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

[wrkoch]

Dicks....

What *******s!! I feel bad for the kid, he was smart enough to bring it to market before apple could. Hope it works out okay for him.

 

[Born Again]

Bravo, Apple! Way to go out of your way to crush the competition!


Sadly, if Microsoft would have done this (think Mike Rowe Soft incident) people would be rioting but Apple crushing a teenage is ok...

Nobody likes apple crushing a teenager

Apple is definitely a business people

A heartless one at that

 

[JilzVT]

$135 for just the back panel - a piece of plastic? Yikes.

 

[Adey]

I think he meant to say "Apple fanboyism is worse than Nazism."

I'm a bit of a fanboy but as yet I have never knowingly killed anyone Jewish in a truly horrific manner.

[Though I may have to check the genealogy of one or two people before I fully commit to the above statement.]

Anyway.... I'm leading us a bit off-topic here.

 

[diadem]

Without more info we cant be sure on how the goods got to the kid. But he most likely was buying the parts of his supplier in china, so he is not a thief like every one keeps saying. The thief is the employee at Foxconn. The only thing the kid is guilty of is using apple's trade mark illegally.

The kid will do very well in business if he keeps it up. He seen a market and filled it, it was a pro move. Tho the parts needed a little work to keep the lawsuit from coming his way.

That said I do hope the kid managed to squirrel away some of that cash so he can setup a new business.

 

[frogger2020]

grow up, Apple just is protecting its rights, HE's A THIEF! Get it?

Exactly!!!!

Get off my lawn, you durn kids!!

 

[gri]

Apple's sueing teenagers now.

Apple is suing people who do perform trade mark infringement (or whatever the legal term is) as well as resale of stolen goods. Doesn't matter how young the person is. He was old enough to set everything for his "business" in motion so he should be old enough basics of business and IP.

 

[Muscle Master]

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

 

[abronbibly]

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

Actually, Apple has about 77b in the bank.

It doesn't matter what the case is with this kid and his family.. If you live in a cardboard box, it still doesn't mean you can rob a bank.

Also, the kid clearly had the means to purchase a domain, a server and everything else needed to launch a website.. I highly doubt he was sitting in a public library building his little business.

 

[gmcalpin]

did you not read it? it says it is unknown what the settlement is... that doesn't necessarily mean they took it easy...

While you're right, no lawyer would advise the kid to settle for WORSE than the lawsuit was asking for. All profits plus Apple's legal fees is the worst this kid was going to shell out. And that's not really so bad.

Apple COULD have pressed criminal charges against him. They didn't.

 

[mdatwood]

If someone were to break into your house and steal your electronics, then sell them and the local DA were not to file charges, that would not remove your moral responsibility to take them to civil court.

Is that what happened though? People are saying these were defective parts that were thrown away that the kid bought and then sold. If he was really trafficking in stolen goods then the criminal courts shouldn't have any problem going after him. I'm thinking it wasn't quite that simple, thus the scorched earth civil complaint that Apple knew the kid would not or could not fight.

 

[thogs_cave]

Bravo, Apple! Way to go out of your way to crush the competition!


Sadly, if Microsoft would have done this (think Mike Rowe Soft incident) people would be rioting but Apple crushing a teenage is ok...

Drat, I got caught up at work, and this thread got long before I could respond.

As others have pointed out, he committed a blatantly criminal act, and he's old enough (as are his parents) to understand that and accept the punishment. The goods were, if not stolen, a blatant trademark violation, and he knew it.

I'm not a fan of lawsuits in general, or lawyers who are justin it for money, but I have no sympathy for this kid or his parents. For once, I'm on the side of a company. (Gotta happen once in a blue moon, I guess.)

 

[chris200x9]

Women. Children. None were spared the master's wrath.

None WAS spared. Please get an education.

Oh man 7/10, I raged.

 

[ThunderSkunk]

Oh for f's...

Just got on here and rcvd SIX private messages all troubled about the post I made, and a bunch of other hotheads with nothing else to worry about foaming at the mouth over their crazy interpretations of the first part of my post.

Since some of you idiots want to make this personal, I'll clarify. I think white iPhones look cheap, and tacky, so no, I don't want one, didn't trespass upon your "morals" to get one...

No, there are points to be made about how this usually comes about, with the nature of industrial scrap and backdoor supply lines that make their way onto ebay and elsewhere and into your homes, and international law and blah blah blah...

But honestly, that's already like a hundred more words than I give a rats ass about any of this.

 

[tCruzin4lyfe]

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

Go sell your MacBook Pro then, I'm sure plenty others would buy it. And no it's not better than selling crack because if he would of kept on doing something illegal like this, it would lead to the same outcome, getting caught eventually and facing heavier charges. Then his life would still be thrown away.

 

[looking4anotebo]

The bigger story is what kind of person would spend $279 to change the color of their phone.

 

[infiniphonic]

Kid who sold unauthorized Apple branded merchandise

He was selling Apple branded merchandise that was unauthorized and possibly stolen from one of Apples parts suppliers. Apple is defending their trade dress. I'm quite sure that if it was a company and, not just some kid, they would have brought the hammer down much harder than they did in this case.

 

[Mattie Num Nums]

How many of you supported Metallica when they were fighting Napster. I bet a good number of you didn't.

 

[LazyMacGuy]

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

Yes in terms of the dangers but no in terms of consequences. Both things are on the wrong side of the law.

I personally have no problem with people doing either but what pisses me of is when people do something they know is wrong and then expect rights and courtesies when they are caught.

The simple fact is despite the moral criminality of the offence it is still an offence and so Apple acted on it.

 

[Muscle Master]

Also, the kid clearly had the means to purchase a domain, a server and everything else needed to launch a website.. I highly doubt he was sitting in a public library building his little business.

Not that hard to do now and days

 

[chrono1081]

Whether it was rite or wrong.. you gotta do what you gotta do in this economy, we don't know the extent of the teen and his family background.. they could have been poor as dirt.. last I check and correct me if I'm wrong Apple has over $9,000,000,000 in the bank.. I can see to file a suit to shut him down, but to go after if money too.. a petty $130k

makes me sick to own a Macbook Pro now

And whats with this "tarnishing apples reputation" If people wanted to buy conversion kits.. that's their business, . How could they blame apple about any faults of the part.. before this was release to the public I pretty sure that the people who bought it had to knew it was fake at the time of purchase... Shut up!!

I'll tell you one thing.. it's better than selling crack on the corner throwing his life away

Did you read the article?

APPLE DID NOT SUE THE KID

Nor did the "settle" on anything officially. The settlement is pure speculation. Not to mention the kid already said that he isn't changing his business practice, suggesting that he never even got a cease and desist letter yet.

 

[DDMaKeeg]

WHILE I believe apple has a right here, who would want someone selling something with your trademark, I do think they should leave the kid alone.

He sold conversion kits to something Apple would not release.

And there were quality control reasons that Apple was not releasing it.

And you had to have an iPhone to do it, so Apple sold a iPhone, and the kid made a bit of cash for his smarts on knowing the demand of a market.

Yes, the customer did buy an iPhone to do this. A BLACK iPhone.

No harm no foul.

Now what happens when this customer has a problem with their iPhone and need a replacement at the Apple Store? You think that transaction is going to go smoothly? You think Apple is even going to honor the warranty? You think they system would even allow them to? If you're phone is firmware modified (jailbroken or unlocked) they won't touch it. What makes you think that a hardware mod would be easier to warranty? White iPhones and black iPhones have specifically different model numbers. You think the customer is even aware of this?

So even if Apple swaps it out with a replacement, that replacement will NOT be WHITE. They cant swap out one model number for a different model, unless of course the original one is discontinued. You think this customer that bought this conversion kit even realizes that? No, they will be upset at who? Apple for not honoring the warranty of this iPhone. So, yes this will put Apple in a negative light for this customer.

And although Apple does make quality products and I haven't had to get mine replaced before, remember, these were factory sealed phones when the customer purchased them. Sure, the kid may be smart enough to take them apart and swap out the casing to change the color, you think these will be as perfect looking as factory sealed? These a potentially more prone to having issues than ones unmodified or opened.

Besides, if these parts were not acceptable for Apple to use, since we all saw the threads of "light leaks" as being the reason they weren't up to standards for Apple, whats to say this customer won't be in the Apple Store trying to get a replacement because it has light leaks, or some other defect prone to these parts?

Now that Apple sells the white version again, i am sure his demand will go down.
Let the kid win.

Its a lose-lose for the customer potentially. They will be mad at Apple for not being able to honor the warranty, not at the kid that modified it.

 

[Muscle Master]

Yes in terms of the dangers but no in terms of consequences. Both things are on the wrong side of the law.

I personally have no problem with people doing either but what pisses me of is when people do something they know is wrong and then expect rights and courtesies when they are caught.

The simple fact is despite the moral criminality of the offence it is still an offence and so Apple acted on it.

Your rite

But personally.. I wouldn't give a Fu*%, as long as my kids got food on their plates.. Fu$& morals

 

[JAT]

Why does he deserve it? Teenagers make mistakes, he's not an adult, not to mention he only made a profit of $130,000? How much does Apple make? I mean this had little or no effect on Apple, as a punishment what should have been done is he should have been taken to a juvenile camp for teenagers as punishment..

You must be a teenager.

 

[bpeeps]

Allright! Another reason to make me hesitant to admit to owning an iPhone, or iPod, or MacBook, or contemplate buying more Apple crap if this is how those profits are used. Time to fix my signature...

Thank you for the signature lol. Instead of being hesitant, I think you should mail me your iPhone, iPod, and MacBook. Then you can be a proper hater.