Apple to Apps developers: Sue us for only $50
By Shalini Singh

By any measure, Apple can be credited with some of the best designed technological marvels that have done much to improve the quality of our lives.  For the consumer, it also ensured tech giants like Microsoft and IBM did not control the market. Apple is equally loved by its share holders for posting record profits.

In its early years, Apple projected itself as the young, innovate, carefree company fighting the might of market giants like IBM and Microsoft.  In reality, Apple is run like a cult with no one dare crossing their brilliant leader and visionary Steve Jobs.  Steve Jobs once cheated Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs was thrown out of Apple only to be invited back later.  Steve was known to have abused juniors in meetings by shouting at them: “How much are we paying you for this?”  But everyone forgave Steve Jobs as they saw him a cranky genius who was making billions of dollars for the company and shareholders.  And just like in many benevolent dictatorships and Islamic kingdoms, there are millions of faithful who believe in the leader’s vision and methods.

Even as the tech giant makes record profits, new revelations about its management practices are taking some shine away from the tech cult that is Apple.

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) in USA is the leading civil rights organization to protect its citizens when their freedoms in the networked world come under attack. Founded in 1990, the highly regarded EFF has championed the public interest in every critical battle affecting digital rights. EFF is a donor-funded nonprofit and like Greenpeace values its independence.

EFF has just released a secret copy of the agreement that Apple signs with each developer who creates applications for their Apps Store.  To begin with, each Apps developer signs away his rights to even comment on the agreement with Apple.  The EFF lists the following points as well

“
Kill Your App Any Time: Section 8 makes it clear that Apple can "revoke the digital certificate of any of Your Applications at any time." Steve Jobs has confirmed that Apple can remotely disable apps, even after they have been installed by users. This contract provision would appear to allow that.

We Never Owe You More than Fifty Bucks: Section 14 states that, no matter what, Apple will never be liable to any developer for more than $50 in damages. That's pretty remarkable, considering that Apple holds a developer's reputational and commercial value in its hands—it's not as though the developer can reach its existing customers anywhere else. So if Apple botches an update, accidentally kills your app, or leaks your entire customer list to a competitor, the Agreement tries to cap you at the cost of a nice dinner for one in Cupertino.
“

Quite separately (but coincidentally) the former Sun CEO Jonathan Schwartz has blogged on how he called Apples bluff of a legal threat. 

“
Good Artists Copy, Great Artists Steal

I feel for Google – Steve Jobs threatened to sue me, too.

In 2003, after I unveiled a prototype Linux desktop called Project Looking Glass*, Steve called my office to let me know the graphical effects were “stepping all over Apple’s IP.” (IP = Intellectual Property = patents, trademarks and copyrights.) If we moved forward to commercialize it, “I’ll just sue you.”
“

When the Sun CEO pointed out that Apple itself has used other people’s technology, Steve Jobs backed away.

(Techgoss had published the following article on Jan 7, 2010)

Ex Apple Manager: How we spun news
By Shalini Singh

By any measure, Apple computers can be credited with some of the best designed technological marvels that have done much to improve the quality of our lives.  For the consumer, it also ensured tech giants like Microsoft and IBM did not control the market. Apple is equally loved by its share holders for posting $10 Billion in revenue in the last quarter.

In its early years, Apple projected itself as the young, innovate, carefree company fighting the might of market giants like IBM and Microsoft.  In reality, Apple is run like a cult with no one dare crossing their great leader Steve Jobs.  Steve Jobs once cheated Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak. Steve Jobs was thrown out of Apple only to be invited back later.  Steve was known to have abused juniors in meetings by shouting at them: “How much are we paying you for this?”  But everyone forgave Steve Jobs as they saw him a cranky genius who was making billions of dollars for the company and shareholders.  And just like in many benevolent dictatorships and Islamic kingdoms, there are millions of faithful who believe in the leader’s vision and methods.

In Dec, 2009, we had reported on how Apple hunts down any employee who speaks to the media without authorization.

Now, an ex Apple Manager John Martellaro has written an article about how Apple leaks to the media to increase its share price, test the market or to shock and awe competitors.

“
The way it works is that a senior exec will come in and say, "We need to release this specific information. John, do you have a trusted friend at a major outlet? If so, call him/her and have a conversation. Idly mention this information and suggest that if it were published, that would be nice. No e-mails!"

The communication is always done in person or on the phone. Never via e-mail. That's so that if there's ever any dispute about what transpired, there's no paper trail to contradict either party's version of the story. Both sides can maintain plausible deniability and simply claim a misunderstanding. That protects Apple and the publication.
“