Apple Inc. have
been no strangers to litigation in recent weeks. They succeeded in a high
profile action in California
against Samsung who were ordered to pay them just over $1b for copyright
infringements. The allegations related to claims about the shape of recent
Samsung Smartphone’s and other features such as certain touch controls. Apple
have failed in similar claims in Britain,
South Korea and, most
recently, Japan.
This is
obviously a good time be a lawyer working for Apple. I should say that as a
Samsung Galaxy convert from iPhone I hope that they continue develop what is, in my
opinion, a superior product.
But there
is one piece of reported litigation that was sadly, not true.
This was
news that Bruce Willis was suing Apple over the question of ownership of his ‘vast’
music collection. It seems that this is not genuine –
But is does
raise an alarming issue which I hadn’t thought of before. I should confess to
possessing a similarly vast collection on iTunes running to several thousand
tracks. Many of these are ones that I have bought from iTunes or Amazon. I have
been through the ages of vinyl, CDs and have ended up with download – although the
absence of interesting artwork and packaging is beginning to make vinyl
attractive again! But I owned my old albums and CDs. It seems that I don’t
actually own my downloads.
What I am
buying is not the song itself but the right to play it on iTunes, iPod or
whatever. So I could not leave them to my sons in my will – not sure that they
would want a lot of them! But it is still an alarming thought. It is in the
Apple Terms – you know the pages of stuff that none of us ever read. It seems
that is also in the Amazon terms as well so they have me all ways.
I might be
tempted to spend less money and more time on Spotify . Just a thought!
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