The interpretation is
more broad actually (emphasis mine):
Thanks for the reference on that one.
The existence of the "ingrained discussion" doesn't give a basis to support the notion that "slander doesn't need to be credible to be effective", because it's not a matter of fact that Epic is slandering nor that their arguments are not credible: it could be that there is an ingrained discussion because Epic has valid points and their arguments are actually credible.
It could be, but my point was that it needn't be. What I'm seeing is a lot of people who are looking for an anti-Apple bandwagon to jump on, and Epic gave them one. There is a lot of "Apple is a monopoly" discussion happening among people who have only a faint understanding of what that means let alone having a court decision to support it. It reminds me of how many people use the word "socialist"-- they don't really understand it, they just know it's bad and want to associate it with things they don't like.
Whether Apple's policies are legal or not, it's clear that Epic is trying to apply public pressure on Apple to change them. The apple-head video and hashtag campaign was not meant to be a legal brief. Our discussion is around the credibility of the arguments, but much of the noise around us right now is just people making noise because, credible or not, the Epic claims push in a direction they'd like to go.
If the court allows the case to proceed, it would mean the arguments Epic brings are at least credible in the eyes of the court. If Epic's legal arguments are deemed not credible, the case would be dismissed and Epic would not be able to keep prosecuting it.
Again, my point is what happens before the last court makes that determination. It's already been nearly 2 weeks of press around this, before the first court has even weighed in on the request for a preliminary injunction or restraining order. So I'm already right on "weeks". Even if no court finds credibility, or if Epic chooses not to take this to trial, they can keep it in the news for months while they make attempts to get various courts to agree to hear it and before they have to spend much in they way of legal action.
Do you think Epic will stop pursuing legal action this week if the Northern California District Court dismisses the case this week?
Win or not, filing a suit is how you show you're "serious" about your accusations and filing this suit was probably cheaper than making that silly video meme. And long after it's been dismissed, the battle lines have been drawn and we'll be hearing people point to this case and argue that it should have gone differently or that the technical reason for dismissal doesn't invalidate the broader argument against Apple.
