Apple tries to put the kibosh on iPad and iPhone giveaways
Apple tries to put the kibosh on iPad and iPhone giveaways
Really strange article on CNN; makes very little sense.
In our legal system, there is something called the First-Sale Doctrine which basically says that once you buy something, you can sell or give it away however you want.
An argument could be made that contest promoters can’t use Apple’s trademarks without authorisation, but that rings false to me as well; that would make it basically impossible for anyone to sell anything, ever. By the same argument, General Motors could end the market for used cars instantly if they wanted to, because no-one could ever describe what they’re selling in an advertisement, and no-one would buy a car without knowing what it was1. I don’t think so. Our legal system is bad, but it’s not bad.
Even Apple itself refers to these ‘rules’ (author’s term) as mere ‘guidelines’ (actual term). Apple isn’t known for being sloppy with language. Do you think they’d give that name to something they believe has the power of law standing behind it?
Apple could, in theory, refuse to sell iPads to companies they think are aren’t going to abide by their guidelines, but that would be pointless when you can just pick one up at your local Target, no questions asked.
One of my pet peeves is when a journalist allows very obvious incongruities to pass without comment. Doubly so when it’s from a person or organisation that is commonly seen as reliable.2
And it will annoy me further when the blogs start to mindlessly repeat it, as blogs do. In fact, they already have.