12 October 2013

Mobile data use explodes, but telcos are quietly shrinking our allowances

AUSTRALIA'S appetite for mobile downloads has almost doubled in the past year but the country's telephone carriers are seizing the opportunity to cash in, slashing internet allowances across all phone plans. 
 

Some carriers have as much as halved data allowances on popular phone plans, while a recent slew of cuts has seen up to 1.5 gigabytes slashed from others.

Industry analysts say slugging smartphone users more for internet downloads has become the easiest way to make money, now our eyes are more often trained on the screen than our ears are pressed to the phone for calls.

Australia's love affair with mobile internet downloads was highlighted earlier this week with the Bureau of Statistics revealing phone data use had almost doubled in the past year, up 97 per cent by June.

The country's 19.6 million internet-savvy phone users downloaded 19.6 terabytes of data to their handsets between April and June, blowing away the 9.9 terabytes from the same period in 2012.

ABS spokesperson Lesley Martin said the "explosive growth" had occurred even though mobile phone subscribers only grew by 21 per cent during that time.

Despite the skyrocketing demand, Australia's phone carriers are reducing the data in their deals.

Optus and its offshoot Virgin Mobile recently announced a new range of plans with download allowances as little as half of what they were a year ago.

Vodafone also halved the data available on its $50 plan, and Telstra cut 500MB from several of its high-range phone plans.

Telsyte managing director Foad Fadaghi said the carriers were cutting data allowances because that's where the money was.

While carriers once profited from voice calls and SMS messages, he said, consumers were now more interested in connecting to the internet, streaming video and songs, and using social networks on their smartphones.

"We noticed recently that revenues from data services and messaging have exceeded that of voice revenues for the first time," Mr Fadaghi said.

"The popularity of data packs represents the greatest growth opportunities for telcos and they're being a little bit more discerning with what they include in plans as a result."

Cameron Craig, director of phone plan comparison site WhistleOut, said there was no doubt smartphone data allowances were shrinking in Australia, but argued that carriers only offered large data bundles in the past because they didn't expect them to be used.

While even modestly priced plans had offered as much as 2GB of mobile downloads, he said, it was often unfeasible to use that much data with the handsets and network speeds on offer.

"If you're looking at an iPhone 3G, the browser was slow to load anything, the processor was slow to render video. It was a struggle to use the data back then," he said.

"With the speed of handsets increasing, and the network speeds increasing dramatically, the use of data has gone up and up."

Mr Craig warned that phone carriers were also being sneaky about how they billed for data, and consumers should ensure they were billed by the kilobyte and not by larger, megabyte increments.

"It's the same as talking for one second on a phone call and being billed for one minute," he said.

"If you do lots of small checks or small posts back and forth to the internet from your phone, looking at Twitter or checking your email, each hit can be rounded up to a megabyte."

Mr Craig said Australian phone users should shop around and, if they're on a good plan, consider buying a new smartphone outright to stay on it.

news.com.au 10 Oct 2013 

All this with NO intervention from any 'consumer authority'.

10 October 2013

Driver resists police RBT - Corporate media lies?

None dare call it a conspiracy!

The corporate media following an agenda?

This is preposterous!

A video claimed by the Channel 9 news network has been shown on the A Current Affair program which airs at (AEST) 6:30 pm, was put up on the news site on the 9th of Octber.

The description of the video is as follows:

"It's the gobsmacking video of a driver resisting an RBT and imprisoning himself inside his own car. 

Watch as he tries to outrun the police."

with 41 comments so far.

The video shown on ninemsn is 2m:45s in length.

Nowhere in the video, the driver 'tries to outrun the police', as claimed by the news network. The driver is clearly driving of, and NOT racing away from the police.


What is appalling and shocking is the fact that the police man (person), as opposed to police officer (the corporate entity) is breaking the citizen's common law rights (which every man and woman has rights to), AND inflicting injury upon him. 

Australia is in a new age of police violence and brutality against the 'ordinary citizen' who stands up for their rights.

NO police person would dare assault a 'bikie', as there have been repercussions of police killings, to which the corporate media a coy about reporting.

The news networks liaise together with police to portray an article that is acceptable by the police media liaison office, i.e. conducive to the police / government agenda.

The police man should be in jail, but will never be.

Main Name: POLICE DEPARTMENT (VIC) or

Main Trading Name: VICTORIA POLICE

are a corporation with the ABN 63 446 481 493.

The corporate media would dare expose this FACT?

A comment on the story is as follows:


I'm a Lawyer ... a show needs to do a real story on the fact that police are now just corporate thugs ... Master of truth (Guest)
AVOCA, TAS @ 10/10/2013 01:06:33 PM

NSA contractor Edward Snowden's leak 'a gift to terrorists' says MI5's Director General Andrew Parker

BRITAIN'S new domestic spy chief has warned that leaks like the one National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden orchestrated play into the hands of terrorists. 
 
Citing the deadly mall attack in Kenya and the ongoing Syrian conflict, MI5's Director General Andrew Parker also said terrorism had become more diffuse and more unpredictable. He said terrorists were also turning to technological advancements such as encryption to hide their tracks.

"Threats are diversifying, but not diminishing,'' Mr Parker told the Royal United Services Institute in his first public speech. "The internet, technology and big data are transforming our society. ... We can't stop every plot, much as we try and much as we would like to. There are choices ahead that will determine whether we can sustain what we do, or accept that it will erode.''

He dismissed claims that electronic eavesdropping agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was listening in on everyday communications as "utter nonsense'' and defended the use of snooping technology, as revealed in US security documents leaked by former CIA operative Snowden.

"Far from being gratuitous harvesters of private information, in practice we focus our work very carefully and tightly against those who intend harm,'' he said, adding safeguards were in place to protect citizens.

"In some quarters there seems to be a vague notion that we monitor everyone and all their communications, browsing at will through people's private lives for anything that looks interesting. That is, of course, utter nonsense.''

He blasted the leak, saying it caused "enormous damage to make public the reach and limits of GCHQ techniques.''

"Such information hands the advantage to the terrorists,'' he added.

Documents leaked by former US National Security Agency contractor Snowden were reported by the Guardian newspaper in June to show that GCHQ was using data harvested by the secret US PRISM surveillance programme.

Debate on balancing security and people's individual privacy has been percolating since Snowden detailed the extent to which the NSA collects data on its citizens and shares some of that data with partner nations around the world.

Three groups filed a recent lawsuit at the European Court of Human Rights, accusing Britain's eavesdropping agency of using its online surveillance programs to violate people's privacy.

English PEN, Big Brother Watch and the Open Rights Group claim that Britain's Government Communications Headquarters, known as GCHQ, acted illegally by collecting vast amounts of data, including the contents of emails and social media messages.

Britain's domestic security agency of MI5 and its foreign spy service of MI6 rely heavily on tips and backup from GCHQ.

"Shifts in technology can erode our capabilities,'' he said. "There are choices to be made, including for example, about how and whether communications data is retained. It is not, however, an option to disregard such shifts with an unspoken assumption that somehow security will anyway be sustained. It will not. We cannot work without tools.''

Suicide bombers attacked Britain in 2005, killing 52 London commuters. Since then, British nationals have been linked to several international terror plots, including the trans-Atlantic bomb plot when men planned to down some 10 jets using liquid explosives inside drink bottles.

Several thousand Islamist extremists are known in the UK "who see the British people as a legitimate target,'' Mr Parker said.

Many of those have been energized by the Syria conflict and some 100 or so have traveled to Syria to participate - some of whom may pose a threat in the future to the UK, Mr Parker said.

Mr Parker, who has been with MI5 for some 30 years, was appointed in April.

news.com.au 10 Oct 2013

What a load of corporate rubbish.

If it was not for the 'leakers' no would be aware just how much abuse of power goes on.

The statement :

"He dismissed claims that electronic eavesdropping agency Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) was listening in on everyday communications as "utter nonsense'' and defended the use of snooping technology.."
 
is completely untrue.The fact still remains that everyday conversations are listened on, by authorities.

The person has to provide false information in order to keep his job.

09 October 2013

Jemena hires unqualified 'smart meter' installers

Information has been obtained from within the industry by corpau on the strict condition that the source be not revealed, that the 'electricity' company Jemena has totally unqualified nor certified installers, installing 'smart meters' into the 2.1 million homes of Victorians, putting them at risk.

Under the order of a structure of a new world, all utility companies, that were owned and paid for by the people of Australia have been sold of, without the public's consent to a bunch of 'government' cronies.

Since then electricity prices have skyrocketed by approximately 100% in 5 years, which the government refuses to do anything about.

The Victorian government has opened up a contract with a (crony) company Jemena, to install carcinogenic 'smart meters' in the homes of Victorians.

What no 'authority' is telling the masses, is that they (the people/consumers/customers) are NOT obliged to have a meter installed if they so choose.

The contract between the government and Jemena states that smart meters are to be installed under 'best endevours' policy.

The government also reckons that in order to have any electrical work to be carried out to your premises such work must be carried out by a licensed installer and signed of by one, and presented (to whom?) if so required.

Despite having the above 'mandate' the government allows for perons to insall high voltage equipment without ANY certification to your premises, allowing for the real possibility of death as a result of shonky installation.

The government duped the masses into installation of the 'smart meters'.

Another fraud proudly supported by the VICTORIAN GOVERNMENT (PTY LTD).

YOU STILL CAN SAY NO TO SMART METERS.

See: STOP SMART METERS AUSTRALIA at:

http://stopsmartmeters.com.au/

08 October 2013

Newsflash - Knickers stolen

What better way to entertain the masses than through the so called 'entertainment' industry.

What better tool to use than the corporate media.

Apparently, when we (Australians) were sleeping, in the United States some teenagers stole a performer's (read entertainment industry puppet) underwear.

This is very ground breaking news which is extremely important, probably to the children of the canon fodder with very low I.Q's.

The so called teenage pop stars are manufactured and cleverly marketed by the ruthless entertainment industry moguls, for exorbitant profits.

The most common way to lure the next tool is to mention how much money they can make, totally omitting the fact that the company will be making at the least 10 times the amount given to the artist.

A picture of the two teenage girls in question usually helps.......

Police plead with bikie chiefs to make peace

POLICE have made an unprecedented public plea to outlaw bikie gang leaders to lay down their arms. 
 
Assistant Commissioner Steve Fontana urged outlaw motorcycle gang members to rethink any plans they might have for all-out war.

"We are asking the office-bearers of any outlaw motorcycle gangs that are considering any particular action or violence to reconsider their decisions, and not proceed with any planned activities," Mr Fontana said.
He warned of a real risk that innocent people could be seriously injured - or even killed - in any crossfire.

>> Fears for all-out bikie war
 
Police are extremely worried about high-powered military firearms, such as AK47s, that are out on the streets.

Over the past week there has been an outbreak of drive-by shootings and hurling of explosives.

Ten firearms have been seized in 14 raids by police on bikie properties and 10 Hells Angels and Comancheros have been arrested on firearms, drugs, explosives, blackmail, extortion and assault charges.

Seven of those arrested remain in custody.

But Mr Fontana said: "There are still some senior people out there - and they are plotting.

Shots were fired into a Hallam gym run by Comanchero state president Mick Murray earlier this week.
Shots were fired into a Hallam gym run by Comanchero state president Mick Murray earlier this week.
"We are aware that … the Hells Angels are in possession of a number of military-style high-powered weapons and we are concerned about it," Mr Fontana said.

"Apart from the fact that they are targeting some of their enemies in other clubs,They are indiscriminate with the use of these weapons.

"They are high-powered, they (the bullets) travel long distances and they penetrate steel. So it places a lot of people at risk, not only those that might be targets.

"It's easy for innocent members of the community - or even our members that are responding - to be exposed to risk," he said.

"We really do need to get those weapons out of the hands of criminals."

He appealed for anyone who may have information about the weapons, planned attacks or drugs to contact Crime Stoppers.

"That information might be critical and may actually save someone's life or prevent someone from getting seriously injured," he said.

Tensions between bikie gangs have escalated to unprecedented levels down the whole east coast of Australia.

Bikies from NSW have poured into the Gold Coast as turf wars rage, leading to the setting up of a national anti-gang body in Queensland.

And tomorrow, laws take effect allowing Victoria Police to apply to courts to force outlaw bikie club headquarters to remove their fortifications.

"We are working very closely with our national law enforcement partners, and weare going to will keep up our attempts to make the environment hostile for these particular groups(bikies)," Mr Fontana said. "Our focus at the moment is reallyon bringing these people back under control.

He said: "There's been a growth in chapters across the state. They're all territorial, some of them have got personal gripes against other club members, some of it will be club against club or chapter against chapter - there is a whole range of reasons for the violence.

"We want to reassure the community we are focused on trying to quell this problem, but at the same time we need support," he said.

news.com.au  4 Oct 2013

Aren't the police supposed to be the Alpha and Omega of the law?

Or are they a bargaining centre?

Aren't they supposed to incarcerate criminals, and NOT plead with them?

Why are they pleading? Because they cannot do ANYTHING about it?

Fact: The police are debt collectors for the government

A newsworthy headline would be:

"Police plead with motorists to pay speeding fines"

Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King Jr were spied on by the NSA

THINK the NSA spying is a new phenomenon? Think again. 

The US law enforcement agency has been tapping phone calls for decades and newly declassified documents show that both Martin Luther King Jr and Muhammad Ali were NSA targets between 1967 and 1973, according to the Washington Post.

The civil rights leader and boxing great reportedly became targets after they spoke out against the Vietnam War.

US Senator Frank Church - who was actually a vocal supporter of the war - New York Times columnist Tom Wicker and Washington Post humorist Art Buchwald were also spied on and had their phone conversations recorded according to the documents.

An NSA lawyer told The Washington Post that the NSA "seemed to understand that the operation was disreputable if not outright illegal".

But the spying was reportedly justified because "the country appeared to be going up in flames" - the NSA internal history noted.

President Lyndon Johnson was using the program to try to find out if the anti-war movement was "receiving help from abroad".
 
Ali, King, Wicker, Buchwald and Church were just a handful of people in a list of 1600 targets who had all of their communications intercepted by the NSA for allegedly helping to stoke the anti-war movement.
Intelligence historian Matthew M Aid said he had "no idea" why journalists were targeted.

"Since when did journalists become legitimate intelligence targets," he said.

The news comes just months after whistleblower Edward Snowden revealed that the NSA had been collaborating with corporations such as Google, Microsoft and Facebook to spy on people's online activity in a program dubbed "PRISM". 

news.com.au  2Oct 2013

In Australia, every person's online activity is monitored and collected, and available instantly.

The "PRISM" program is often referred to colloquially as 'prison' as the words have a similar sound when pronounced quickly or not clearly.

According to the (United States) state the people are its greatest enemy.

Who sold the name 'World Trade Center' for $10 in 1986?

NEW York is expanding its probe nationwide into the 1980s sale of the rights to the name World Trade Center to a nonprofit for $10. 

The official said that letters seeking information on the deals should arrive on Monday at 45 World Trade Center complexes, from Alaska to Florida. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the official wasn't authorised to speak publicly about the probe.

New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman is investigating a 1986 deal in which the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sold the naming rights to one of its outgoing executives for use by a nonprofit organisation called The World Trade Centers Association. The Port Authority owns the World Trade Center site but is among hundreds of entities worldwide that pay to use the World Trade Center name.

"The attorney general is looking to find out how the WTCA got such a sweetheart deal on the naming rights, how much revenue the WTCA makes selling the name and how that price is set," the official said.

The Record newspaper reported in September that the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey sold the naming rights to Guy Tozzoli in his role as head of the nonprofit WTCA. Tozzoli died in February.

The letter obtained by the AP sets an October 25 deadline for responses to the World Trade Centers in cities including Houston, New Orleans, Detroit and Sacramento.

The letters seek the date in which each entity entered into an agreement with the World Trade Centers Association, the end date of any agreement, and the amount paid to the association, and names of principals involved and the license agreements.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo referred the case to MR Schneiderman on September 17.
"Using the millions of dollars in annual revenue from licensing fees paid by companies around the globe for the use of the World Trade Center brand, Mr. Tozzoli received exorbitant annual compensation," Gov Cuomo said.

 news.com.au 7 Oct 2013

Another fraud supported by the government?

Apps hunt down stolen goods, but police hamstrung to act

Find my (stolen) iPad?

If you have the digital know-how there is a good chance you can – but it's unlikely that the police can do anything about it.

North Fitzroy resident "Bianca" returned home from work on Wednesday to an unpleasant surprise: her front door had been kicked in and family heirlooms and jewellery, DVDs, electronics, a mini-disc containing a decade of her partner's professional work archives and her iPad were missing.

Bianca immediately called the police to report the burglary, and in the time before they arrived she used her iPhone to access the Find My iPad app. She tracked the device to a house in Preston.

Initially buoyed by her digital discovery, Bianca's hopes of retrieving her property were dealt a blow when police told her there was little they could do since evidence obtained by tracking devices was not considered strong enough to obtain a warrant.

"The police said they would send someone around to the address if they had time, but they said all they could really do was knock on the door and ask if there was a stolen iPad inside," she said. "To be fair, the policeman I spoke with seemed fairly frustrated by the lack of power to search the property, but essentially the message was there is nothing they can do."

Fairfax Media contacted Victoria Police for comment but a spokesman was initially unable to provide any clarification of the powers available to police in using digital tracking devices to recover stolen goods.

In a recent spate of interstate cases involving the use of Find My iPhone and Find My iPad apps to track stolen devices, police have successfully recovered stolen goods.

A Canberra man who tracked his allegedly stolen iPad to a townhouse using the Find My iPad service had a legitimate reason for going to the property, a court heard in August.

The man's iPad was allegedly taken from a construction site and when he passed the details onto police, they searched the townhouse and found the device and a collection of items that were allegedly stolen.

A claim by the lawyer for the man who lived at the house – that the victim was committing "electronic trespass" when he used the app – was dismissed.

In Queensland, detectives have arrested suspected thieves on several occasions by using apps such as Find My iPhone to track their location before obtaining search warrants.

Most recently such an app was used to help police track a stolen iPod from Auckland Airport to a house in Forest Lake.

Frustrated by Victoria Police's seeming inability to follow the lead to the Preston residence, Bianca wrote – and delivered – a note to the suspected burglar, pleading for the return of her goods.

"I don't really want to delve into that world but I want my stuff back," she said. "Most of it is irreplaceable, including the jewellery, which has been in my family for a long time.

"So I said in the note that I believe you have some stuff of mine, that you can keep most of the stuff but there are items I desperately want back. I wrote that I would give the person more money for the items than what they would get just hocking it and that I wouldn't have the police involved if they called my mobile. I left the letter in the letterbox but, not suprisingly, I haven't heard back.
 
"I'm not holding high hopes but I will check Cash Converters in the next couple of weeks to see if anything turns up."

Fairfax Media contacted Victoria Police for comment but is yet to receive a full reply.

* Bianca did not wish to be identified in the article but is known to Fairfax Media.

 theage.com.au 4 Oct 2013

What 'Bianca' and others need to understand is that the 'police' are NOT there for any sort of public protection, but at the disposal of government AND corporations.

The primary objective of the police is to obtain revenue.

Their function is not to prevent crime or chase criminals for the community.

The ABN (Australian Business Number) for Victoria Police is 63 446 481 493 and function as a business NOT subservient to the community.

07 October 2013

Tollway blurs line between civil and criminal

Reporter: Hamish Fitzsimmons

COMPERE: There's further controversy surrounding the new City Link tollway in Melbourne, with police now being used to collect fines for the private operators.

The operator of the City Link tollway has the protection of an act of parliament whereby the Police Force collect fines for toll evasion and pass the unpaid toll onto Transurban. Legal opinion on the matter suggests this is blurring the line between civil and criminal law.

Hamish Fitzsimmons reports from Melbourne:

(RECORDED MESSAGE): Thank you for calling City Link.

To establish an e-tag account or receive assistance in completing applications forms, press three now. To purchase a City Link day pass, press four now .

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Because if you don't use the electronic tolling system to drive on Melbourne's new City Link freeway and don't pay the fine for avoiding the toll, you do the time.

Borne of an arrangement between the Kennett government and City Link's builders, Transurban, the Melbourne City Link Act means the Victoria Police collect unpaid tolls for nothing.

City Link is the only private company to use this system, called the Penalty of Enforcement by Registration of Infringement Notice, or PERIN system.

Jenny Cootes from Transurban.

Jenny COOTES: The police collect it. Well, the state actually recovers the fine, and from that fine that the state recovers, Transurban gets a nominal toll and a nominal administration fee.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: Some people are claiming that they can be thrown into jail on the basis of this. Is that right?

Jenny COOTES: This system works exactly the same as any other enforcement system. From our perspective the enforcement is the deterrent.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: But legal opinion on the matter suggests the Act is a little too cosy an arrangement. Gary Sullivan from the Federation of Community Legal Centres is part of a panel which looks at the use of the PERIN system. He says Transurban's use of the system blurs the line between civil and criminal law.

GARY SULLIVAN: If a person drives along these tollways and hasn't got an e-TAG and is fined, they ultimately face a jail term for that. And the ironies are that Transurban is in fact a private company using our criminal legal system.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: And what would you like to see done about the matter?

GARY SULLIVAN: I think it's an appalling situation. I find it unbelievable that a government could allow - could allow this to occur. It's a mockery of the division between civil and criminal law.

HAMISH FITZSIMMONS: The State Government hasn't been available for comment yet, but it's said to be considering the matter.

COMPERE: Hamish Fitzsimmons reporting.
 
abc.net.au 27 Jan 2000
 
This is an example of how  'corporate laws' are designed to enslave the masses and make 'criminals' out of them.

China employs two million people to monitor online activity and report on public opinion

CHINA employs more than 2 million people to secretly monitor online activity and flag negative posts, state media reports. 

The monitors, called “internet opinion analysts”, are paid by the government and businesses, the BBC reports, citing The Beijing News.

The internet monitors - who often target popular Chinese social media webites like microblog and “chinese twitter” Sina Weibo - don’t actually delete negative postings criticising the government.

Instead, their job is to "strictly gather and analyse public opinions on microblog sites and compile reports for decision makers", The Beijing News reports.

The millions of monitors are thought to be part of China’s massive, secretive army used by the Communist government to control the internet and stamp out dissent. They search through personal blogs, social media posts and discussion boards to gauge public attitudes. They also monitor foreign websites.

The South China Morning Post reports the online monitors also use their research to investigate local corruption claims. China's government also uses the monitors to gather public opinion on high-profile crimes or scandals and then uses the information to shape their response, the International Business Times reports.

Describing a typical workday of online monitor Tan Xiaotoa, the newspaper says: "He sits in front of a PC every day, and opening an application, he types in key words which are specified by clients."
US China Cyber Attack
The building housing Unit 61398 of the Peoples Liberation Army on the outskirts of Shanghai, believed to be the home base of China's cyberattacks on the US. Picture: AP 
 
"He then monitors negative opinions related to the clients, and gathers and complies reports and sends them to clients."

China's government has some of the strictest web controls in the world. Websites that are considered to be subversive are blocked, but the popularity of social networks has made it harder for China to stamp out criticism online.
The Beijing News admits it is impossible for the government to delete every "undesirable" post from the internet.

The popular Sina Weibo microbloggin site has more than 500 million users who post around 100 million messages a day - including posts criticising the government or rallying against problems within Chinese society.

The government's propaganda department previously employed people to write positive online posts in response to negative chatter online, and to smear the reputations of government critics or to harass them online, the IBT reports.

news.com.au 5 Oct 2013

The Australian government does exactly the same thing, but information is scarce about this, and is rarely talked or written about by the corporate media.

Forbidden fruit: German cafe wins legal battle against Apple Inc.

A family-run café in Germany has won a dispute with corporate superpower Apple Inc. The multinational took legal action against the café, Apfelkind, for copyright infringement, claiming the logo was too similar to the company’s trademark apple graphic.

Apple Inc. withdrew their appeal from the German Patent and Trademark Office after a 2-year-long legal battle. Apple gave no explanation for its decision for dropping the case against the family café.

The multinational claimed that the Apfelkind café’s owner had committed an infringement of copyright with their logo - a red apple with the silhouette of a girl’s face in the center.

Apfelkind’s owner, Christin Romer, filed a patent application for the logo after opening the café in May 2011. Four months later she received a letter from Apple, alleging that Romer had committed copyright infringement.  

"It was just 4 months after I opened the cafe when I got the letter from Apple informing me that they [had] lodged a complaint against my brand," Romer told RT’s video agency Ruptly.

When Romer refused to withdraw the patent application, Apple began drawing up a settlement agreement whereby Romer would not use the logo on any electronic items nor would she talk about it.

"It's great that so many people provided me with their support, saying that the logos are not similar to each other. They were all saying - "keep up, Christine, Apple only wants to make you small,” Romer told Ruptly. Now Romer is free to use the design where she pleases, but given that the case is not formally closed, Apple could file charges against the café again.

The Big Apple

This is not the first time that Apple has threatened legal action for copyrighting its logo. Back in 2008 the multinational said it would press charges against New York City for its GreeNYC campaign logo.

“[GreeNYC’s logo] so closely resembles Apple’s [logo] that its use is likely to cause confusion, mistake or deception in the minds of consumers," wrote Apple Computer’s lawyers in 2008. They argued that use of the GreenNYC logo would “likely cause dilution of the distinctiveness of [Apple Computer’s brand], resulting in damage and injury to the company.”

rt.com  5 Oct 2013

As seen by the above illustration, there is literally NO similarity between the two logos, especially given the fact that Apfelkind's logo is red.

A very small win for the masses against the policy of the  global corporatocracy.

Another reason why NOT to by Apple products.