Reshared post from +Go Android
see the #Android evolution wrt iPhone #boycottapple
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I have long criticized the current intellectual property system (both patent and copyright) as outdated and unneeded for the modern world. I criticize the companies despite the fact that they are a symptom rather than the cause because I and other consumers don't have the power to influence the politicians that generally only listen to big corporate donors.
By refusing to spend my dollars on Apple products (despite the fact that I use existing Apple products like the Macbook Pro I'm writing this on) and encouraging others to do the same, perhaps we can influence Apple and in turn they can influence politicians to change the system.
I know I'm tilting at windmills, but it's really all I can do. After all we are often told that the only way to influence corporate policies is with our purchasing habits. So let's change our habits until the system changes for the better.
#boycottapple #boycottthesystem
Reshared post from +Mike Elgan
Why Apple Sues
Apple’s critics generously assign a variety of motives to Apple for filing lawsuits.
Apple sues because it wants to control the market, overcharge for its products, exclude competitors from the market or punish competitors for daring to not think different. It’s all part of Apple’s “quest for global tech domination.
But these aren’t actual motives. These are appeals to emotion. They’re legitimate perspectives, but expressed to negatively encapsulate spectacularly complex technical, legal and ethical issues into sound bites that make you want to agree with the author that Apple is bad and wrong.
Apple has only one motive for patent lawsuits, and I’m going to tell you what that motive is:
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Apple demands $2.02, plus $3.10… equals a total of $2.5 billion in Samsung damages
How big is $2.525 billion when you’re Apple? It won’t affect living standards in Cupertino, that’s for sure, but it’s evidently enough to be worth hauling a rival through the US courts. The figure is revealed in Apple’s damages claim, submitted in the run-up to its battle with Samsung in California, and is quite separate to other claims in Europe and Australia. If you’re not already sick and tired of this feud, then the sums behind that big amorp…
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I have to respectfully disagree with +Mike Elgan about #boycottapple
Mike is right that corporations are bound by fidicuary responsibility to make as much money for their shareholders as they can within the limits of the law. If we assume that the patent law situation is not going to change then what Apple is doing by trying squash their competition in the courts is the right thing.
However, I think we need to look at this from a broader perspective. Changing intellectual property law can only be done by Congress. Unfortunately our legislators are largely in the pocket of the big corporations that benefit the most from the current IP structure so that means nothing will change unless those corporations decide it needs to change.
But how will that happen you might ask. The only way that these companies will ever change their stance is when it hurts their bottom line to maintain the status quo. That will only happen if consumers stop subsidising this behavior by not buying these products.
If we look at the companies that are abusing the current system, non-practising entities (aka patent trolls) don't make anything to boycott and it appears that the market is already boycotting Microsoft and Nokia for other reasons. Android companies including Samsung, Motorola and HTC are only using patents to defend themselves agains the likes of Apple and Microsoft.
That means the only means we have of changing the direction of intellectual property law is to stop buying from the companies that benefit from it most notably Apple. If Apple starts to believe that persuing patent suits cost them more than lobbying for changes in the law, then they will push for change.
Then and only then will things change.
#patents
Reshared post from +Mike Elgan
Why the ‘Boycott Apple’ movement is dumb.
The #BoycottApple hashtag was trending hard on Google+ last week. The call to boycott is based on Apple’s attempts to ban both the Samsung Galaxy Nexus phone and the Galaxy 10.1 tablet.
Here’s why the call for a boycott is misguided and futile:
http://www.cultofmac.com/177786/why-the-boycott-apple-movement-is-dumb/
(Pic props to +Phlash Tha)
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I totally agree with this and I think that there should be a total moratorium on new patents until we can come up with a better solution that fits the modern world.
Reshared post from +Ashley Esqueda
I know a lot of you here on G+ are hell bent on this #BoycottApple thing.
But do you understand that Apple is merely a SYMPTOM of a much larger problem? The US Patent System is incredibly broken. And since a lot of you are so vehemently charged up about technology/mobile patents, I'm asking you TODAY to get outraged about another sector of the patent system that needs revamping.
Did you know that drug companies can patent GENES? As in, ones that cause breast/ovarian cancer? Because they can.
And then they can refuse other lab requests to do research on said gene, therefore stifling any manner of "cure" testing. In fact, if they let a lab test, often that lab has to pay huge fees to license the patent in order to research.
This isn't just about people's cell phones. This is about human lives. How many more relatives will we lose to a disease whose gene was patented by a pharmaceutical company before we speak up for OUR rights?
If you want to be mad at Apple, go ahead. Be mad. But realize it's just like being mad at the itchy red spots on your skin when you get chicken pox. Those spots show up because that's what the disease tells it to do.
Combat the disease, not the symptoms. And share this with your offline family, too. People should be outraged by this.
http://www.aclu.org/free-speech-womens-rights/aclu-challenges-patents-breast-cancer-genes-0
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ACLU Challenges Patents On Breast Cancer Genes: BRCA
On May 12, 2009, the ACLU and the Public Patent Foundation (PUBPAT) filed a lawsuit charging that patents on two human genes associated with breast and ovarian cancer are unconstitutional and invalid…
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An excellent summary from +Joe Wilcox about his independence from Apple.
I totally agree with Joe's rationale for avoiding Apple although I'm not going to abandon the existing Macbooks and iPods in my household. As Joe describes, Apple's method has always been about copying/stealing ideas that were pioneered by others (with the possible exception of Apple 1/2 and the Newton) and then refining and editing to create a superior user experience.
From the original 1984 Mac to the iMac, iPod, iPhone and iPad each product was done before. What Apple has done is no doubt extremely important to bring new technology to the masses. But that doesn't give them the right to try create a technology monoculture.
As we learned from our collective experience with Windows security problems monocultures are ALWAYS a bad thing.
I will continue using the products I have, but I'm not spending any more money on Apple.
#boycottapple
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I declare independence from Apple
Since December 1998, when on impulse I bought the original iMac from CompUSA, I've used Apple gear. No longer. Late yesterday, I replaced the last fruit-logo with another, fulfilling my pledge nearly …
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Henry Ford and all of the other pioneers of the auto industry copied ideas from each other relentlessly and then built new innovations on top of them which subsequently got borrowed back. #boycottapple
Reshared post from +Anthony Russo
If Henry Ford used Apple's mentality, he would have sued all other car makers for having a steering wheel.
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Between the new more responsive interface in Android 4.1 and the latest version of Google's voice search, there is even less reason not to #boycottapple now.
Reshared post from +Esther Wojcicki
Siri vs. Google Search….helpful video. Looks like Jelly Bean might be winning
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