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Creative wants to ban the ipod

news.bbc.co.uk — Digital music player maker Creative Technology has asked a US court to ban Apple from selling or marketing its iconic iPods in the US.

Who dugg this? Made popular May 17, 2006

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  • millixaw, on 10/12/2007, -17/+165I have a Creative Zen, and I can't really see how Apple "stole" their interface. iPods have a quick simple interface. Zens are all over the place.

    iPod: Genre > Artist > Album > Song

    Zen: All > Over > The > Goddamn > Place > Song

    They're suing over the idea of a hierarchial structure. That is, like genre, then artist, then song. Creative didn't deserve that patent, it's too obvious. They were just the first ones to run to the patent office first when EVERYONE was using that system. The US Patent system sucks.

    I wonder if Apple can claim prior art? The Mac Finder and Windows Explorer have been able to browse the "My Music" folder by genre, then artist, then song years before there even were Nomads and Zens.
  • Ireland, on 10/12/2007, -24/+66Creative says:

    We > Cried > And > Cried > And > Cried > Becuase > We > Lost > The > Mp3 > War > Until > We > Spotted > The > Solution > Sue > Sue > Sue > 'till > The > Cows > Come > Home > That's > What > We'll > Do > Song ;)
  • shiftt, on 10/12/2007, -9/+49Apple stock sure took a hit, down 4.15% because of this

    AAPL (APPLE COMPUTER, INC. )

    64.98 -2.81 (-4.15%) 16 May at 4:00PM ET
  • Gardenhead, on 10/12/2007, -7/+47dfick, while your comment might have a decent point, this certainly isn't the model. Stating a comment like "Go Creative" without any sort of content on an article like this is flamebait, period. There is no quality in the comment, it was buried because of that.
  • haxx4, on 10/12/2007, -11/+48If ya can't beat 'em, sue 'em!
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -10/+47So how is this going to help Creative??? Do they honestly think that people are going to reward them by buying their MP3 player when the person REALLY wanted to buy an iPod instead?!?!? HELL no.

    Creative's being almost as stupid as Sony.
  • mfratt, on 10/12/2007, -9/+45Late breaking news:

    Reports say that Michelin is suing Brigestone for copying their leading product: the tire. Sources close to Michelin claim that Bridgeston willfully copied the design of a round piece of rubber, used for the purpose of a wheel. Michelin hopes to get all US sales of Bridgestone tires suspended.

    What has this world come to? Its bad enough when somone sues Dunkins for spilling coffee on herself, but we dont see it in the coprorate world all so often. Im not Apple fanboy (though I use a mac in parallel with Windows and Linux systems), but I hope Apple kicks ass in this one.
  • furtwan1, on 10/12/2007, -8/+36this wouldn't be the first time a lost lawsuit took out the market leader. Just ask Immersion about Sony's removal of rumble from the PS3 (dispite Sony lying and claiming it interferied with the Wii controller like funcitonallity)
  • mrbro, on 10/12/2007, -5/+28What a waste of money
  • ScottJG, on 10/12/2007, -9/+30If Creative has a patent that is infringed upon by Apple, they have the right to pursue damages and force change, which allows them to ban sales on products that have not changed to comply with the patent. No one has a patent on the production of alcohol or tobacco.
  • j10s, on 10/12/2007, -3/+24One big obstacle for Creative: Probably %90 of the jury will own an ipod.
  • VorpalK, on 10/12/2007, -4/+25Creative has lost their main income stream. Seriously, can anyone who already has an Audigy find a reason to buy the current Creative top-end soundcard that is priced at $200? I'm not seeing anything I need there.

    I don't see a need for Creative's MP3 players either. Last I heard, they were limited to Creative's software, rather than just drag-and-drop through Explorer.

    Creative also has not helped themselves with their "Track down your original driver CD if you plan on downloading upgraded drivers" model.

    Frankly, ***** Creative Labs.

    My MP3 player is made by Archos, since I don't like DRM of any kind, but I don't see a reason for Apple, who has engineering far superior to Creative, to suffer just because Creative is desperate for an income stream.
  • retral, on 10/12/2007, -11/+31This is like telling the government to ban alcohol/cigarettes, it's just not going to happen.
  • Dog_Paddle, on 10/12/2007, -23/+42I know how this will turn out. Everyone here hates iPods because they're mainstream and can't play some obscure audio files (.ogg).

    Thus, anyone with pro-Apple statements will be buried, and pro-Creative comments will be dugg.

    I for one, hope that Creative fail. Instead of destroying competition, make a better player.
  • endersadvocate, on 10/12/2007, -8/+25you have obviously never taken a history course... otherwise you may have heard of something called prohibition
  • Saintlink, on 10/12/2007, -9/+23But I need my Blackberry, erm, iPod! You can't take it away from me, it is business critical!
  • kwilliam71, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20Can't companies just make an honest profit anymore? Why resort to frivolous lawsuits? Good grief Creative - get a grip.
  • jamesbenet, on 10/12/2007, -6/+20Thats like saying "Get Windows Out of the US Market" and the lawsuit filed by Linus Torvalds.


    Creative, get some sense, stop bitchin and produce a better product will ya?
  • Micrll, on 10/12/2007, -1/+14Well I own an iPod, I like the integration between it and its simplicity.

    But...I will say I have seen both devices interfaces and I thought that it was creative that copied iPod. They are extremely close in my opinion.

    On the flip-side, WHY does it take so LOOOOOOOOONNNNNNNNNNGGGGGGGG for these companies to actually raise a complaint about the similarities. If it was that blatantly copied why didn't they go after apple early on in the iPods life span. I suspect the fact that they recently went into the red to be an indicator.
  • Roger, on 10/12/2007, -5/+18Hahaha. Maybe Sony should get the Wii banned too.
  • Zippo, on 10/12/2007, -1/+13That's nice Creative *pat pat*
    Now, please stick to making PC sound cards and shut up.
  • DarkDays, on 10/12/2007, -0/+11"Instead of destroying competition, make a better player."

    I agree. =)

    I'd rather see my competitor fail because my own product is better, rather than whining and complaining about my competitor's faults and promoting their negativity and hoping the public would betray them.

    I'm not saying which is better though, since all I have is a cheap mp3 my uncle gave me... But hey, it plays music, isn't that what mp3 players are for?
  • solarix, on 10/12/2007, -12/+23I have owned many players all of them Creative except for my most recent. (iPod Video 5g) I had the original Nomad Jukebox 6gb, the Nomad Jukebox Zen 20gb, and the Vision:M 30gb. I want Creative to succeed. But Creative's problem is not the player, but overall integration and accessories. The creative software is junk, and WMP just didn't allow for enough options (Podcasting for one) The player itself was far superior to the iPod 5g, but I got lazy and needed more storage for video content that the VisionM had to offer.

    The straw that broke the camel's back for me was the fact that I waited 2 months for them to have their leather case in stock, and it never came. If I cannot protect my mobile investment with a case specific for it, I loose alot of interest.

    Back on topic though, the Creative interface is not like the iPod one, you have alot more options for each thing you select, rather than just pressing the center button or holding the center button. iPod might have done a little stealing of the "Hard Drive Based MP3 Player" from creative, but they did not steal the interface.
  • CraigJ, on 10/12/2007, -0/+10our product is inferior + we have no market share = we sue



  • Chompy, on 10/12/2007, -1/+10Creative better watch out because I've recently patented "Method for failing in the marketplace and turning to lawsuits as a business model".
  • samdu, on 10/12/2007, -2/+11The Creative interface may be better for smaller libraries, but I can't think of anything that would be better suited to scrolling through 60GB of music than the iPod scroll wheel. Is it perfect? No. Is anything? No. Is it good? Certainly. Would I buy another iPod? Absolutely.
  • alexant, on 10/12/2007, -6/+15Desperation move......
  • OreosRgood4me, on 10/12/2007, -8/+16Very very true. The iPod is a great MP3 player, and I like it much better than Creative players. If someone wants to play .oggs why don't they just buy a Creative player instead of an iPod. There's no reason to ban the iPod.
  • jgreene777, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10why is it that no one remembers the fact that Xerox ALLOWED Apple to use the GUI concept, while MS just stole it from Apple?
  • jer2eydevil88, on 10/12/2007, -4/+12Apple's little bubble world that they sell with every iPod has worked well for them. Creative just can't succeed by allowing Microsoft to control the PC software experience.
  • superal1394, on 10/12/2007, -2/+10tried creative, took me about a half hour of playing with it to scream in frustration, and snatch my iPod back from the borrower
  • rewritable, on 10/12/2007, -15/+23I bought a creative player and took it back 2 hrs later and exchanged it for a Nano that had less memory but a far better user interface. I would like to know why you cannot just drag and drop music from the music folder to a folder on the player and go, that would be so much easier than creatives retarded playlist+WMP interface. I only use Itunes to put music on my nano. In a sensible world you would have to instal jack to drag music from computer to Mp3 player but oh well. itunes is best imo
  • RobotCitizen, on 10/12/2007, -1/+8The patent on the hierarchical menu has got to be one of the dumbest patents ever granted. For that reason I hope Creative loses the case, whether or not the law actually favors them. A menu tree a basic part of any computer GUI. It's been around since the days of DOS apps (at least). An mp3 player is just a specialized computer. How the hell else would you organize the commands?! By colors?! By aromas? No, you organize commands according to functional catagories and subcatagories.

    Our patent system is so completely ***** up!
  • astrotrain, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11I think this is a stunt from Creative to get into the Audio Lime Light...This reminds me when the RIAA attempted to stop Iomega from selling their MP3 player (Rio) many years ago.
  • ToeCheese, on 10/12/2007, -4/+11@mfratt

    Dude it wasn't Dunkin it was McDonald's and the lady had to pay tens of thousands in medical bills for Skin Grafts, Surgery, etc... The lady asked McDonalds to foot the bill and they blew her off. In the end after appeal she got less than half a million to endure weeks of surgery, therapy, permanent disfigurement and a lifetime of ***** from the media who can't seem to get the story straight (like everything else).
    --------
    Back to the story...

    I do have hopes that Apple can display prior art in numerous devices throughout the history of consumer electronics. The US Patent system does suck. Doesn't MS have a patent for adding spaces to a text files?
  • nexionly, on 10/12/2007, -6/+12every company that isn't apple is pissed that APPLE holds 49% of the MP3 player market. Who cares who did it first, apple does it best. Plain and simple.
  • Gardenhead, on 10/12/2007, -1/+7Not only should they design a better mp3 player and interface, they should actually y'know, advertise it.

    This is one of the most critical reasons why the ipod is what it is. It's iconic, and its advertising has helped it become that. Its really awful when a product is great, but the advertising falls short.
  • pabster, on 10/12/2007, -2/+8In other news, Microsoft would love to ban Linux...
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -9/+15Agreed. Creative = Cry Baby. iPod > Zen.
  • patjamas, on 10/12/2007, -3/+8Since when does anything pro-Apple get buried? Maybe on Bizzarro-Digg.com.
  • codyman, on 10/12/2007, -11/+16One Word To Describe Creative's Actions: GREED
  • ubers0ldat, on 10/12/2007, -12/+17Apple's Ipod is one of the best devices I've seen, and when it comes to electronics, I'm pretty critical, i love the integration... however, it'd be nice if they could play oggs, and would be a bit more "open," but then again, "open," is synonymous with hard to use...
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7And it's this kind of retarded reasoning that has us in Patent Hell. So, enjoy you smug *****. You may hate the iPod, but you'll be crying about the same exact ***** when your favorite toy is in the ***** patent crosshairs. And I'll be there to lick your delicious tears.
  • yeahright, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7Seriously, if you want to get your point across, learn to use the English language correctly.
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Sooo... Creative releases a hard drive based mp3 player with said semi-obvious interface, (the Nomad 6GB Juikebox), and works with 90% of home computers (because it's for windows), but it doesn't do amazingly well... then apple releases a hard drive player with a similar semi-obvious interface, which only works with 4% of home computers for the first year... by the time the iPod is compatible with windows, it is already huge in the market... So Creative failed to properly market what was essentially the same concept (although the nomad jukebox is much bulkier than the original iPod, and it stayed the same size throughout its run), and they had the Creative name going for them, which in 1999-2000 was the de-facto standard for PC sound, and had been for years... My point is that Creative had the "jump" on Apple, but failed to release a prroduct that was as innovative or successful or as well marketed as the iPod, and now they want to sue for their lost market share?
  • stonyhill, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6Well I can sympathize, as I have a 200gb mp3/ogg/flac collection. But it depends entirely upon the hard drive manufacturers. At this point, if you want more than 60gb, you need:

    1. A $6,000 flash player
    2. A dual 1.8" HD player
    3. A player based on a 2.5" notebook drive.
  • ehmjay, on 10/12/2007, -1/+6wanna talk about effed up patents, how about company's patenting human genes so that if anyone wants to make a treatment or even TEST for that gene they have to pay up. Now THAT is *****. (sorry for my language, but seriously! its just plain wrong)
  • Odweaver, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7DoubtfulSalmon

    1. It was a patent on sorting folders in mp3 players, which is extremely generic with no thought process involved.
    2. The only reason they are doing this is because Apple is beating them in sales and has had the same interfaces as every other company on the market since mp3 players were released.
    3. STFU and GTFO, they are trying to ban a product because it uses a generic menu system.
  • templest, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7/me laughs
    Sorry, am I the only one that sees the futility in this?
  • inactive, on 10/12/2007, -2/+7That's like another artist suing Picasso for painting in a disproportionate and warped style of art.

    Creative, It's not going to happen. Don't waste your time.
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