|
WHAT Ethics Class? (4/24/00)
|
 
|
| | |
If politics make strange bedfellows, then lawsuits can be like 9 1/2 Weeks meets Caligula. According to an AsiaBizTech article, Apple's lawyers and Microsoft's-- whose interaction over the years has typically been locked into "Cobra vs. Mongoose" mode-- have actually joined forces. What could make these longstanding bitter enemies kiss and make up? Why, no less than the daunting specter of software piracy, of course. Heck, even Adobe's leaped into the fray on this one; it seems that the three corporations have banded together to file suit against LEC Tokyo Legalmind Co., Ltd., "the largest vocational law school in Japan."
Apparently LEC has been training its country's future lawyers using scads of illegally-copied software. (In-house counsel at AtAT headquarters has advised me to refrain from making the obvious lawyer jokes, the penalty for which is an unspecified number of nights sleeping on the couch.) This is no small-scale, some-secretary-duped-a-copy-of-Excel kind of scenario, either; the plaintiffs are suing for "about $1.1 million... in damages and legal costs." That may not sound like a lot, but do the math and see how many copies of Mac OS 9 that would buy. See, the Tokyo District Court granted a search order, which revealed that there were 545 illegal copies of various Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft products installed on the 136 computers checked. Apparently legal copies of Photoshop at LEC are harder to find than a major label recording artist who isn't suing Napster.
Reportedly LEC originally planned to settle out of court, but the two sides "could not agree on damages and other issues," so it's a-litigatin' they'll go. What's really kind of neat is how Apple, Adobe, and Microsoft-- three companies whose combined market cap is something like $385 billion-- all joined forces to file a measly little $1.1 million lawsuit in Japan. They're obviously not in it for the money; they're out to make an example of a high-profile "respectable" software pirater in hopes of raising awareness about the potential ramifications of the problem. Hey, it's almost as effective as an after-school special.
| |
| |
 |
SceneLink (2249)
|  |
 |
|
And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
| | | |
|
| |
|
 | | The above scene was taken from the 4/24/00 episode: April 24, 2000: The officials may not agree, but by our count, Larry Ellison has pulled ahead of Bill Gates in the personal wealth department. Meanwhile, Apple teams with Adobe and Microsoft to sue a Japanese law school for pirating software, and Nielsen claims that QuickTime has officially fallen behind Windows Media in the Internet streaming battle...
Other scenes from that episode: 2248: It's A Photo Finish (4/24/00) Ooooo, that's gotta smart... Folks, you may recall that last week we brought your attention to a Wired article which postulated that, given the current market climate as far as Microsoft's stock is concerned, it might not be long before Bill Gates was supplanted as the world's richest man by Oracle CEO (and Steve Jobs's bestest buddy) Larry Ellison... 2250: Time To Paddle Harder (4/24/00) Ladies and gentlemen, the sky has officially fallen. According to a Real Networks press release, RealPlayer is squarely in the lead among the "Big 3" streaming Internet media architectures. Quoting a Nielsen//NetRatings report, the company crows that, over the course of the past three months, "usage of the RealPlayer grew by more than 2.2 million users, from 19.6 million users per month to 21.8 million users."...
Or view the entire episode as originally broadcast... | |  |
|
|
