Apple Inc. is Anti-Liberty in Every Way

I was recently downvoted on a post where a video was posted as an iTunes exclusive when I said I refused to download Apple's garbageware to watch the video. I realize many of us at the DP still do not know how anti-liberty Apple really is. I suppose I should elaborate for the Apple protectionists out there. The simple idea of being an 'exclusive' medium for an advertisement sounds exactly like Apple. That is not the only reason I will not support this company, there are MANY that have slowly formed over the years.

1. Apple is a bully to its users, and its developers. I am a developer by trade. Apple has repeatedly used their terms of service to restrict what kinds of apps we are allowed to develop for their platform in order to protect their own stock apps from competition. They have been forced to relent a bit on this but trust me this was not by choice.

2. When Apple files for patents like this one it helps illustrate their corporate personality, and their position on freedom. It allows the government to remotely shut down all iphone cameras within range of a kill signal. This can be used at protests for example: http://www.zdnet.com/apple-patent-could-remotely-disable-pro...

3. Proprietary connectivity for no real reason is immoral and anti-competitive. It is legal, however it certainly isn't 'free' as in freedom. It is another form of a digital cage. Apple forces you to purchase new chargers and accessories from one device to the next. This practice is purely for profit. This is something the rest of the industry has finally stopped doing after standards have become accepted... except of course for Apple.

4. They absolutely abuse the concept of intellectual property (which I personally believe should be completely dissolved - this is like saying you can patent a mathematical equasion). You should ne be able to patent round rectangles for example. Apple is suing dozens of companies at this very moment, all for intellectual property disputes. For more on why I fundimentally disagree with this, watch this short documentary on IP: http://patentabsurdity.com/watch.html

5. Apple bundles lots of extra crap into all of its windows software (hence the garbageware comment). iTunes installed loads of background services which are completely unrelated to iTunes and start every time you tun on your computer. iTunes is a resource hog, it is intentionally crippled to 'lock' you into Apple products / services / multimedia formats. They want all music to be loaded with DRM, and they are happy to completely wipe out your music collection if you aren't careful. Some of it you can remove during installation, some of it you cannot.

6. They use the 'American Company' routine to encourage 'patriotic purchases', but in truth staffing, component purchases, assembly, etc. are primarily outsourced. For example, one of their chief rivals, South Korean Samsung provides more jobs in the US than Apple does. Read more: http://www.rjkoehler.com/2012/08/28/samsung-better-for-ameri...

7. Worker conditions seem to be unimportant to Apple when it comes to foreign employees. It farms out its labor to China where workers are clearly not doing very well. In fact, after a series of worker suicides at the factory the company has installed suicide nets, and imposed strict anti suide policies. How do you get people to stop killing themselves? We all know the answer to that is more rules and restrictions right? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Foxconn_suicides

8. Apple conspires with major companies to keep prices artificially high. They did it with music, then movies and tv shows, and even ebooks: http://articles.latimes.com/2012/apr/11/business/la-fi-tn-eb...

9. Hackintoshes being 'illegal' is BS. If I buy their software, and build my own computer... how can it be illegal for me to put that software I purchased on the hardware I purchased??? Well, according to Apple's TOS it is, and if you try it they will sue the iCrap out of you like they did to one local company here in south FL called Psystar a few years back: http://www.techspot.com/news/48604-psystar-loses-latest-appe...

I could literally go on and on listing the disgusting business practices of this company. What I cannot figure out is why most people seem to have no idea (or not care), even a community as well informed as this one. Are there any others out there who understand where I'm coming from here?