"Creative designers" have created iPhone skins for Palm Treo and other smartphones that anyone can download from the web to make their phone look like the iPhone.
Though these skins don't add iPhone like features to your mobile device, Apple is unhappy because the iPhony themes use the actual iPhone icons made from the screenshots available on the Apple website.
Therefore, Apple lawyers are having a very busy time typing cease-&-desist letters to skin developers and websites that are hosting the iPhone skins.
Apple's lawyers also sent letters to journalists who simply reported on the fact that the skins were available.
We are not jumping into any debate here but this iPhone skin story does prove two things about the web:
1. It is virtually impossible to remove anything from the web. The more you try to police a thing, the more popular it gets and new clones surface. [Remember Daniela Cicarelli video clips on Youtube that later surfaced on Google Videos]
2. Linking to sites that host unauthorized copyrighted content may be considered illegal. We have seen that with Fox and now Apple is also following the same path. Their legal team is after bloggers who are trying to spread the word about iPhone skins.
One of the letters from the law firm hired by Apple says - "While we appreciate your interest in the iPhone, the icons and screenshot displayed on your website are copyrighted by Apple" - would that mean using iPhone screenshots on blogs is illegal ?
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