p2pnet news view Freedom | P2P:- Apple is in trouble with the EFF over BluWiki which boasts, “Websites for the people”.

The foundation says it and San Francisco law firm Keker & Van Nest today filed suit against Apple to defend the First Amendment rights of OdioWorks LLC, which runs BluWiki.

“Late last year, after BluWiki users began a discussion about making some Apple iPods and iPhones interoperate with software other than Apple’s own iTunes, Apple lawyers demanded removal of the content,” says the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation), going on:

In a letter to OdioWorks, Apple lawyers claimed the discussions constituted copyright infringement and a violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act’s prohibition on circumventing copy protection measures.

“Fearing legal action by Apple, OdioWorks took down the discussions from the BluWiki site,” says the EFF.

Companies such as Apple, “should not be able to censor online discussions by making baseless legal threats against services like BluWiki that host the discussions,” declares Sam Odio, owner of OdioWorks.

The discussions on BluWiki, “focused on how hobbyists might enable iPods and iPhones to work with desktop media management software other than Apple’s own iTunes software,” says the foundation.

“The discussions were apparently spurred by Apple’s efforts prevent the iPod Touch and iPhone from working with competing media management software such as WinAmp and Songbird.”

Apple’s legal threats against BluWiki, “are about censorship, not about protecting their legitimate copyright interests,” says the EFF’s Fred von Lohmann, adding:

“Wikis and other community sites are home to many vibrant discussions among hobbyists and tinkerers. It’s legal to engage in reverse engineering in order to create a competing product, it’s legal to talk about reverse engineering, and it’s legal for a public wiki to host those discussions.”

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EFF – Apple`s Baseless Copyright Claims Squelch Free Speech, April 27, 2009