NNBully connected to greater "user empowerment" issues

Story: Is Apple The New Neighborhood Bully?Total Replies: 1
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vainrveenr

Feb 22, 2009
1:38 PM EDT 		Miller concludes his New Neighborhood Bully piece here:
Quoting:Clearly, trying to portray your competitors and your own customers as intellectual property thieves is not going to make friends and influence people. It's time for Apple to call off the lawyers and let the products do the talking. It's a strategy that hasn't failed them yet.


Similarly, the main concern with the social-networking gem Facebook's TOS fiasco, was (and remains) "privacy property" and user empowerment. For those somehow unaware of this, Facebook was recently caught by Consumerist to knowingly allow a key clause in its TOS basically declaring "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever." (see http://consumerist.com/5150175/facebooks-new-terms-of-servic...) Soon after the Consumerist revelation, Facebook members spoke out en masse regarding the TOS sleight-of-hand, as reported in such online pieces as 'Anger greets Facebook terms of service change' at http://www.thestandard.com/news/2009/02/16/facebook-claims-p... Then again, soon following this outcry Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerman came out with a statement publicly reversing the controversial TOS privacy restrictions (see 'On Facebook, People Own and Control Their Information' at http://blog.facebook.com/blog.php?post=54434097130) Apparently, from Facebook PR-man Barry Schnitt, 130K persons spoke out regarding the original TOS privacy issue (see 'People Against the new Terms of Service (TOS)' at http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=77069107432) So the "user-empowerment" issues for non-commercial Facebook would seem to be resolved.......at least momentarily!

Furthermore, EFF's Hofmann writes in 'Facebook Battle Ends in Major Victory for Users, But the War Continues', http://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2009/02/facebook-battle-ends-ma...
Quoting:This week's controversy and past protests about Facebook features like Beacon show that users can and will demand control over their personal information, content and relationships -- and that lines exist that users will not permit companies to cross.
Quoting:Facebook users have won this battle, but the war for control of user information isn't over. Advocates, regulators, attorneys and other professionals will continue to have a role in defending digital rights, but the users of online tools are themselves a rising force to be reckoned with as the power of social networking grows.


Indeed, Facebook's non-commercial "user empowerment" approach is clearly opposite to that of Apple's. Facebook users, as per the above, have already made themselves "a rising force to be reckoned with as the power of social networking grows". OTOH, here is what a trio of actual end-users and consumers are writing about similar Apple bullying tactics (from Boing Boing's http://www.boingboing.net/2009/02/17/south-park-iphone-ap.ht...) :
Quoting:Bulls*** Apple.

South Park is sold uncensored in the iTunes Music Store. Apple doesn't want to approve the South Park app because it gives iPhone users free access to content they'd otherwise have to pay for. And if users pay for it, Apple gets a cut.

It's that simple. They could at least come out and say it.
Quoting:posted by sycrotic. So, do we still love Apple? Are we all still standing in line to fellate the most aggressive proponent of DRM in the entire computing industry?

Why is everyone rolling over and accepting the iPhone? This is exactly what we strongly and unanimously opposed on the PC when they called it "trusted computing:" the combination of hardware and software that makes it impossible for third party vendors to create applications without the approval of the hardware vendor.

And to add insult to injury, the hardware vendor has taken it upon itself to discriminate not just based on application quality, compatibility, or even protection of their existing revenue streams, but based solely upon their definition of objectionable content.

Apple has, with this action, managed to hit pretty much every single point on the checklist of evil.

Oh, but it's just a phone, don't take it so seriously! And the interface is just so much better than everything else! And it's just so stylish! Clearly, Apple can do no wrong.
Quoting:posted by biffpow.

What syncrotic said +1.

I don't own anything Mac and never will as long as they keep acting like this. Who buys a device they can't actually make their own?

Lots of people apparently.... Sad.
So it would seem that Apple's marketers, advocates (bloggers and other PR folks), and attorneys are battling for turf against the "user empowered" consumer. But then Apple ignores the user-empowered customer to the own detriment of its [Apple's] current and future product releases! This ties right back into the current LXer thread 'Hardly a new situation' at http://lxer.com/module/forums/t/28560/

Has the line of successfully alienating the Apple user-empowered consumer already been crossed ??
flufferbeer

Feb 22, 2009
2:57 PM EDT 		@vv One thing is that you really ought to shorten posts like this. OTOH, your points made within are excellent, IMHO.

That and the other recent thread IS getting a bit long with the pro-Apple rebuttals and dubious counterpoints made and doubled-up by one particular person. I do not get it; is this b---- a FUD-toting Apple shill or what????????

EDIT: doubled-up and now at least tripled up. Sheesh!!

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