Petitions are called 'petitions' for a reason
People without any knowledge of English wouldn't know
http://www.petitiononline.com/r4apple/petition.html
from 
JoeUser Forums
JoeUser Forums
It's a little late to bring up this topic, but the nature of this incident is just ridiculous.
Anyone who stays informed on technology news would recall how, around the beginning of this month (or at the end of July), RealNetworks decided to break the Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection in Apple's iPod, therefore enabling their software (Harmony) to transfer songs of their format onto the iPod. To support this, they lowered the prices of their songs in their own music store, down to 49 cents per song.
Given Apple's nature, they threatened to sue RealNetworks for their actions. After all, it's their own music player: they get the decisions on whether they allow others to support the iPod or not. RealNetworks didn't see it this way, and decided to open up a website Link to get the public to support their actions. And they also launched several petitions on petitiononline.com.
They hoped the public would be at their side. Turns out their 'petition' was addressed to themselves rather than Apple. People plagued the signature space with profane words, such as, quote: "Die real networks, you suck. GO APPLE!" (signature 1216) or using the famous 4 letter words. To make matters worse, they used a variety of aliases, such as "Steve Jobs".
While their position on opposing Real's actions is legitimate, they probably don't understand the comment that is on top of the signature board, "We endorse the Hey Apple, Don't Break My iPod! Petition to Apple Computer." I don't see how mouthing off at Real is called supporting them. They turned that list of signatures into a list of rants.
At least some right minded individual created a petition that was meant for these Real haters to sign on Link, which still contains profane hate against Real, but it belongs in the right place.
But the point isn't about Real being idiots to earn publicity and support of their 'hacking' actions. It's about people understanding the purpose and seriousness of petitions. If these people do not support Real's actions, don't sign. Or take the hate to a blog or a forum. But taunting the people that created the petition and placing those taunts as a signature is laughable.
Next time someone decides to sign a petition they should imagine the signature board as a real life place to physically write a signature, and if need be, a comment. I still don't support profanity in signatures, but if that was how they were educated to write on the Internet, so be it.
And for those that are curious, I don't own an iPod (yet). Maybe I should venture off to sign a petition that is against DRM protection...
Anyone who stays informed on technology news would recall how, around the beginning of this month (or at the end of July), RealNetworks decided to break the Digital Rights Management (DRM) protection in Apple's iPod, therefore enabling their software (Harmony) to transfer songs of their format onto the iPod. To support this, they lowered the prices of their songs in their own music store, down to 49 cents per song.
Given Apple's nature, they threatened to sue RealNetworks for their actions. After all, it's their own music player: they get the decisions on whether they allow others to support the iPod or not. RealNetworks didn't see it this way, and decided to open up a website Link to get the public to support their actions. And they also launched several petitions on petitiononline.com.
They hoped the public would be at their side. Turns out their 'petition' was addressed to themselves rather than Apple. People plagued the signature space with profane words, such as, quote: "Die real networks, you suck. GO APPLE!" (signature 1216) or using the famous 4 letter words. To make matters worse, they used a variety of aliases, such as "Steve Jobs".
While their position on opposing Real's actions is legitimate, they probably don't understand the comment that is on top of the signature board, "We endorse the Hey Apple, Don't Break My iPod! Petition to Apple Computer." I don't see how mouthing off at Real is called supporting them. They turned that list of signatures into a list of rants.
At least some right minded individual created a petition that was meant for these Real haters to sign on Link, which still contains profane hate against Real, but it belongs in the right place.
But the point isn't about Real being idiots to earn publicity and support of their 'hacking' actions. It's about people understanding the purpose and seriousness of petitions. If these people do not support Real's actions, don't sign. Or take the hate to a blog or a forum. But taunting the people that created the petition and placing those taunts as a signature is laughable.
Next time someone decides to sign a petition they should imagine the signature board as a real life place to physically write a signature, and if need be, a comment. I still don't support profanity in signatures, but if that was how they were educated to write on the Internet, so be it.
And for those that are curious, I don't own an iPod (yet). Maybe I should venture off to sign a petition that is against DRM protection...