still.. are you asserting that apple owns that symbol? I have found no evidence that anyone owns the tiered wifi symbol.
Got a tip for us?
Let us know
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.
Apple Borrows iOS 5's Wi-Fi Sync From Rejected App Submission
- Thread starter MacRumors
- Start date
- Sort by reaction score
still.. are you asserting that apple owns that symbol? I have found no evidence that anyone owns the tiered wifi symbol.
so, apple used a public domain logo, please tell me how this relates to the proprietary logo this discussion is about?
Personally I don't believe that the icon is strong enough to support either party claiming ownership.
Apple is using existing symbols from their historical iconography in a logical way to convey the purpose of a new feature on their website.
AFAIK Apple isn't even using this icon within iOS5. I doubt the dev could do any more that send Apple a take-down notice for the website feature page.
Fine, if you want to go down that route:
http://www.wipo.int/amc/en/domains/decisions/html/2006/d2006-0350.html
Substitute "words" for "icons".
Good luck to him. From all accounts the app was buggy, he never responded to support requests (as a fellow developer I find this particularly poor) and the long-promised improved version 2 never materialised.
People seriously need to learn what is and is not actually the "theft" or "borrowing" of IP. I work in music and this kind of crap is commonplace there as well.
In music, there are only so many chord progressions and so many words in the English language. There have been literally millions of songs written in the history of pop music. Any time someone gets a hit song, there are a half dozen other writers who did something similar who want to make a big stink and file lawsuits claiming theft. It happens, get over it, people come up with similar ideas all the time.
If I have an artist bring me a song that sounds like one I've written, or am working on but haven't released, I'll reject theirs. Redundancy is boring. Beyond that, I decide what I work on and release. I have a right to reject material for any reason, including because it would hamper my ability to market my own writing.
This situation is no different. Anyone who believes that Apple wasn't already planning to implement WiFi Sync in iOS is an absolute fool. It's up to them when and how they do so and rejecting the app was in their interest and within their rights.
How would the developer have reacted if they accepted it, let him make money for a while, then implemented it in the OS and gave away their better version of it for free. His business would be dead and he'd be mad that they didn't warn him about it.
Every other person on this forum has publicly suggested WiFi Sync for iTunes, does that mean we all had the idea first and should sue for the theft of our IP? No, certainly not. This developer is only different in that he actually made something that worked. I applaud those efforts, but this is a far cry from any kind of theft.
In music, there are only so many chord progressions and so many words in the English language. There have been literally millions of songs written in the history of pop music. Any time someone gets a hit song, there are a half dozen other writers who did something similar who want to make a big stink and file lawsuits claiming theft. It happens, get over it, people come up with similar ideas all the time.
If I have an artist bring me a song that sounds like one I've written, or am working on but haven't released, I'll reject theirs. Redundancy is boring. Beyond that, I decide what I work on and release. I have a right to reject material for any reason, including because it would hamper my ability to market my own writing.
This situation is no different. Anyone who believes that Apple wasn't already planning to implement WiFi Sync in iOS is an absolute fool. It's up to them when and how they do so and rejecting the app was in their interest and within their rights.
How would the developer have reacted if they accepted it, let him make money for a while, then implemented it in the OS and gave away their better version of it for free. His business would be dead and he'd be mad that they didn't warn him about it.
Every other person on this forum has publicly suggested WiFi Sync for iTunes, does that mean we all had the idea first and should sue for the theft of our IP? No, certainly not. This developer is only different in that he actually made something that worked. I applaud those efforts, but this is a far cry from any kind of theft.
Apple should have paid Hughes atleast a little bit for this or given him something for writing such a good app that would benefit the iPhone community a lot. Instead they used their power to reject a perfectly good app and release the feature when 'they' wanted to.
That's just not how business works. Companies pay for licenses to patented or copyrighted work. Neither case applied here, you don't pat someone on the head, say "good work" and give them a wad of cash. Apple isn't a charity. The guy earned around $500,000 anyway, and by all accounts it wasn't such 'a good app' - Everyone here who's used it is saying how poorly the app functioned and how the developer never responded to support requests.
You're absolutely right, would be far better for Apple to never implement Wi-Fi syncing and for the 95%+ of non-jailbroken iOS users to be forced to use USB syncing indefinitely.
One huge difference between the two versions. I expect the Apple version will actually work. I wasted 10 bucks on the cydia version. I got it to work once then messed up the whole syncing process.
Later I uninstalled the whole lot, re installed, it worked once.... Facepalm
Obviously the one person that made the cydia app was talented, working with out Apple's cooperation still made it kinda work. Its impressive but I'm so glad Apple is going to do it for real.
Later I uninstalled the whole lot, re installed, it worked once.... Facepalm
Obviously the one person that made the cydia app was talented, working with out Apple's cooperation still made it kinda work. Its impressive but I'm so glad Apple is going to do it for real.