS world?
I am pondering all sorts of nasty retributions I would want to take on Apple, but I think I better take a deep breath before I take any action. Infuriated.
Update: I was advised to not take down xesam.org because that could imply that I was in agreement with the accusations.
end of original post
April 1st, 2008 at 8:23 am
Are you sure it’s not an April Fools’ Day hoax?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:25 am
have you also considered that its 1st of April today and that this might be a joke?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:48 am
That _sucks_. What specifically did Apple have a grievance with? And why did they call you rather than sending a letter? That’s very odd.
Finally, why would changing the whole stack to GPL3 make any difference? Infringing is infringing. If Apple has patents, everyone else needs to work around them, no matter how the project is licensed.
Either that or move all development to a country that doesn’t have such an idiotic patent regime and carry xesam and everything that uses it into the sketchy repos that carry win32codecs and libdvdcss.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:51 am
Really bad news if this is more than an April fools joke. I will through my Ipod off my house if thats the case. Seems a bit odd that apple are targeting various open source software through patent violations on April 1st though.
April 1st, 2008 at 8:54 am
WTF are they up to ? Overzealous legal dept, or more… not good, with cheese being taken down it could seem like an attack on gnome itself… wheres Luis and all the OSS lawyers ?
April 1st, 2008 at 8:56 am
Its april 1st so ignore it!
Or maybe an MS scumbag
(patents dont apply in EU so you are safe in any event)
April 1st, 2008 at 9:01 am
Haha, I’m a retard. Happy April 1.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:06 am
Here’s a friendly piece of advice…Pissing off Apple PR with shit April Fools jokes is probably not a good way to encourage Apple that their contributions to Free Software are welcome…
If I were you, I’d just delete this entry and pretend it never happened.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:09 am
april fool?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:16 am
Please get in touch with the GNOME Foundation Board about this topic. We’ll do our best to help.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:19 am
And perhaps a third question:
What date is today?
April 1st, 2008 at 9:33 am
Worst prank ever, this could literaly spawn a war between apple and os-zealots.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:37 am
1. Relicensing GNOME under (L)GPLv3 will not solve this problem. GPLv3 only grants patent rights to your users for patents that you yourself have rights to. If you don’t have rights to a patent that your software infringes, then GPLv3 will not protect you or your users. In fact, if anything, it may make the situation worse.
2. I don’t see how it relates at all.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Deepest sympathies. I’m not buying anything from Apple for a long time (if ever) if this turns out to not be an April Fools hoax.
April 1st, 2008 at 9:43 am
Still not funny.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:00 am
Contact the Open Invention Network: http://openinventionnetwork.com .
They’re whole purpose is to protect developers and projects from patent predators like Apple.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:10 am
This isn’t funny. And the original (by Daniel Siegel, linked in the text) is much less funny now, too. I actually took the original seriously.
Since Daniel doesn’t have comments turned on, here’s a tip for everyone reading this entry: Google “IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038. G & S”. Click on the first link (”Trademarks M – Scienowiki”). Search for “IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038″ on the page. Or do the same with one of the other links. Seems like it’s a bogus number reused for humor. Or “supposed humor”, in this case.
It’s as simple as that, really. Too bad I actually took Daniel’s post seriously at first. Maybe my sense of humor is rusty, but his post and this one (in light of the reactions, more than the content) are like shouting “fire” in a crowded theater.
Nice way to burn up good will, both within (consider Vincent Untz’s reply, above) and outside of the community.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:24 am
Even if an Apple patent covers some part of a specification, that does not give Apple any right to squash publication of the specification. It would only allow Apple to prevent people in countries where their patent is valid from distributing or selling devices (including programs) that infringe the patent.
I would suggest asking Melissa something for the specific numbers of the patents alllegedly infringed.
April 1st, 2008 at 11:50 am
I hope you got a number where you could reach her?
Check that number and if it turns out to be an April Fools’ then please update your blog,
This isn’t even remotely funny
April 1st, 2008 at 12:13 pm
If this really is just an April fools hoax, it’s a really tasteless one!
April 1st, 2008 at 12:26 pm
well, the chesse story seems to be an april joke to me..
i looked up IC 009. US 021 023 026 036 038 mentioned in the blog and i didnt find out anything regarding images about it.
well we’ll see tomorrow
April 1st, 2008 at 3:12 pm
I actually believe this story for like 3 minutes, so I think it was a pretty good joke.
What is so bad taste about it?
And no, qwerty, I don’t believe in any way this could spawn a war between Apple and Open Source.
It’s nice to see though that there already seems to be a process to handle such attacks, for Gnome (Gnome Foundation) and for all the FOSS community (OIN)
April 1st, 2008 at 3:30 pm
Why is it wrong to tweak Apple’s nose? Do they not spawn proprietary file formats and promote vendor lock-in? I’m sure that wasn’t the intention of the author, but let’s take Apple down of the pedestal for a moment and give it a good once-over.
April 2nd, 2008 at 3:24 am
meh, I thought this was pretty funny, especially when all the linux nerds told you off for forgetting that the internet is Serious Business
Internet Male doesn’t laugh at himself for being such an idiot as to get taken in on April Fool’s Day, he lashes out at the person who got him, with all the fury his keyboard can muster, so as to project the shame he feels onto somebody else
it happens all over the internet every single year
see also the comments on the fake lost episode torrent post on planet debian – the internet is Serious Business