Update @ 1325:
It looks like the SoSuMi block is boilerplate for legal stuff on all parts of the Apple site, so therefore Apple are not using the tag to take the piss out of the UK legal system but instead are merely practically doing that by dynamically resizing their page to ensure that the apology/judgement lives below the fold.
So that’s alright, then…
So there is plenty of coverage of the Apple-Judgement-Under-The-Fold hack – however it gets childish when you look at the page source:
If anyone does not catch the reference, “Sosumi” – So Sue Me – refers to this debacle, and Wikipedia now suggests that it’s the standard way of thumbing their nose at legal disclaimers.
⊞
see also: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_Inc._litigation
I am still not sure about “literally”. This would surely require actual piss to be involved somewhere?
I distinguish 3 forms of ‘taking the piss’:
1) urology-related,
2) unintentional troublemaking / being bolshy
3) intentional troublemaking <- this is the one i mean.
erm, that div ends before the actual notice.
Surely this must be an open-and-shut case of contempt of court…
acb: stupid and dangerious indeed. They get worse with each passing week. I’ll no longer be buying apple products.
Alec’s post was still incorrect though. Ta.
amended, though 🙂
2) and 3) are still metaphorical and not literal, are they not?
Peter: Yes, Apple are doing something stupid and dangerous here. A judge who now gets really pissed off (if I dare say that) could go on to cause them significant trouble.
Interesting thought.
I’ve always thought that once a figurative term takes on an abstract but well-defined meaning, that it’s justifiable to do away with its figurative meaning in those circumstances.
so “taking the piss” for me means “actively and consciously lampooning, troublemaking, or milking a situation for nuisance or comic effect”.
to be accused of doing so when one is not active/conscious/aware of one’s impact is therefore figurative – “HSBC were taking the piss when they refused my loan” – probably not true, unlikely to be ad-hominem or sarcastic behaviour on the part of a bank.
to be *literally* taking the piss, in this sense, is to be troublemaking and fully cognisant of your efforts towards that goal.
clear?
On the plus side, I know what to call my Hackintosh now.
No matter how one tries to redefine the word “literally” to mean the exact opposite of what it actually means, it will probably just go on meaning what the word actually means — i.e., not figuratively, not abstractly, not a metaphor, but precisely what the words describe in the most concrete sense. It would be much easier simply not to misuse the word “literally” in the first place, and not to use it as some kind of synonym for “brazenly” or “outrageously” as this headline seems to intend.
Curious you should say “brazen”:
– are you suggesting that their lawyers wear expressionless metal masks? Or perhaps that a corporation has a face?
An awful lot of words started as figurative or metaphoric and – XKCD aside – we geeks need to get over that; otherwise when someone speaks of a disaster we should point to the skies and shout:
“WHERE? WHERE IS THIS BAD STAR OF WHICH YOU SPEAK? THERE IS NO SCIENTIFIC LINK BETWEEN GALACTIC POSITIONING AND EARTHQUAKES!”
“Sosumi”?
Apple mustn’t have had any presence in Japan, back then – all it would take is a case in a Japanese court for there to be an official ruling on whether there’s actually such a word in the language, for the humour to be burst…