p2pnet - rss feed: Apple Tiger Torrent lawsuits
p2p news / p2pnet: Almost exactly a year ago Apple sued three developers who, it claims, posted an advanced copy of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger to BitTorrent sites.
Looks like it’s mostly over bar the shouting, but, "Easily the biggest thing I took away from it was the reality that in a case like this your guilt or innocence - and what happens if you are found guilty - is often secondary to your ability to pay for a civil defense against a legal team on retainer," writes drunkenbatman, going on:
"The average person doesn’t have a fighting chance if a corporation decides they want to use them for a headline."
Does that make you think of anything? >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Apple settles the last Tiger Torrent lawsuit
By drunkenbatman - DrunkenBlog
On December 9th I saw a document which intimated that Apple and the last defendant in the original "Tiger Torrent" lawsuit were close to reaching a settlement, which would be filed on December 13th. I sat on this so as not to cause any problems while it went through, however everything went through yesterday. With a little knowledge of the system and some cash you could view the court papers, but since they’re public documents I’m posting them here:
1. tt_case_doc01.pdf
2. tt_case_doc02.pdf
3. tt_case_doc03.pdf
There can be an out-of-sight-out-of-mind quality to a story like this, and if you’re wondering what the deal is, an earlier entry lays most of it out, and links to the rest of the earlier posts and my earlier contact with David. With this settlement, it’s my understanding that the Tiger Torrent lawsuits are now over, as there have been no other filings against any John Does…
It’s been almost a year since everything went down, and I’ll admit a knot between my shoulders I wasn’t entirely aware of anymore unwound when I saw the documents - I had a decent-sized chunk of my life invested in it, and it had a major impact on my head, let alone life. The dilemmas that came up during it are things I don’t want to ever be involved in again, such as having to decide what to post and what needed to be kept in reserve for others to make use of.
There really was much that wasn’t said in regards to what was going on, and I know a lot of it freaked me out. Even more of it pissed me off, but it was an unusual situation where posting some of what was going on would have removed a chip from the table others could use towards a settlement agreement. I note some of the above because I’m aware those involved became people to me, rather than screen names to give a thumbs-up or down on in the internet arena of instant opinion, and more about doing what felt right and getting the information where it needed to go to do the most good, rather than just getting the information out.
It certainly became less to me about whether they were right to leak the beta and about the hell that was going to happen because of it - and not being able to get behind it. Throughout it all I was filled with a sense of disappointment as often as anger.
You may recall that the Tiger Torrent lawsuits were part of a spate of legal actions Apple launched against individuals which aren’t over and are still ongoing - one of which has the EFF involved in a big way because of the implications for the future. None of it seemed to have had a long-term impact, as after a lull the rumors and betas picked right back up as these things always seem to do if there’s an interest, and the short lull Apple gained by trying to make examples out of people seemed to be coming at an awfully high price to everyone involved.
Easily the biggest thing I took away from it was the reality that in a case like this your guilt or innocence - and what happens if you are found guilty - is often secondary to your ability to pay for a civil defense against a legal team on retainer. I know in my conversation with David awhile ago, he was having to switch lawyers and was dangerously close to defaulting in Apple’s favor because he was hitting broke. The average person doesn’t have a fighting chance if a corporation decides they want to use them for a headline.
While there are still some open-ended questions regarding criminal charges floating around, this hopefully really is the end of it. I’ve learned a ton over the last year, and while situations like this are going to keep occurring - it again certainly didn’t take long for x86 OS X builds to get everywhere - my hope is that Apple has also.
