Apple Files Lawsuit Against Teenager Who Sold White iPhone 4 Conversion Kits Worth $130,000
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Apple Files Lawsuit Against Teenager Who Sold White iPhone 4 Conversion Kits Worth $130,000
Apple finally launched the white iPhone 4 last month.
But due to the delay in the official launch of the white iPhone 4, the demand for the elusive white iPhone 4 was so high that DIY conversion kits available for $279 were selling like hot cakes and Fei Lam - the teenage entrepreneur behind the website WhiteiPhone4Now managed to sell over $130,000 worth of the conversion kits in just a few months.
Comments
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Way to go Lam!! first
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Looks like Apple just realised they have alot of lawyers but are not using it so thought of making best use of them.
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Well a homemade conversion kit is one thing. A conversion kit made with official parts from the manufacturer, and STOLEN at that, is another thing. Its still kind of overkill for Apple to sue over it. Considering it was a teenager, they should have sent a cease and desist order and just let the guy enjoy his creative cash. It's actually pretty slick on his part if you ask me. Apple should point the finger at Foxconn instead. Whatever. $ $ bill y'all. That's what it's all about.
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leave him alone apple!!!!!!! he is just a kid.apple should learn from what happened to sony,they sued geohot and look now what happened to them more then 170 million $ in loose all because they r greedy company !!!
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It's a scare tactic to prevent others from following in his footsteps. All companies do it.
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yeah leave the kid alone, don't prosecute thieves just because they are under 18!!!!errr yeah
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You have to understand that Apple actually is forced to sue to protect their trademarks. Otherwise they open up the floodgates for others to come in and copy the logo on grounds that Apple has allowed it in "xxx case"
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If it's stolen why aren't these CRIMINAL proceedings? Civil action is just macho scare tactics, shame on Apple.
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As much as I like talking **** about apples law suits they actually have a point if u want to sell trademarked material u should have permission from the owner.
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Shame on Apple! They'll never beat the community.. Now there are a bunch of copycat sites and all different color conversion kits now exist
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So what did this teen do wrong? Would apple be mad if i sold my iphone??? Thats their product to. Would apple be mad if i made stickers to go on the iphone and sold those? Whats the sifference here? I highly doubt these products were stolen and if they were they wouldnt be suing hed be in jail!Apples is just mad that they couldn't get the white iPhone out before a kid did.
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the only way the teenager could have gotten away with it was if he didn't have the apple trademark on the conversion kit, remove that and apple hasn't got anything to stand on.
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That makes no sense... what if I sell my macbook to you. It's mine to sell. It doesn't matter that it's trademarked or copyrighted. I can not, however, build a macbook and sell it as such. In my opinion he created nothing, only assembled pieces that he obtained directly from the distributor... the question is how did he obtain them from the distributor? did he pay them and get the piece in return? if so, it's not on him, it's on the distributor. He only received the pieces, created a "how to" instructions... maybe threw in a screw driver, and a few other needed parts, and sold it as such. Just because a piece came with an apple log doesn't make it his fault. There are many apple accessories that are not "apple approved." So, are you telling me I can't pair an iphone with two wired speakers and sell it on ebay as an apple powered stereo package? Just seems wrong.
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Hey dumbass. He doesn't have the right to own that. You may buy a MacBook and sell it, but you can not buy a MacBook that has never been released by apple and sell it. It's like one of my workers sells an iPhone 6GS to another person and this person sells the parts to the whole world! That's selling stolen goods. Next time use that little brain of yours dumbass.
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Wow, you're the dumbass. They're not suing hom because it was stolen (otherwise, it would be in criminal court), they're suing him for trademark infringement because the thing had the Apple logo on it and he associated it with the iPhone. That is also stupid, because it is the same as someone selling their iPhone on ebay, which has an Apple logo on it, and calling it an iPhone.Now the guy could get in trouble for selling stolen goods, but there's no way he could have known that, and the fact that he stopped when he was made aware of that shows his cooperation, and is evidence that he didn't know it was stolen, and doesn't want to intentionally sell stolen goods.The smart thing for Apple to do here would be to go after the manufacturer, but who knows, maybe it wasn't stolen, and this is just Apple being mad because they couldn't get the white iPhone out on time, and this guy profited.
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Stop being oh he is not fault coz he is a teen, wrong is wrong, immaterial of age.
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This news is very old as hell http://iphone3ghacked.com/2010/11/18/teenager-behind-whiteiphone4now-accused-of-selling-stolen-goods/People have no idea what news to be published, so they took the old stuff and re-publish it as it was recent news...LOL
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Ummm actually if an out of court settlement is achieved, it is usually better for both parties, and minimizes loss.In this case, it was better an out of court settlement was rather reached.
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Actually copyright laws stated that he can't, also the goods had to have been stolen, the distributor? No, someone took it from them and gave to this guy, apple had to have been developing white units and saw a fault, so they stopped production. So someone took that opportunity and sold the failed units.Manufacturer can't be held liable when people steal their goods.Criminal court? Are you crazy? Do you even know the legal system at all? Cause it doesn't seem like you do to be honest! If you sell someone and portray it as an "official apple" product, including logo etc, yes that is grounds to sue. Your selling something that isn't related to apple, and using apples name in order to sell. If it was plain white no logo etc, then apple couldn't do anything!Seriously... dumb people are stupid dumb idiots... good going apple!
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Hey, teacher, leave them kids alone!
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i think that some one should sue apple for being the only "official" app store i believe there is some sort of monopoly there with there only being one app store to corner the maarket
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If you buy an item and want to sell it privately, that's one thing. That's done all the time. Cars are a prime example. But if you are selling a brand commercially then that is something totally different. I dont have any formal knowledge on this but this is my guess. Seein as he sold over $100,000 in goods with a brand on it and which I'm not going to do the math but that's quite a few units sold. I think there is a line that is crossed when it becomes that high. Plus you also have to look at whether or not he's filing taxes and considering that as a business or not. When it's that many units it gets complicated.
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steve wozniak bought one from the kid and was showing it off on an interview for engadget
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Poor Guy,i am feeling bad for him..
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assshole steve jobs
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Are u people fucking serious, the boy committed a crime who gives a **** if hes 17 which by the way is considered an adult in some states including Queens,NY which is where hes from. The boy was selling conversion kits to turn a black iphone into a white one branded with the Apple logo and "iPhone" which is deemed illegal Apple should of not only sued him but garnished every penny that he made off of their name and then sued Foxconn afterward!!
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Congratulations to Steve Jobs and Apple Inc. for failing to be on top of their game as usual.
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Whatever guy, the kid was selling stolen goods. As far as Sony's hackers goes, I can't wait for the day that the little girlfriendless pieces of crap get caught. Just like bin laden...took a while but the bastard got caught anyway. Whatever you do to your own ps3 is your own business, sharing it and violating it's terms is another. And that's why geohot got what he got. Not so hot after all. Damn losers, get a life.
