After revealing that Apple tampered with evidence in the German case against the Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1, WebWereld.nl has now revealed that Apple has also tampered with the evidence in the Dutch court case (coverage in English). Apple has manipulated the image of a Samsung Galaxy S in a side-by-side comparison with the iPhone 3GS. The Galaxy S has been shortened and made narrower so that its dimensions match those of the 3GS. This piece of evidence is the only side-by-side comparison of these two devices, and is part of the summons, which, according to a Dutch lawyer, means that Apple considers it to be of special significance. Just goes to show, once more, how far Apple is willing to go to stifle competition through the legal system – lying, cheating, manipulating. What a classy, premium company, that Apple!
Apple has finally “jumped the shark”. Any corporation that is so arrogant that it deliberately falsifies court evidence to block competitors has massive problems. This can only end very, very badly for Apple.
I disagree. This kind of aggression and ruthlessness makes me admire Apple from a purely capitalist point of view. I wish I had shares in this company
It’s funny how long it took someone to notice such an obvious falsification.
Edited 2011-08-19 10:45 UTC
Besides that, I think these pics show that not only Samsung, but every tablet manufacturer is copying Apple:
http://twitpic.com/67ykpa
You should have read the articles here. A similar Tablet was already presented 17 years ago.
Apple was never very innovative, not in design and not in technical specs, they just know better how to do their marketing, that is until now . . . . .
http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2011/08/users-treat-criticism-o…
Interesting. I admit I’ve been guilty of this.
Last I checked falsifying evidence is very big no no in any court in the world. How can you admire a company that uses clearly unmoral and unethical tactic’s to get an edge. Its only thing to do it and not get busted but when you do it in a court filing that is a can of worms Apple shouldn’t of opened. I’m no lawyer but Samsung seems to have legal ground to sue for least 3 weeks of lost sales over this.
If Germany is anything like Australia a few senior Apple executives will be serving prison time for perjury and their lawyers will be disbarred.
It would be awesome if this happened. A big win for fair competition in my opinion.
Sadly I can’t see it happening
Last I checked falsifying evidence is very big no no in any court in the world. How can you admire a company that uses clearly unmoral and unethical tactic’s to get an edge. Its only thing to do it and not get busted but when you do it in a court filing that is a can of worms Apple shouldn’t of opened. I’m no lawyer but Samsung seems to have legal ground to sue for least 3 weeks of lost sales over this. [/q]
I said: “from a purely capitalist point of view”. The down votes suggest others, and also perhaps you, missed the word “purely” in my original post. Of course, when taking into account the law, it is far from admirable.
Getting into morals is ridiculous though. A company, by law, must put profit ahead of everything else (whilst of course still abiding by other laws :p).
It still amazes me that people cannot admire something for a specific aspect while not admiring (or even despising) other aspects of that same thing.
Also, just wanted to add. You saying that lying is “unmoral and unethical” is nothing more than your opinion. That fact that lying is against the law does not change this.
Edited 2011-08-20 04:43 UTC
You admire liars and crooks? What does it have to do with “capitalist point of view”? It has something to do with crooked point of view.
I said: “from a purely capitalist point of view”. The down votes suggest others, and also perhaps you, missed the word “purely” in my original post.
But your comment suggests you didn’t quite think this out. For example, would you NOT admire liars if, in the process of their lying, they managed to do something more acceptable to you like, I don’t know, saving some hostages by lying to the terrorists keeping them hostage?
This whole idea that lying being morally wrong is debatable. Of course it is against the law (in this particular story) but it is also pure hard reality in this world. Suggesting otherwise is unbelievably naive.
Edited 2011-08-20 04:39 UTC
And that’s why the self-regulating free market is a pipe dream.
In a ideal self-regulating free market, not even patents would exist at all, let alone a aberration like this community design thing that Apple are trying to exploit.
Hardcore liberals see court appeals between companies as a government intervention (in short, a company trying to leverage the power of the state in his favor against a competitor), since the judiciary system is a integral part of the state. For them, the sole legal limit that a corporation should have is the plain criminal law, to avoid competitors to kill each other if something went awry, for example. 🙂
In theory the ideal communist state works well too.
the communists accepted their failure after the first crash
the capitalists produce one crash after another and don’t learn from it
i don’t want communism back, but i think we should have abandomed capitalism a long time ago
This is not Capitalism.
It’s as government-driven as it gets.
In capitalism (whether its a personal attitude or a political system), everything is settled by the parties involved only- and if they make or lose money or customers fighting each other by producing competitive products- Well, so it is. That’s it. There’s no court playing third-party (even if you looked for one). There are no patent rights. There is only limited scope for copyright. No one will hear your claims over code, science, hardware arrangements etc. You are responsible for people knowing what ideas are attributable to you.
There MIGHT be a provision for highly unique designs as art. But even art does not really have protection. Art, too, works like a market. If you get copied, you get copied.
You fight with your products to win. Make alliances with other companies if necessary- make the right choices.
The government is small or even almost non-existent – and simply for non-intrusive, contract-based administration of public services- which does not have any true money of its own- because it does not tax companies or people.
This is capitalism in the form people who talk about it mean.
I don’t know when “Capitalism” became interchangeable with “Mixed economy”, “Hedonism/Nihilism” and “Pragmatism”, those words have been named especially to reflect that they are completely different ideas.
What we have here is absolutely nothing like that.
What I do admire, or rather what fascinates me, is the mad pragmatism of the company. (I think you mean this, too)
It takes some serious ego and guts to do stuff like this- and I’ve got out the popcorn and I’m waiting (or hoping, is it?
) for someone who will match them madness. 
I’d love a good show.
Yup, under ‘pure’ capitalism, companies wouldn’t be taking each other to court over patent issues, because patents (and other forms of intellectual property) constitute government interference in the market.
Pure capitalism isn’t much more desirable than pure socialism, but anyone who blames it for the current system understand what capitalism actually is.
Samsung should file suit over this and get some lost $$$ since they could be selling their product which is clearly different then the ipad
And the open app-drawer again, of course. How much more insane can Apple get?
I can’t wait until Apple starts filing libel suits in England against their critics, Church of Scientology-style. It’s just about the only thing they haven’t stooped to yet.
Don’t give them ideas. Apple may become a religion and become tax exempt. They already have enough brain-washed followers.
So they haven’t yet become one!?!?!?! Shocking!!!
Why this news hasn’t been posted?
http://venturebeat.com/2011/08/18/motorola-mobility-sued-by-shareho…
Because it isn’t news. Just some nutcase complaining that Google didn’t pay enough for Motorola.
Because nobody submitted it.
In fact, why are you even posting it here when it’s not even the slightest bit relevant to this article?
Because nobody submitted it.
How do you know? Are an editor of OSNEWS?
You can see the list of pending submissions, without being an editor, in this place : http://www.osnews.com/submit
Beginning of the end for Apple? They must be seriously stupid thinking that it won’t backfire on them with many people stopping buying their products out of disgust to be dealing with such crooks.
One can only hope
hmmm … highly doubtful … most people are actually not in the slightest interested in the legal wranglings of companies whose products they buy … I think it is usually more people technically interested (as those frequenting sites like OSNews) that would care … but on the larger scale this will blow over most people’s heads …
“Apple is Doomed”, eh?
http://tetedampoule.com/wheel
For Apple to be trying to pull off this shit on a court, those Samsung Tabs must be AWESOME!
That’s the sad part, the Galaxy tab is no yet comparable to the iPad2, the iPad2 feels more responsive and smooth, and the applications are better, but the Galaxy Tab has flash, so that’s a plus for some.
It’s in Apple’s interest to go after potential competitors before they have enough money to bankroll a defense.
It’s plain easier to drag defenseless people through the courts. (Yes I’m being cynnical here).
Edited 2011-08-19 16:18 UTC
I think you may find Samsung a larger company than Apple
Samsung Revenue 2010 – $ 205.9 billion
Apple Revenue 2010 – $ 65.23 billion
… (not that I agree with what Apple did, just your argument does not hold)
Between Samsung and Googorola (that sounds like some kaiju name from a Godzilla movie, but I digress), Apple is starting to upset a lot of powerful people. The funny part is, they’re the only ones who are getting mad about it. Google tells their own employees that they need to use either Linux or a Mac for their office desktops. I wonder how long that will last with Apple continuing to attack everyone remotely related to smartphones or tablets.
Not so, my Nephew is a Lead Dev at Google, all he uses is MS Windows
What was this stuff about then ?
http://www.tuaw.com/2010/05/31/google-to-employees-mac-or-linux-but…
http://arstechnica.com/security/news/2010/06/mac-os-x-and-linux-are…
Edited 2011-08-20 17:03 UTC
Well… Obviously Windows devs need to have Windows installed. It’s over-hyped, because they probably have Linux/Mac as the preferred option, rather than mandatory.
He’s not a “Windows” Dev
He’s not a “Windows” Dev
Why Apple chose to attack Samsung in particular totally eludes me. Samsung doesn’t even need their phone or tablet businesses to prosper.
However if this backfires eg the courts set a precedent weakening design protection Apple will be in dire trouble.
You just came up with a new reason: Samsung might be willing to back down if things get bad enough, or at least dump Android for something more… original.
The other reason is that Samsung is the Android vendor responsible for the closest copies, from the minimalist design and packaging to the look of the icons. Which also means that, regarding the rest of your comment:
if Apple loses against Samsung, they’ll know they have no rights against the less severe imitators, and it’s time to move on.
They could have tried going against some of the more brazen Chinese counterfeits of past years to test the waters first and get some legal momentum, but there are a few problems with that. For one, there’s just no point — fake iPods weren’t made by legitimate companies and never sold in serious numbers — and for two, it might backfire: if they outright failed, the entire world would know that design protections are utterly unenforceable, and if they won, the precedent might not be helpful. When judges look at precedent, they hone in on the differences between the preceding and current cases, and they might get hung up on how much Samsung isn’t a counterfeiter rather than how much they are an imitator.
So in short, Samsung, now, makes a lot of sense as a target.
My eyes must be really well adjusted to PC level of smoothness…
Because iPad2 does not feel right, though in a different way than Android. iOS feels like having a smudging lag, while Android feels like having a jerking lag. WP7 feels somehow better…
Games, however, are a different area. And app responsiveness? No, pretty much depends on the app…
My guess is, Apple views competing tablets and smart phones as an interference to their iCloud plans, which depends on people using their products. Then there is the matter of Apple’s 30% cut from developers and businesses using Apple’s app stores.
… and …
… and about the German case your foaming at the mouth on …
http://arstechnica.com/apple/news/2011/08/is-apple-faking-evidence-…
All that said I don’t disagree that what Apple has done is sloppy and probably morally questionable but this case is not going to be decided on a couple of pictures.
As soon as the devices are physically presented to the court the Apple case will collapse. This can only be a futile delaying tactic at best.
Did you bother to read my post?
The German judge not only saw the device he handled both devices and on the basis of that he decided to issue an injunction.
So, in fact, seeing the two devices convinced him that Apple would likely win the case!
Edited 2011-08-20 02:50 UTC
He was probably some doddering old fool who didn’t even own a phone.
That’s what I was thinking too. The guy is probably completely unaware the that the iPad is the spitting image of the Knight Ridder, or that companies in the industry routinely copy each other’s ideas or that Apple devices are polished up versions of other companies devices. In short, he takes a quick glance at the two devices and says, “Holy crap, these things look alike” without any real basis for an injunction.
Samsung need to take the judge down to a phone shop or computer store to see how very similar many products are. In many cases you can only really tell the difference by reading the makers brand on the case.