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When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

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Re: When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

#5

Suing over an internal code name (not a marketing name?) Quite a stretch...

From TFA: “When these internal codenames were first revealed in a 1993 issue of MacWeek, Sagan was concerned that the use of his name might be misconstrued as an official endorsement.”

Re: When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

#6
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The name must have been used externally, or Carl Sagan wouldn't have known about it.

It got leaked?

For Carl Sagan to have learned the internal code name of a computer, it seems likely that the code name was leaked to the outside of Apple. According to the article, this happened in a 1993 issue of MacWeek.

Re: When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

#7
I’d heard it differently from some at Apple at the time.

The three code names were all in the category of “bogus science,” and the association of Sagan with Piltdown Man and Cold Fusion was more of a jab turned insult. The “billions and billions” rationale sounds like an attempt to walk things back.

Re: When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

#8

Suing over an internal code name (not a marketing name?) Quite a stretch...

But then they refused to acknowledge that he had not endorsed their product and had not received compensation after the name was revealed. While probably not illegal, IMO that was still morally wrong.

Re: When Carl Sagan sued Apple twice (2014)

#10
>Apple changed the codename

As someone who worked at a company that would do that AND engineers would reference that product by new or old code names, or class of products (yet another code name), or components of products (another name)…..by any number of code names…. that line made me shudder.

I hated keeping track of all those codenames.

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