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Apple Inc.


Self Description

March 2008: "Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone."

http://www.apple.com/pr/library/2008/02/26itunes.html

Third-Party Descriptions

May 2013: "Apple provides some assistance in locating lost or stolen phones with its free software, Find My iPhone, which can find a missing iPhone or remotely erase its data. But the service does not work once the phone is turned off or disconnected from the Internet. To locate an iPhone, an Apple customer can log in to iCloud.com with a Web browser and see a map of its approximate location, and can then hit a button to erase its information. "

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/02/technology/cellphone-thefts-grow-but-the-industry-looks-the-other-way.html

February 2013: "Under the proposed settlement of a 2011 class-action lawsuit, Apple will offer a $5 iTunes gift card to any U.S. parent who claims that their child paid for extras without their knowledge. The company will offer larger credits, or cash refunds, for people who can show that their bills were larger than $5."

http://www.cnn.com/2013/02/26/tech/mobile/apple-game-settlement/index.html

January 2013: "Last month, for example, Lucy Koh, a Federal District Court judge in San Jose, Calif., denied Apple’s motion for an injunction against Samsung products. In August, a jury in that court found that Samsung products infringed on a handful of Apple design and software patents, and awarded Apple $1.05 billion in damages."

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/05/technology/in-google-patent-case-ftc-set-rules-of-engagement-for-battles.html

October 2012: "Apple’s latest unsustainable design was just greenlighted by the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool registry (EPEAT). And it’s a clear case of greenwashing."

http://www.wired.com/opinion/2012/10/apple-and-epeat-greenwashing/

May 2012: 'So, it is not remotely surprising that Apple, the most valuable company on the planet, is also a world-class tax avoider, as the New York Times reported recently. Apple is far from alone in using multinational operations and a variety of corporate fronts to reduce the taxes it pays, especially at home. But its strategies lend a certain hollowness to one of its slogans – that its products are proudly "Designed by Apple in California", even if they're built in China. Like so many other global enterprises, Apple spends millions on lawyers and accountants whose sole job is to use various nations' laws as gears in their own financial engines.'

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/may/17/eduardo-saverin-tax-free-global-citizenship

April 2012: "Apple’s headquarters are in Cupertino, Calif. By putting an office in Reno, just 200 miles away, to collect and invest the company’s profits, Apple sidesteps state income taxes on some of those gains."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/business/apples-tax-strategy-aims-at-low-tax-states-and-nations.html

March 2012: "Executives at Apple (AAPL), who spend a lot of time in Chinese factories, knew that Daisey was passing fiction off as fact. And yet for more than a year -- while Daisey performed his monologue in cities around country, spoke to reporters, wrote editorials, launched petitions and letter-writing campaigns -- the company kept its silence. (At least on the record. See update below.)"

http://tech.fortune.cnn.com/2012/03/18/apple-and-the-daisey-affair

March 2012: 'On Thursday, the Wall Street Journal reported that the government is planning to file an antitrust suit against Apple and the five major New York-based publishing houses -- Simon & Schuster, Hachette, Penguin, Macmillan, and HarperCollins -- for allegedly conspiring to fix the price of eBooks. The case involves a series of events that took place in 2010, when Apple negotiated rights to start selling books on the iPad. At the time, Apple agreed to buy titles based on a so-called "agency model," where the publishers would get to set a minimum retail price for each book. '

http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2012/03/how-cheap-should-books-be/254279/

January 2012: 'Google vs. Apple Apple, meanwhile, has a single privacy policy document (last updated on Oct. 21). It appears to apply to any and all Apple services, including iTunes, iCloud, MobileMe, iPhone, Mac, and the Apple Retail stores. Apple's policy says, vaguely, that it may collect "a variety of information," including name, address, phone number, email address, contact preferences, and credit card information. The info is collected as users create an Apple ID, register products, apply for credit, purchase a product, download software updates, register for classes at an Apple Retail Store, or participate in an online survey.'

http://ifwnewsletters.newsletters.infoworld.com/t/7964635/121634393/608757/0/

January 2012: "With iBooks Author, Apple just made a hideous play to kill authors' rights over their work. This doesn't just affect big publishers like Pearson or HarperCollins; it affects every single person who wants to use Apple's new tool to get their word out. Like iBooks Author? Apple now owns you."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2399146,00.asp

January 2012: "Employees work excessive overtime, in some cases seven days a week, and live in crowded dorms. Some say they stand so long that their legs swell until they can hardly walk. Under-age workers have helped build Apple’s products, and the company’s suppliers have improperly disposed of hazardous waste and falsified records, according to company reports and advocacy groups that, within China, are often considered reliable, independent monitors."

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/26/business/ieconomy-apples-ipad-and-the-human-costs-for-workers-in-china.html

October 2011: "One thing he wasn't, though, was perfect. Indeed there were things Jobs did while at Apple that were deeply disturbing. Rude, dismissive, hostile, spiteful: Apple employees—the ones not bound by confidentiality agreements—have had a different story to tell over the years about Jobs and the bullying, manipulation and fear that followed him around Apple. Jobs contributed to global problems, too. Apple's success has been built literally on the backs of Chinese workers, many of them children and all of them enduring long shifts and the specter of brutal penalties for mistakes. And, for all his talk of enabling individual expression, Jobs imposed paranoid rules that centralized control of who could say what on his devices and in his company."

http://gawker.com/5847344

February 2011: "Apple confirmed Tuesday that it would require app developers that sell e-books outside of their iPad and iPhone apps — through a Web site, for example — to also sell the books inside those apps. And purchases that originate in the app must be made through Apple, which keeps a 30 percent cut."

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/02/technology/02apple.html

February 2011: "Online music provider Rhapsody said Wednesday that it will pull its streaming service from iPhones and iPads unless Apple amends the new subscription model it announced Tuesday."

http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/16/technology/rhapsody_apple_subscriptions/index.htm

May 2010: "SAN FRANCISCO — The Justice Department is examining Apple’s tactics in the market for digital music, and its staff members have talked to major music labels and Internet music companies, according to several people briefed on the conversations."

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/26/technology/26apple.html

April 2010: "Apple's walled garden approach to App Store content means they can exclude pretty much whomever they want. But can and should are obviously entirely different things. And if they're sincere about the iPad being the future of media, they're going to need to accept that satirical—even controversial—voices are an essential part of the information landscape. Otherwise, the future might a pretty bleak place."

http://gizmodo.com/5517890/apple-blocks-pulitzer-prize+winning-carto

April 2010: "Apple has been eager to show people that major media institutions are flocking to the device, as the Times has done with one of the early iPad applications (more on this below). It trotted out Times new-media executive Martin Nisenholtz at the formal introduction of the iPad in January (the paper’s next-day story didn’t mention that, though its reporter-bloggers did); Nisenholtz praised the device, which I have no doubt he truly adores."

http://mediactive.com/2010/04/08/complicating-relationships-in-media-apple-ny-times-dealings-raise-questions/

March 2010: "While the discord between Apple and Google is in part philosophical and involves enormous financial stakes, the battle also has deeply personal overtones and echoes the ego-fueled fisticuffs that have long characterized technology industry feuds. (Think Intel vs. A.M.D., Microsoft vs. everybody, and so on.)"

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/14/technology/14brawl.html

March 2010: "Apple's suit against HTC covers ten patents, the majority of which involve technologies which apply to the iPhone, according to court filings. One involves the use of gestures, but only in a specific use case."

http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2360838,00.asp

August 2009: "Now Palm is calling foul and is trying to rally the consumer electronics industry to its defense. Palm says that Apple, which allows only its own devices to connect directly with iTunes software, is misusing the standards put in place to foster interoperability between computers and devices using a U.S.B. connection."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/04/technology/companies/04palm.html

July 2009: 'Apple began allowing independent developers to offer iPhone applications online in June 2008. But before any app can be offered for sale, it has to go through a vetting process that many say is unclear and cumbersome. Although some apps are barred because they are offensive to almost anyone—Baby Shaker invited users to rattle a virtual crying baby to death—others are nixed because they might upset political sensibilities. Freedom Time, which featured a countdown clock to the end of the Bush Administration, was nixed because "it would offend roughly half of our users," Apple CEO Steve Jobs said in a rare e-mail to the developer.'

http://www.businessweek.com/technology/content/jul2009/tc20090731_732921.htm

June 2009: "Few companies, indeed, are more secretive than Apple, or as punitive to those who dare violate the company’s rules on keeping tight control over information. Employees have been fired for leaking news tidbits to outsiders, and the company has been known to spread disinformation about product plans to its own workers."

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/technology/23apple.html

January 2009: 'Software restrictions on song files have been around since the advent of the digital music era, as some music publishers sought technological means to keep their products from being easily circulated by pirates on the Web. Some iTunes rivals, such as Amazon.com, have in recent years begun offering songs that are free from such "digital rights management" controls. Record label EMI agreed to let Apple sell its music free from anti-copying restrictions in 2007, but other major labels had been slower to allow their music to be sold DRM-free.'

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/06/AR2009010602936.html

March 2008: "Apple's Safari browser likened to malware...."The problem here is that it lists Safari for getting an update - and has the 'Install' box checked by default - even if you haven't ever installed Safari on your PC," Lilly wrote."

http://www.infoworld.com/article/08/03/25/Apples-Safari-browser-likened-to-malware_1.html

Relationships

RoleNameTypeLast Updated
Status/Name Change from Apple Computer Organization Mar 4, 2008
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Braeburn Capital Organization Apr 30, 2012
Opponent (past or present) HTC Corporation Organization Mar 3, 2010
Possible/Unclear Lodsys Organization Jul 17, 2011
Owner of (partial or full, past or present) Quattro Wireless Organization Mar 16, 2010
Opponent (past or present) Cooperation (past or present) Rhapsody International Organization Feb 22, 2011
Cooperation (past or present) Wintek Corporation Organization Feb 28, 2011
Opponent (past or present) Mike Daisey Person Mar 19, 2012
Research/Analysis Subject Philip Elmer-DeWitt Person Mar 19, 2012
Organization Executive (past or present) Ron Johnson Person Mar 6, 2013
Director/Trustee/Overseer (past or present) Arthur D. Levinson Person Apr 2, 2010
Opponent (past or present) John Lilly Person Mar 25, 2008

Articles and Resources

33 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 13]

Date Fairness.com Resource Read it at:
May 01, 2013 Cellphone Thefts Grow, but the Industry Looks the Other Way

QUOTE: new nationwide database for stolen cellphones, which tracks a phone’s unique identifying number to prevent it from being activated, theoretically discouraging thefts. But police officials say the database has not helped....Some law enforcement authorities, though, say there is a bigger issue — that carriers and handset makers have little incentive to fix the problem.

 New York Times
Feb 26, 2013 Apple settles suit over in-game iTunes purchases by kids

QUOTE: Apple has settled a lawsuit filed by parents who say their kids downloaded free games from the mobile App Store and then proceeded to rack up hefty bills buying in-game extras.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Jan 04, 2013 On Google, F.T.C. Set Rules of War Over Patents

QUOTE: The [FTC's Google-Ed.] action by no means spells the end of the smartphone patent wars, a global conflict in which major corporations including Apple, Samsung and Google have spent billions amassing patent portfolios and then suing and countersuing one another in courts around the world. But legal experts say Google’s settlement with the F.T.C. signals progress in clarifying the rules of engagement in high-tech patent battles, and thus could ease them.

 New York Times
Oct 16, 2012 Greenwashing the Retina MacBook Pro

QUOTE: Apple’s Retina MacBook Pro – the least repairable, least recyclable computer I have encountered in more than a decade of disassembling electronics – was just verified Gold, along with four other ultrabooks. This decision demonstrates that the EPEAT standard has been watered down to an alarming degree.

 Wired
Sep 17, 2012 Patent Trolls Causing Serious Problems For Startups

QUOTE: although large companies tend to dominate patent headlines, most unique defendants to troll suits are small....To the extent patent demands tax innovation, then, they appear to do so regressively, with small companies targeted more as unique defendants , and paying more in time, money and operational impact, relative to their size, than large firms.

 Techdirt
May 17, 2012 Eduardo Saverin's tax-free global citizenship: Must we tolerate this new global elite of the super-rich and mega-corporations dodging tax obligations in any one country?

QUOTE: It's pointless to suggest to the Apples and Severins of our world that they would never have achieved such heights of prosperity had it not been for, among many other things, America's economic and legal systems (among other benefits they've enjoyed)... But why should the Apples and Severins care, when as "global citizens", they can work the system and get more of what they want?

 Guardian Unlimited
Apr 28, 2012 How Apple Sidesteps Billions in Taxes

QUOTE: The growing digital economy presents a conundrum for lawmakers overseeing corporate taxation: although technology is now one of the nation’s largest and most valued industries, many tech companies are among the least taxed, according to government and corporate data. Over the last two years, the 71 technology companies in the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index — including Apple, Google, Yahoo and Dell — reported paying worldwide cash taxes at a rate that, on average, was a third less than other S.& P. companies’.

 New York Times
Mar 18, 2012 Apple and the Daisey affair

QUOTE: The show, which cast a harsh light on the working conditions in the Chinese factories....We now know, thanks to follow-up reporting by Rob Schmitz at American Public Media's Marketplace, that Daisey's monologue -- as he reluctantly admits -- was a piece of theater, not a factual report.

 CNN (Cable News Network)
Mar 11, 2012 How Cheap Should Books Be?

QUOTE: A looming lawsuit could solidify Amazon's dominance in the book business. That might be good for readers' wallets, but it also might be bad for readers in the long term. Here 's why.

 Atlantic Online, The (Atlantic Monthly)
Jan 26, 2012 How does Google's new privacy policy compare?

QUOTE: Much ado has been made about Google's new overarching privacy policy, but the company's not doing anything much different than Facebook, Microsoft, Apple, or Yahoo

 InfoWorld
Jan 25, 2012 In China, Human Costs Are Built Into an iPad

QUOTE: workers assembling iPhones, iPads and other devices often labor in harsh conditions, according to employees inside those plants, worker advocates and documents published by companies themselves. Problems are as varied as onerous work environments and serious — sometimes deadly — safety problems....More than half of the suppliers audited by Apple have violated at least one aspect of the code of conduct every year since 2007, according to Apple’s reports, and in some instances have violated the law.

 New York Times
Jan 20, 2012 iBooks Author: You Work For Apple Now

QUOTE: Up until now, Apple has kept creative tools divorced from the means of distribution. You can choose how to sell the things you made with iWork, iWeb, Xcode, TextEdit, or any app the company has ever written, free or not. Apple has always made a distinction between enabling the creative process and selling the product of that process. Apple's iBooks Author erases that distinction.

 PC Magazine
Nov 23, 2011 Police Tracking Your Every Move With License Plate Readers: Is a law enforcement aid worth sacrificing personal liberties?

QUOTE: These plate readers in D.C. take 1,800 images per minute, every one of which is stored in a database. Basically, these plate readers have made it possible for police to track everyone's movements as they move across the city. These plate readers and the subsequent database of image captures has tipped the privacy concerns of some -- notably the American Civil Liberties Union.

 WebProNews
Oct 07, 2011 What Everyone Is Too Polite to Say About Steve Jobs

QUOTE: In the days after Steve Jobs' death, friends and colleagues have, in customary fashion, been sharing their fondest memories of the Apple co-founder. He's been hailed as "a genius" and "the greatest CEO of his generation" by pundits and tech journalists. But a great man's reputation can withstand a full accounting. And, truth be told, Jobs could be terrible to people, and his impact on the world was not uniformly positive.

 Gawker
Sep 01, 2011 Age bias in IT: Should you sue? Age discrimination lawsuits aren't easy to endure, but they can be won. Here's what you need to know.

QUOTE: Age discrimination complaints are on the rise....A 2009 U.S. Supreme Court decision, Gross v. FBL Financial Services, raised the bar for age discrimination cases, saying that plaintiffs, and not the companies being sued, bear the burden of proving a dismissal or reassignment of duties was due to age and not some other factor.

 Computerworld
Jul 15, 2011 App developers withdraw from US as patent fears reach 'tipping point'

QUOTE: App developers are withdrawing their products for sale from the US versions of Apple's App Store and Google's Android Market for fear of being sued by companies which own software patents - just as a Mumbai-based company has made a wide-ranging claim against Microsoft, Apple, Google, Yahoo and a number of other companies over Twitter-style feeds, for which it claims it has applied for a patent.

 Guardian Unlimited
Apr 27, 2011 Holding Companies Accountable for Privacy Breaches

QUOTE: Yet there seems to be no real repercussions for these companies when a person’s information stored online is exposed. “Today the only real hit a company takes when these data breaches happen is to the company’s image.”

 New York Times
Apr 26, 2011 Sony Says PlayStation Hacker Got Personal Data

QUOTE: An “unauthorized person” had obtained personal information about account holders, including their names, addresses, e-mail addresses, and PlayStation user names and passwords. Sony warned that other confidential information, including credit card numbers, could have been compromised.

 New York Times
Apr 07, 2011 Once the hobby of tech geeks, iPhone jailbreaking now a lucrative industry

QUOTE: Within minutes, the computer science major can download code onto his customers’ iPhones and fling open the portal to an alternative world of apps and software that Apple condemns... The practice has now evolved into a lucrative industry with millions of consumers.

 Washington Post
Mar 29, 2011 Amazon Introduces a Digital Music Locker

QUOTE: Though some companies let people upload their music and listen to it elsewhere without any outcry from the labels, others, like MP3tunes, have been sued by music labels. Another issue: it is impossible for Web companies to tell whether a song was bought legally or downloaded illegally.

 New York Times

33 Articles and Resources. Go to:  [Next 13]