This story was reported last week everywhere else. It's even less interesting now.

So -- what would have happened if Apple had not sent that official reply? Later, when Apple began selling iPods that show lyrics, that dear child's parents would have claimed that It was their daughter's idea and sued Apple for ten billion dollars! Plus damages. Corporations have a right to protect themselves against malicious "prior rights" claims. People try them every day -- often in children's handwriting.

I submitted an idea to Apple online and I received a similar response. The email went on to state that if I submitted it to them again, then I was giving them the idea without any claim for future consideration.

While I understand Apple's position, I wish that there was a way that someone could submit an idea to a company for limited compensation if they ever use it. I'm sure many good ideas are lost because of the legal issues...

Why is it only cold hearted when a nine year old get upset of such a letter? I think it is shocking too when they write letters like that to any other person, even 30 year olds. It's understandable though, with the fear of sueing and steeling idea's. There is no room anymore for innovations in this world with all this sueing.

The real problem is that it takes a long time and a lot of hard work and money to turn an idea into a reality. What Apple are probably most worried about is something like the following: (a) one of their engineers has a great idea, (b) they spend lots of time/money/effort implementing it, (c) a member of the general public tells Apple the same idea, independently conceived, (d) Apple release a product containing the idea, (e) someone cries foul and tries to sue to get money for the idea.

Basically, they don't want contributions unless they're given freely and with all rights waived, and it's a major effort to ensure that that's the case (for instance, your employer may have the rights to your idea if it occurred to you at work and you told Apple through your work computer... you might not even *realise* that until your employer sees your great iPod idea and tries to sue Apple to get a share of the profits.)

Upsetting a nine year old is cold, sure, but so is the attitude some people (especially in the U.S.) take to making money.

It seems CBS News 5 was grandstanding at Apple's expense, continuing the current trend among jounrnalists to assasinate Apple in the press because of their use of Intel processors. Of course Apple deserved this because they aren't political enough. In other words Apple shouldn't send out cold lawyer letters but sweet little politically correct letters that say nothing with a stamped signature from Steve Jobs. It's things like this that portray Apple as a cold evil greedy company trying to steal away markets from warm fuzzy little companies like Microsoft. They should also paint a big smily face on their headquarters. Anyone who buys an iPod deserves a little kissing up to by Apple in thanks for making the company huge profits.

Just try sending a politician a letter telling him you support him and thank him for the good job he's doing and then make some suggestion. This especially works for the president. Of course they will ignore your suggestion and send you a very polite and impersonal standard letter thanking you for your support with the politicians signature. The idea is to never tell a paying customer to kiss a** unless they are suing you.

Like most who write big companies they get a form letter back. That's what happened here. If she wrote Microsoft or any other company she would have gotten the same kind of response. The mother's complaint is totally invalid and totally over reacted, not to mention the kid probably didn't even understand the letter she got back anyways.

an idiot and a whiny brat.

Steve Jobs (or any other CEO) is not frickin' Santa Claus. She should have known there was a high possibility that a form letter would come back (if at all) and been prepared to pre-read it and a.) rip it up and forget about or b.) take the opportunity to teach the kid a valuable lesson about how the real world works.

That said, Apple should have had a friendlier response prepared for kids' letters, although it still needs to emphasize that they CANNOT take unsolicited ideas.

This is not a bad story and hopefully Apple and other big companies can learn that they can be polite and civil in giving the bad news. They can give the same message content but be more civil about it.

My little boy wrote to our president to tell him he didn't liked the war because it kills people. We hope he'll hear my boy and stop the war in few days.

What's wrong with you people??? Were you all beaten as children? Are you all bitter about the way your lives turned out? Why the nastiness?

When I was a kid I was fascinated with airplanes, so one day I walked over to the McGraw-Hill building here in NYC and went up to the offices of Aviation Week & Space Technology and told the receptionist that I was interested in aviation and liked their magazine.

Some guy gave me a tour and a few free issues. I have never forgotten that.

Large corporations don't have to be mean and faceless. A simple "thanks for your letter, we love hearing from pleased customers about how they use our products" would have been enough.

It was obvious from the notepaper and handwriting (oh, and signature) that the letter was written by a child and not an adult, so someone in PR could have handled this far more gently without even needing to entangle legal.

Come on people. Use some common sense and have a heart. A little compassion and civility go a long way.

Apple's new policy should simply be not to participate in any law suits. Yes, just like Peter of office space when he decided to "just not show up" at work anymore. Now, as apple is no longer participating in the legal system of the country they can write whatever forms they like to anyone. In fact, they can even kill Bill gates and shut down windows without worry. LOL

Greedy parents: 'we're suing you for blah blah blah apple!" Apple: "That's nice.... you have fun with that..." Greedy parents: "what do you mean we're in court where is your defense?" Apple: "No, I don't think you understand our company policy is not to participate in law suits anymore." Greedy parent: "Oh okay... our bad"

This was somewhat disappointing, but certainly no big news or problem. In fact, I would argue that this isn't really proper news at all.

Anyway, this has already been discussed at:

http://forums.macnn.com/showthread.php?t=292568

Yeah, I'm feeling less and less compelled to read MacNN lately, and this sort of utterly non-informational filler is the reason why. I want the little girl to be happy. I want ALL little girls to be happy. But do I really need the few minutes I spend getting Mac news each afternoon to be spent with "articles" titled "Apple makes girl cry"? Puh-leeze. Who edits this garbage?

Some people confuse big mega-corporations with a small private bike shop. Apparently the real Santa Claus never ever responded to one stinking letter from a kid, then again those letter just say "gimme this". Apple is like all other companies its size it protect its interest with lawyers the way George Bush protects Exxon with American solders. It's never too early to find out how the world "really" works.

Some people confuse big mega-corporations with a small private bike shop. Apparently the real Santa Claus never ever responded to one stinking letter from a kid, then again those letter just say "gimme this". Apple is like all other companies its size it protect its interest with lawyers the way George Bush protects Exxon with American solders. It's never too early to find out how the world "really" works.

Some people confuse big mega-corporations with a small private bike shop. Apparently the real Santa Claus never ever responded to one stinking letter from a kid, then again those letter just say "gimme this". Apple is like all other companies its size it protect its interest with lawyers the way George Bush protects Exxon with American solders. It's never too early to find out how the world "really" works.

Some people confuse big mega-corporations with a small private bike shop. Apparently the real Santa Claus never ever responded to one stinking letter from a kid, then again those letter just say "gimme this". Apple is like all other companies its size it protect its interest with lawyers the way George Bush protects Exxon with American solders. It's never too early to find out how the world "really" works.

let's see... oh yeah:

This *MUST* mean that the new G5 PowerBooks are just around the corner...

8 )

I agree totally_ Things like this little girls suggestion in a letter to Apple is what the Feedback sections of their software and websites are for_

Part of this falls on the parents too_ If they are going to allow their 9-year old to attempt something slightly grown-up in the real world then it might be a good idea for the parents to reseach Apple and fing the proper channels to subit feedback to the company_

Writing a letter directly to Steve is not the way to approach that_ Going to the Feedback section of the Apple website - Apple does listen to it's customer when it decides on featrues [unsolicited or not] - Several Key things throughout OS X have been implemented because of user out-cry_ Some thigns have taken time and I've seen other happen almost overnight_

If the letter from AApple's legal was so discerning why then did they let the little girl read it - why didn't they screen the letter first and then explain things to her in a less legal manner_ They probably want attention and it's time for their 15-minutes of fame along with those families with 10-year olds suing other families' for sexual harrassment suits 'cause the little 8-year old girl down the street kisssed their son on the cheek_

Come on - they need to get over themselves_

is this non-story going to get? Parents, it is your job to explain to the child WHY such a letter was received (it's a form letter, not a personal attack from Steve Jobs)... NOT to go complain to a TV news station so that the little girl actually believes she was treated rudely by Apple. If this kind of coddling continues, she will grow up to be yet another "victimized" American...

I wonder how much money a jury will award the girl to repair her "shattered heart"? Sounds like a life altering experience to me. In addition to that she will get an hour with Larry King, a book deal, a made for TV movie and 10 minutes on the Tonight Show with Jay Leno. How did she react when she learned there is no Easter Bunny?

How does this c*** get attention as news?

WAAAAAH, a corproate giant hurt my feelings with a canned answer e-mail. WAAAAAAH.

Welcome to the real world, child.

I can empathize into the little girl very well. And yes, definitely, it is very sad to see that such a huge company pulls out their "juridical pistols" to fight against a little girl in order to make someone elese clear in a very rude way who is the "big boss" here.

I have sent Apple an email with a nice idea of mine around 7 years ago.

A couple of days later, I received an email from their lawyer department. I should stop writing and sharing and sending my ideas and suggestions to Apple.

There was a name involved in my idea for the software development project. The lawyer department of Apple made very clear to me, that if they should decide to realize a similar software project in the future, they are allowed to use my suggested idea and the involved product name without notification and that I have no juridical rights to claim Apple for copyright infringement or an other intellectual property rights.

???

Ahem ... I just wanted to submit Apple a cool and nice idea for a software application. That's it. Without any "bad minded" or "deceitful" ideas.

...

In clear words, the answer I have received from Apple meant to say the following:

Well, dear Apple fan. We don't care about your opinion, your great ideas or suggestions. We are much more powerful than you little guy. You are just a little "nobody" without any financial or juridical power. You might have good ideas, but we (Apple) have the money and the know-how to make a patent application.

Steve Jobs once said in one of his speeches:

"Stay hungry and foolish"

That says it all. Greetings to the "all mighty" Mr. Steve Jobs.

The real "innovator" is in most cases the "inspirator". Which does not necessarily mean that the "innovator" and the "inspirator" are the same person.

Yes, welcome to the real world and the foolish poker game in patent applications.

" Stay hungry and foolish. But most of all, try to be honest to yourself everytime you look in the mirror. "

graphically & sincerely,

Marc Klein mediaVinci - The art of invention