back to article Apple removes apology-hiding JavaScript from UK website

Apple has removed from its UK website the JavaScript code that caused its court-mandated apology to always be displayed "below the fold" – meaning that you had to scroll down the web page to find it. If you launched Apple's UK website earlier this week and resized your browser window, a bit of JavaScript code called " …

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who in this world ever apologises when they believe they are 'right' but are told they are wrong?

    My wife never does though on occasion she says she may be mistaken.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Barrack Obama comes to mind.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        "Barrack Obama comes to mind."

        So do George W Bush and Tony Blair.

        1. Afflicted.John
          Mushroom

          And Lionel Blair.

    2. Dave Fox
      Megaphone

      "Who in this world ever apologises when they believe they are 'right' but are told they are wrong?"

      Hmmm,

      People in danger of being in contempt of court perhaps... ;)

  2. pewpie
    Childcatcher

    Thankyou, Sir. May I have another?..

    Reminds me of that tragic kid when you were a small child who got a smack on the back of his legs but kept trying to dodge it.

    Ended up getting about 10 slaps as his mum/dad made sure the message was adequately recieved.

    Of course these days those parents would have to be shaved, sterilized and destroyed.

    1. Velv
      Go

      Re: Thankyou, Sir. May I have another?..

      Charge them £1 for every "copied" device they've sold in the UK.

      Now that would be interesting, not from the money perspective, but from the real sales figures for the UK - would they downgrade the numbers to reduce the fine, or upgrade the numbers to increase the publicity :)

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Thankyou, Sir. May I have another?..

      Ah, the good old days of parenting! I remember as if it was yesterday! Nowadays you'll have to knee in front of your spoiled tender sprouts and beg them for every little thing you want from them, like being polite, obey etc. Oh, and here in Canada you have a good chance of being sued by them in court.

  3. Esskay
    Thumb Down

    so...

    instead of pushing below the fold by auto-resizing, they're pushing below the fold by leaving the image size at "really fucking big".

    Usually when a PR train derails, an organisation's first reaction is to stop the train. Apple seem content to run it into the ground.

    1. solidsoup
      Facepalm

      Re: so...

      They may have as well hidden pictures of Barbara Streisand's house under the fold. Doesn't anyone at Apple realize this actually draws more attention to the "apology" and prolongs the humiliation?

      Also, tip to the courts: next time order the court-mandated text to be displayed in red frame at the top of the page or, better yet, make the entire landing page out of the message with "continue" button. That will instantly make companies like Apple downright reasonable in your courtroom.

      1. Marvin the Martian
        Windows

        Re: so...

        No it doesn't. It draws attention to the fact that Apple strongly disagrees. Which is their point I suspect -- the longer this goes on, the more people think "galaxy? oh yeah that ipad clone"...

        You can't eat your cake and have it: either Apple is only good at marketing (selling bucketloads of mediocre stuff at inflated prices) or they're incredibly stupid at it (but then how do you maintain that they're so good at selling?).

        Us sitting in our chairs are not even of the level of amateurs at this marketing game. I'm sure Apple has tested reactions, and the UK Samsung victory was Pyrrhic at best: "it's too uncool to be a copy". Every newspaper article about the apology hide&seek quotes that hilarious* putdown (certainly in less techy sites -- here every reader knows it).

        *Hilarious for the admittedly special value/context of a judicial proceeding, of course, with grown men wearing 17th century wigs.

        1. Anonymous Coward
          Anonymous Coward

          Re: so...

          Did David Briss wear a wig for this one? Have you checked?

  4. davtom
    FAIL

    I'm not keen on Apple products, but I have purchased two in the past for my wife.

    Apple won't be seeing any more of my money after all this.

    1. Player_16
      Thumb Up

      Ahh...

      But they might see your wife!

      1. Juan Inamillion

        Re: Ahh...

        Sue the wife....

        /coat and handbag.

  5. Self-evidently!

    Nuke them

    OMG why doesnt the judge just put these MORONS in jail? He hasnt got balls or something??

    What a load of wank!

    1. Allan George Dyer
      Coat

      Re: Nuke them

      The judge should convict them of contempt of court, fine them whatever they would pay their web designers for the duration the apology should appear, and have the Clerk of the court do the web design for that period. "If you won't do it properly, we-ll do it!"

      That's not a coat, it's the scales of justice.

      1. Tom 13
        Devil

        Re: have the Clerk of the court do the web design

        I like it!

        And give the clerk one of those ancient Teach yourself HTML 3.0 Guides so he knows how to design it. And since he won't have proper time to do all the ADA compliance testing, for the landing page he goes straight to the high contrast and large letter design for the visually impaired. Single click through link at the bottom of the page redirects to the normal website. And he gets to make it the worldwide corporate landing page.

    2. Psyx
      Facepalm

      Re: Nuke them

      "OMG why doesnt the judge just put these MORONS in jail? He hasnt got balls or something??

      What a load of wank!"

      Good to know that given an encyclopaedic knowledge of Law, a hefty slice of authority and a backlog of criminal cases to hear, that you'd ride roughshod over legislation and waste a bunch of time trying to extradite US citizens for contempt of court.

  6. Carlos TuTu III

    C*nts.

    That is all.

  7. M Gale

    So, did they remove the Javascript because it might have got them in trouble?

    Or did they remove it because it breaks the page layout on every single available browser for Android?

    After all, if you're trying to woo owners of the competition, having your page look like this or even better this, is really not a good idea.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      It displayed fine on Chrome on my Galaxy S3.

      Fragmentation?

      1. This post has been deleted by its author

      2. M Gale

        Maybe a difference between tablet and phone? I've noticed ICS/JB on phones doesn't have that annoying permabar, for one.

        A moot point anyway, but still worth a giggle for a company that praises itself so highly on its design skills.

    2. P. Lee

      > Or did they remove it because it breaks the page layout on every single available browser for Android?

      Nope. If you have bought an android phone, you'll never buy an apple product (or so Apple say). You're no longer in their target market.

      1. jonathanb Silver badge

        According to Apple, you bought an Android phone because you thought it was an iDevice. They look so similar that you can't tell the difference.

  8. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    words

    Is it just me or does seeing "Samsung/Apple UK judgement" make you think the link is to a Samsung site not another part of the apple site

    1. Grikath
      FAIL

      Re: words

      Words indeed... Note how they refer to it.. Apple pulled Samsung into court over this, and afaik it's customary to put the *plaintiff* first when referring to court cases..--> Plaintiff v/s Defendant.

      They try to make it look as if Samsung is the one who started the ball rolling here.

      1. VinceH

        Re: words

        " They try to make it look as if Samsung is the one who started the ball rolling here."

        Apple trying to give someone else the credit for something? I find that hard to believe!

      2. Psyx
        Stop

        Re: words

        "Apple pulled Samsung into court over this, and afaik it's customary to put the *plaintiff* first when referring to court cases..--> Plaintiff v/s Defendant. They try to make it look as if Samsung is the one who started the ball rolling here."

        They're actually correct in this specific case.

        Samsung went to court in order to ask for a statement from Apple that their device was not infringing, and then Apple launched a counter-case. The statement is a result of Samsung UK vs Apple

    2. Thomas 4

      Re: words

      Samsung/Apple makes me think of a highly awkward slash fiction pairing where Tim Cook makes out with Kwon Oh Hyun.

  9. Dig
    Facepalm

    Now you now why they wanted 14 days to change it.

    Needed to outsource the proof reading to China then await the return of it on a slow boat.

  10. chris lively

    Simple solution

    Fine them $100 million per day until they comply.

    After the 1st week, start impounding their uk imports and destroy them.

    They'll come around.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Simple solution

      Don't destroy them all. Pop linux on the Macs and distribute them to schools (just not welsh ones).

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Like I said before, Apple could have put the apology in a Flash banner ad. Apple users would never see it, but the judge most likely would.

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Possible email exchange....

    > From: Apple attorneys

    > To: Judge Jacob

    > Re: website apology

    >

    > it would take up to 14 days to change the statement

    Change your website apology. Not that big of a deal.

    Judge Jacob

    1. Big-nosed Pengie
      Headmaster

      Re: Possible email exchange....

      "Change your website apology. Not that big of a deal."

      Except the judge probably would have got the grammar right.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Possible email exchange....

        "Except the judge probably would have got the grammar right."

        Oh, come on. That ugly, dangling, vestigial "of" that ruins the rhythm of a sentence is the funnest mangling of English for ages!

        (ducking and running)

    2. Desidero
      Facepalm

      Re: Possible email exchange....

      Makes me think of an upcoming "Tweets from Hillary".

  13. Mad Chaz

    Not to nit-pick but ..

    42 inches

    1920*1080 resolution and it STILL comes up right outside of the screen. Maybe they just changed how they do it so it's less obvious?

    1. Eguro

      Re: Not to nit-pick but ..

      Indeed...

      I'm running 1920*1080 as well - have to zoom to 80% to see it.

      Granted I had to zoom to 60 or 50 before to see it...

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Not to nit-pick but ..

      Why does the size matter? It could be a quintillion inches monitor at 1920*1080 resolution and it would be the same.

      Size doesn't matter, as I like to think.

  14. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    They should have told the judge to get bent in the first place and then ride out of the court room on a motorcycle painted like like American flag.

    1. Ole Juul

      They don't have style

      And they don't have any class either.

    2. WonkoTheSane
      Headmaster

      That would be "Contempt of Court"

      Which translates as:-

      Go to jail.

      Go directly to jail.

      Do not pass go.

      Do not collect $200.

      Stay there until the judge decides you're sorry.

  15. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Another vote for a contempt charge

    As I stated before, I like their products but this behaviour is intolerable.

    I can see that it's a classic US response to a judgement because US law is based on the letter of the law, not the intent, but I think you can argue that the statement should be instantly visible instead of hidden. Otherwise, it means it will act as a precedent for when Facebook gets slammed in court - if they put it where their "help" link is (at the bottom) you will never get to it because they keep backfilling the page when you scroll.

    I think the judgement should be revisited: as punishment, they now have to run the statement where presently the text for the new iPad appears, in the same font (type and size). Or spend a couple of weeks in jail. It would be interesting to see what they would choose..

    1. Velv

      Re: Another vote for a contempt charge

      No excuses - they have operations in the UK, they have UK based lawyers who studied UK Law in the UK and who practise UK law in the UK in the UK courts.

      But then when did management ever listen to the knowledgeable staff they employ.

  16. Charles Smith

    When you are in a hole stop digging

    But Apple's PR team seem to have placed an order for a large tunnel boring machine to ensure they go really deep.

  17. EddieD
    Holmes

    Hang on...

    When I first looked at this page, there was just the iPad mini.

    Now they've added in the other iPad, so it's still way off down the bottom of the page and now needs /more/ scrolling to get to it.

    Or am I missing something?

  18. Dan 55 Silver badge
    Boffin

    The random sample of regional websites that I looked at seem all to have lost the image resize code.

    Instead there is now a default of 'fecking huge' so if I was willing to believe that it was a coincidence that the regional websites had resize code at about the same time the UK judgement happened, I'm less willing now.

    All those international sites apart from Mexico are using two images on the main page (iPad and iPad Retina) which are probably alternated between using cookies. Mexico's got a huge iPhone 5, however the Mexican court said that it lost the right to use 'iPhone'. Obviously Apple's legal department are feeling feisty.

  19. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Redirect

    www.apple.com used to redirect to www.apple.com/uk/ for UK users.

    Now it doesn't

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Redirect

      Mine never has - it's always gone to the US site.

      I've always had to add /uk to get the uk site.

  20. Crisp

    The courts obviously lack teeth.

    Which is why Apple are playing silly buggers with them, They've obviously no respect for the court or the decision.

  21. LPF

    blah blah blah

    100 Billion in cash, somehow I dont think apple gives a flying **** lol

  22. Nick G
    Stop

    Er...

    I may have misunderstood something, but I thought that this was a EU court verdict, therefore shouldn't this apology be on all EU Apple pages?

    1. Dan 55 Silver badge

      Re: Er...

      No, while the verdict is valid throughout the EU the judgement said that the apology should only appear on the UK page.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Er...

        Dan, Don't let silly things like facts get in the way of people having a good rant. You'll be mentioning the fact it's not supposed to be an apology next.

  23. Xykon
    Stop

    Means tested fine for contempt of court plus goal time for Tim Cook?

  24. Can't think of anything witty...
    Go

    I like the look of that second screenshot - it looks like the right size for the clarification if you ask me...

  25. Wombling_Free
    Devil

    I would pay good money to see...

    The Crown get fed up with Apple's smug antics and issue a summons for the CEO, front and center, High Court, Contempt of Court, for the charging of.

    Throw the book at the, ahem, 'fuckers' m'lud.

    1. Wombling_Free
      Thumb Up

      Re: I would pay good money to see...

      I just thought, with His Supreme Relaxedness Judiciary Pag presiding, they will be lucky to get away with life.

  26. Lozsta
    Unhappy

    Apples Patented History...

    ...Apple are not innocent of this they have a damages payment to make for FaceTime... As per another Reg article.

    They are worse than most others, Samsung would have had to make their phones an octogan or even a sphere to avoid apple suing them, then again a sphere looks like an apple.

    They even ripped their name off the beatles record company!

    1. Not That Andrew

      Re: Apples Patented History...

      Not to mention their worst trick up to now - borrowing the GUI from Zerox PARC, and they suing everyone producing a GUI for PC's for infringing their IP.

  27. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Who is more childish here?

    The fruity company post the apology in a position that is not prominent. No shocks there then.

    The commentaries queue up like five year olds to demand more and more stringent penalties. All on the basis that my toy is better than your toy so ner ner ne ner ner.

    No wonder the IT professional is seen as a fat sweaty nerd with a Star Wars fetish and no social skill. We moan about bean counters and act like spoilt kids. FFS "The IT Crowd" was meant to be satirical, not a restrained documentary.

    1. FunkyEric
      Unhappy

      Re: Who is more childish here?

      Oh, you mean the IT crowd isn't real?

    2. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Who is more childish here?

      I think you miss something. Grown-ups, when buying stuff that costs money, worry about things like customer service and longevity.

      What do you think this behaviour makes me think about Apple? That if they twist and turn to avoid complying with a court decision they don't like, what kind of customer service can I expect?

      The iPhone 5 seems to have very good performance. But I'm not spending money on one because it looks to me that if it goes wrong, Apple might just possibly try to avoid fixing it under warranty. The same goes for Powerbooks, in spades.

  28. Archivist

    Apple are behaving like twats

    I personally believe the judgement should have gone the other way, but their behaviour is appalling and has lowered my opinion of them as a company. I wish I'd bought a Galaxy now..

  29. TRT Silver badge

    It needs a new name...

    an Applogy.

  30. JeffyPooh
    Pint

    Simple solution...

    The pissed-off court seizes the entire Apple.co.uk domain for 90-days. The court then hires someone that can find the Save As... HTML command in MS-Word. The court posts up whatever they want.

  31. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Looking forward to next year?

    R v Apple Inc 2013

    I want the front row seat for this one.

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