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Apple Files Lawsuit Against Teenager Who Sold White iPhone 4 Conversion Kits, Settlement Reached?

The amount of dumb comments compared to intellectual and level headed comments in this thread amazes me; well not really.

It seems most of these people posting comments in defense of this kid are young teenagers themselves - or atleast I hope so.

Look, this dude was smart enough (and help with his parents obviously or atleast knowledge of his dealings) to get genuine Apple parts from Foxconn, make a website and sell them means he knew what he was doing was wrong. There is NO GREY AREA.

I agree that Apple shouldn't have announced a white iPhone to begin with if they knew there were manufacturing problems. Personally I think they look toolish (as well as white sun glasses, but that is my own opinion :) ), but whatever.
 
I smell holiness all over macrumors. Macrumors must be heaven on earth. People, in macrumors, are so righteous that they can see a speck in the eye of the other, but not their wooden beam. I am sure God is mad at that boy.

Sorry, I have to go to ask Jobs to forgive all my sins against his kingdom...
 
thogs_cave said:
Don't like Lars, liked Napster even less. The former because he's an obnoxious dbag, or at least cones across as one, and the latter because they were making profit off the work of others. Much like the record labels.

And, I also remember mp3.com, and how they imploded. I worked right down the street at the time. Same feelings there.

So, to sum up: I probably didn't support Metallica, but I considered Napster to be at the best sleazy, and at the worst a bunch of criminals. However since the record companies treat me like one even when I'm not, I have little sympathy there, either.
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Lars is obnoxious yes, but where does the dbag part come from? He's done far more good in the world than most people have.
 
Jaredly said:
How was he infringing on apples trademark? On his website he said he was selling apple parts, he never said he made them. Im guessing that by everybody believes that it is also trademark infringment to resell my macbook because it has an apple logo on it?
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Say you've got an apple orchard with a reputation of having the tastiest apples because you only select the best and toss the rest.

Say someone sneaks in and steals the best of the discarded apples and I buy them from the thief.

Now, if I set up a stand and say "These apples are from Farmer Jaredly's farm" and start selling a lot of apples and make a lot of money by capitalizing on your reputation, what is your response?

You're telling me that you wouldn't have a problem with me associating second-rate apples with your brand? What if people didn't like "my" Jaredly apples because they weren't first-rate and thus either complained to you or stopped buying from you?

You also wouldn't be mad that I was making profits from your goods that you had discarded, despite the fact that you'd done all the work to grow them as well?
 
I have little sympathy for either side. I do agree that trading in stolen parts is generally bad and I agree that the kid should pay for it. However, a giant like Apple to whom those $130K are basically a handful of sand at the beach could've been a little more sympathetic and asked for a bit less. The kid did do work after all. So instead of alienating and turning the kid against the company they could've done something more creative to turn him into the path of righteousness within the Apple channel. But it's typical Apple.
 
organerito said:
I smell holiness all over macrumors. Macrumors must be heaven on earth. People, in macrumors, are so righteous that they can see a speck in the eye of the other, but not their wooden beam. I am sure God is mad at that boy.

Sorry, I have to go to ask Jobs to forgive all my sins against his kingdom...
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Really I smell something that wont make it through the chat filters. I have downloaded software in the past that I didn't pay for. The difference is I knew it was wrong and accepted that if I got caught there would be consequences. You seem to think that their shouldn't be consequences for this thief who got caught. Apple has all the right in the world to go after anyone who stole items from them and hurt their branding for his own personal gain. And if you want to get all religious on this, assuming you are talking about Christianity from the way you said it "Though shall not steal" is one of the commandments, so yes I am sure God is angry at the boy, that is a sin he will have to make amends for eventually, just as all of us who have pirated software will, the key difference is most of us accept that what we did will have consequences.
 
erzhik said:
who cares. that kid had the balls do what nobody else managed to do. He saw an opportunity and went for it. This is how innovative minds are born.
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Just like Bernie Madoff, the higher-ups in Amway, and any other leaders of Ponzi and pyramid schemes! They just saw an opportunity and went for it; we should give them a prize!
 
Schizoid said:
Women. Children. None were spared the master's wrath.
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Look at all the hate for a World of Warcraft quote. Halls of Reflection, one of the first two bosses, I forget which. To be perfectly honest, replacing rating headlines with rating posts is just asking for trouble. Look at all those negatives for what I'm sure the majority of you thought was serious. We don't need all that negative energy on this site, in fact, I think it's far worse. I know it was an attempt to stop people from doing +1 posts to artificially inflate their post count, but this isn't the way to do it. Just wait till there's a political headline, you'll see my point (assuming you don't see it already).
 
Synchromesh said:
I have little sympathy for either side. I do agree that trading in stolen parts is generally bad and I agree that the kid should pay for it. However, a giant like Apple to whom those $130K are basically a handful of sand at the beach could've been a little more sympathetic and asked for a bit less. The kid did do work after all. So instead of alienating and turning the kid against the company they could've done something more creative to turn him into the path of righteousness within the Apple channel. But it's typical Apple.
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Why should Apple have asked for less? Why should the thief retain any profit for his actions?? If anything it should cost him, otherwise what is the punishment? Sorry but its time that punishments start coming back. This whole idea of creativity teaches kids only one thing, smile and nod enough and you get off the hook for whatever you did wrong. It does not teach them that there are consequences for actions that are wrong, only that if they put up with a "Stern" lecture they can do whatever they want.
 
People are not seeing the real picture here. This is not about crushing the kid. Or getting money. It's about setting a precedent. So when other people try the same thing in the future they will know the consequences if they are caught breaking the law.

Apple is simply telling the world, use our logo (which is trademarked) without our permission and you will be in serious trouble. The stealing from Foxcon part was wrong too. But the kid would only get busted for receiving stolen goods if he was charged for it. The Foxcon employee who did the stealing would get the theft charge. But again going through international law and multiple nations legal systems is very costly and time consuming. And really I think Apple is not too bothered by all of that. Hence the quick settlement.

Just a slap on the wrists. To tell the world, use any of our trademarked words or images on products you sell without Apple's permission and you will be caught and charged and tried for trademark theft or whatever it's called. I'm no lawyer.
 
MacAerfen said:
Really I smell something that wont make it through the chat filters. I have downloaded software in the past that I didn't pay for. The difference is I knew it was wrong and accepted that if I got caught there would be consequences. You seem to think that their shouldn't be consequences for this thief who got caught. Apple has all the right in the world to go after anyone who stole items from them and hurt their branding for his own personal gain. And if you want to get all religious on this, assuming you are talking about Christianity from the way you said it "Though shall not steal" is one of the commandments, so yes I am sure God is angry at the boy, that is a sin he will have to make amends for eventually, just as all of us who have pirated software will, the key difference is most of us accept that what we did will have consequences.
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I didn't write that message to say the stealing is ok. Actually, I pay for my software, Finale, Creative Suite...etc. I just don't agree with people calling that boy names. Teenagers can do stupid things. Everyone has to learn that there are consequences, but here are some people are just too quick to judge.

I am not very religious, by the way. I am little cynical:p
 
Synchromesh said:
I have little sympathy for either side. I do agree that trading in stolen parts is generally bad and I agree that the kid should pay for it. However, a giant like Apple to whom those $130K are basically a handful of sand at the beach could've been a little more sympathetic and asked for a bit less. The kid did do work after all. So instead of alienating and turning the kid against the company they could've done something more creative to turn him into the path of righteousness within the Apple channel. But it's typical Apple.
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Really? So at what point should Apple start caring: when someone makes $1B off of Apple's brand? What about $1M? What about $500K? Where's the line, please tell me!!!
 
I swear, message boards are getting dumber and dumber all the time...

RTFA. The kid's trade was in stolen parts. It's not like he made his own aftermarket parts. At what point does the entitlement generation (read: ethically illiterate) acknowledge that theft is actually theft?

That's almost beside the point... I think it's more infuriating that conclusions are predicated/clouded on the basis of the size of the institution, rather than the material facts of the case.
 
MacAerfen said:
Really?? You make me vomit by your comments that ignorance is an excuse. These "parents" didn't bother to take note of what their minor was doing illegally in their own house? They don't have the right to be called parents if they blindly let their children break the laws. It's time people are reminded that having children means taking responsibility for them. This attitude of letting parents off the hook by blaming everything from tv's to video games is getting old. Simple fact is if a child is breaking the law then the parents failed to raise the child correctly. If a child is taught properly, if parents take time out of their busy lives to instill values into them then it doesn't matter how violent the tv shows are, how violent the video games are, if the child was taught the meaning of right and wrong correctly they will retain that. This attitude of "its not my fault" needs to be shot down soon. Too often now parents can't be bothered to teach their children respect, they are too busy with their own lives and figure they will leave it up to teachers and society to deal with their spawn.
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I'm assuming you have no kids of your own, and if you do, you must have them locked down 24/7, home schooled and keep tabs of their every breathing second, making them completely perfect in every sense of the word.

You can only teach your child but so much, you're raising a human being with a mind of their own to make CHOICES, not a f*kn robot. /end rant

sorry for getting off topic.
 
Exactly

chrono1081 said:
I think the big problem is people see Apple as a big corporation that makes lots of money so they think its "ok to steal from the big guys" since thats an easy justification.
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That's exactly what apple did when they were starting out
 
fagosu said:
That's exactly what apple did when they were starting out
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Who did Apple steal from?

And before you throw out Xerox PARC, I recommend a little research first, unless your definition of "steal" includes asking permission and compensating Xerox in the process.

But no, I'm sure you have a better answer than something so predictable and easily debunked.
 
  • The Kid did sell parts that were not legally obtained.
  • They did have the Apple logo on them. Apple sued.
  • Apple apparently settled and withdrew the suit.
  • For all we know, all the Kid had to do was rat out his supplier. And probably promise not to do it again.
  • Apple had to protect a trademark violation.
  • Apple did nothing wrong. The Kid did do some wrong stuff. The kid's supplier did some very wrong stuff.
  • The kid is probably hurting a bit, but not as badly as his supplier will be.
 
*LTD* said:
I'm sure the quality of those iPhones is perfectly up to Apple standards as well. :rolleyes:
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I want to believe that if somebody bought parts from this kid they weren't expecting "apple quality" parts, since they were not buying them from apple.
 
Eh - Apple was just pissed because this kid was able to sell white iphones without having to worry about the sh**storm Apple would have had if they released their white iPhone with the "defects" this kid obtained from FoxConn.

Apple might have the customer's best interest at heart and only wants to release quality product into the marketplace - but this kid basically showed them that many people don't even care. And that had to sting LOL

In any event - what the kid did was illegal - knowingly or not. A cease and desist + forfeit of all the goods sold would be plenty punishment.
 
Greedy Bastards!

Nice one Apple ... if you can't give the people what they want then neither can anyone else!

Just smacks of greed to be honest; not that Apple give two hoots!
 
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