“Apple is being sued by parents who claim the iPhone-maker is unfairly profiting from in-app payments in games aimed at children,” BBC News reports. “Many games on the iOS platform are free to download but offer game add-ons, some of which cost nearly £70.”
“The group said it was too easy for children to run up big bills without ‘authorisation of their parents,'” The Beeb reports. “Apple had called for the case to be dismissed, pointing out that in-app purchasing can now be disabled. However, US District Judge Edward Davila said the hearing could now go ahead.”
The Beeb reports, “In a recent update to its iOS software, Apple added extra steps in the in-app purchasing process, including the requirement to enter an additional password to buy items within apps. It is now also possible to turn the feature off entirely.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: Once again, the legal system lags behind technology. And, shouldn’t these parents and their lawyers really be suing Lodsys? 😉
Now, if they were smart, they’d go get Kindle Fires and then they’d really have a case.
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]
Related articles:
Lack of parental controls on Amazon’s tiny screen Kindle Fire lets kids charge up a storm – December 12, 2011
Freemium and Apple’s App Store: The in-app purchasing model really works – October 14, 2011
Following Lodsys legal threats, Apple reportedly stops approving iOS apps with In-App Purchases – May 18, 2011
Need to get AAPL down to $560 or some options sellers will go belly up, thus the FUD storm.
Options work both ways. Up. Down. And many variations on the theme. Possible to make money in options no matter how the stock does. Can be simple or extremely complicated. Overall it’s a cheaper,safer way to purchase equities. Or if you like, there’s always pork bellies,corn,gold etc..
Max Pain for AAPL is $560 for Apr 21, 2012. Options sellers (mostly the big boys) lose the least at Max Pain on expiration. It’s easy for them to do a little programmed trading and hype negative (but usually baseless) news stories, and save themselves a lot of money by driving the price down to the MP level. Happens on some scale nearly every month.
You have the ability to buy options just like everyone else. Since you seem to have such insight you should have no problem making money. Right?
And I do.
Sure you do.
When you can demonstrate that you understand the concept of Max Pain get back to me.
“Sue you , sue me blues”- George Harrison.
Dumb parents, dumb society, dumb country.
There may be a slight generalization that comment…
How could there not be? You don’t hear of such ridiculous things in Canada, Mexico, Europe, Asia…. Only in “A”merica. No where else..
You forgot your /i/s tag
(you did read that this is in the UK, yes?)
Here’s how you handle this. You put a pre-paid credit card with a budget of what, $200, $300 for the year on your iTunes account. Then watch those little boogers carefully discriminate on purchases.
Those parents must have a lot of spare times .
Oh, and they can work off adding money to the card, through a combination of chores and grades. Oh, and they are allowed to be creative by hiring neighborhood kids to cut lawns and paying them minimum wage but charging the client a huge amount. And they can charge the client of during-business purchases i.e. washing a car, etc.
American legal system is just perfect.
/s
That should be /i/s
(as this story is about the UK)
God forbid parents actually monitor what their precious little snowflakes do. oh no, it’s not bad parenting, it must be all big bad Apple’s fault. it’s akin to giving your 14 year old the credit card and dropping off at the mall and then wondering why the bill is so high? i hate these ridiculous parents who have no idea how discipline their kids or make their electronics safe. i have 2 kids and they both have/use our ipads/iphones/ipod touch. neither of them have EVER run up a bill. how about some personal accountability?!?
Let’s sue the parents for releasing irresponsible children into the world.
How about switching off In-App purchases in parental controls? Never heard about that?
Why are they suing? Why don’t they take out an ad in every paper in the world and declare “We are clueless dipshits that are incapable of understanding simple devices and will not take responsibility for our or our children’s actions”.
fercrissakes…dumbass judge pandering to stupid parents having moronic kids
Too must stupid going around
Just more people convinced by active litigating attorneys that they can benefit by joining the “class”.
It would be neat if the “class” got together to limit their attorney’s fees.
Take some personal responsibility for christ sakes, who is the adult here.
Apple is not responsible for poor parenting.
Granddaughter Tori comes up to Grandma Liz last Friday with our iPad and says, “Would you please enter your password so I can get to the next level in this game?” She was playing the “free” Smurfs game. Liz enters the password so Tori can play her game. The next day we get a bill from Apple for $260 for the purchase of a “bushel”, a couple of “baskets”, and a “wagon” of Smurfberries. Apparently Tori needed Smurfberries to “level-up” in Smurfville. So much for “free”. Had to sit Tori down and explain the commerce side of “free” games. Had to sit down Liz and explain the purpose of a password.
It’s very simple. Monitor what your kids do, and don’t give them your iTunes password until you have discussions with them and their agreement not to download a bunch of stuff. The next step, if you’re that untrusting of your kids, is don’t link your iTunes account to your bank account or credit card. Use gift cards instead with a set limit.
As to MDN’s take, the legal system inherently CANNOT be in front of tech advances. If most people, tech pundits, and even industry execs can’t predict what will be hot and what won’t, or what even will be created, how in the world can the legal system predict what may come and legislate for/against it preemptively? What a stupid comment.
Thanks to the Libs stranglehold on “unionized in all the wrong ways” public schools, the USA is drowning in stupidity and will continue to do so unless public schools are finally freed from their union shackles.
Gov’t is the problem, not the solution. Gov’t is a necessary evil. Strive to limit government wherever and whenever possible. Gov’t is wasteful and confiscatory. Centralized gov’t impedes freedom and growth. Gov’t assistance creates modern day slaves.
Obama and his ilk and their misguided ideas must go this November or the now wildly-overspent USA is doomed to rapid decline.
Blah blah blah… (buzzing noise in ears)
If you vote, people like you are the problem.
Government is not your mommy.
Typical Lib/Dem response. If you actually listened for once – to something other than ABC/CBS/NBC/CNN/MSNBC/NYT – you might finally wise up.
Jack Welch Blasts Obama’s Leadership
President Obama’s “divide-and-conquer” approach isn’t what great leaders do, Jack Welch said Thursday.
The renowned former General Electric CEO chided the president for blaming others for economic woes.
“It was the insurance executives in health care. It was the bankers in the collapse. It was the oil companies as oil prices go up. It was Congress if things didn’t go the way he wanted. And recently it’s been the Supreme Court,” he said.
“He’s got an enemies list that would make Richard Nixon proud.”
Welch, who helmed GE for 21 years and founded the Jack Welch Management Institute at Strayer University, penned an op-ed article for Reuters with wife Suzy Welch this week in which he tackled the idea of Obama’s enemies list.
“Surely his supporters must think this particular tactic is effective, but there can be no denying that the country is more polarized than when Obama took office,” Welch wrote, making a case for presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney.
On “The Kudlow Report,” Welch argued that “great leaders are interested in coalescing” the way they would run a company. “You don’t have one division pinned against the other,” he said. “You try to get the whole company pull together.”
Asked by host Larry Kudlow whether he thought Romney could win the White House, Welch agreed.
“Absolutely,” he said. “It’d be great for the country. We’d be a stronger country. We’d have more jobs. We’d have more people getting a piece of the pie. And we wouldn’t have this divisive nature that we have with this president, screaming at one group and then screaming at the next group in a high-pitched voice.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/47035575
Hilarious… if I don’t think exactly as you do, I’m a liberal. No, it is people like you that are the problem. Thank god there are moderate Republicans as well as Democrats to balance out the nutcases in this country.
In addition to learning how to listen, learn how to read.
I did not write that you were a “Lib/Dem” only that you evinced a “typical Lib/Dem response.”
And your response to the actual topic at hand (Jack Welch’s comments) is?
Oh, I love how you talk down to those you disdain.
No, my point stands, you will label anyone whose point isn’t yours liberal… As, do many that frequent this site.
I don’t really care, but it does get old. It is tiring trying to reason with somebody that thinks they have all the answers (knows everything).
Will you just shut up and use your brain for a minute! If you want smaller government get out of legislating love, marriage, what defines family, what an individual can do with their bod, etc. Public schools are not the problem. Parents are the problem. It sure comes off as ironic to say that what your child is doing is the fault of the public school system and not directly the responsibility of family and individual.
Steve Jobs & Rush Limbaugh agree: U.S. public schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’
Apple CEO blasts teacher unions, says US schools are ‘unionized in the worst possible way’
Really, that is your reasoned response as to why schools are responsible for charges on an iPhone/iPod/iPad? That schools are teaching children to circumvent the wisdom of their parents?
“Blah blah blah… (buzzing noise in ears)” hasn’t served you very well, now has it?
Follow the thread back to the beginning, if you are capable, and it’s crystal clear that I disputing your laughable claim that “public schools are not the problem” while agreeing with Superior Being’s original statement:
“Thanks to the Libs stranglehold on ‘unionized in all the wrong ways’ public schools, the USA is drowning in stupidity and will continue to do so unless public schools are finally freed from their union shackles.”
In fact, my links directly reference Steve Jobs who said that U.S. public schools are “unionized in the worst possible way.”
Decades of unionized public schools = stupid populace = inability to properly parent their kids.
Go watch Idocracy. If things continue as they are, it’s not just a movie, it’s a message from the future.
+1
That is +1 to T. Frusterated
er Frustrated…
Sure would be nice if we could edit our posts…
If the government is SO incompetent and corrupt, why are you OK with giving them $1 Trillion a year to spend on weapons of mass destruction and a standing army?
I agree… this lawsuit is total BS.
That said, I would like a simple pref item that said:
“Require password for ANY purchase.”
Which part of the following didn’t you understand, MSM pawn?
“In a recent update to its iOS software, Apple added extra steps in the in-app purchasing process, including the requirement to enter an additional password to buy items within apps. It is now also possible to turn the feature off entirely.”
Sigh…
You need to learn how to read (as you said above).
This lawsuit is total BS. People need to take some responsibility for problems. Apple has done what they need to avoid this problem (these people have no case), but that doesn’t mean there isn’t room for improvement.
I have kids, and I am very careful. But, I feel for the parent that enters their password, and they have to deal with the default period where entering the password isn’t necessary (and don’t realize that). I would like a pref to require a password for every purchase (no default grace period where password isn’t necessary).
As I said above. I feel sorry for you. You enjoy talking down to people. I would reiterate that it is difficult to talk to someone who thinks they know everything/have all the answers.
When I was a kid, parents never let their kids have a phone in the kid’s room until they were able to prove responsibility and bondability to have the privacy of a phone in the confines of the bedroom. And if mom and dad’s little “precious” called long distance, racking up a huge bill, or called 900 numbers… the parents didn’t sue the phone company… they made the kids WORK it off, and punished them.
Problem in amurica is parents spoil the kids…. what kind of country will you expect to have soon when these kids are out in the real world?
Yes, suing Apple is so much easier than say PARENTING!
Acting very much like the GOP nominee, Mitt Romney sent a curt message to President Obama today: “Start packing.”
Watch the MSM, Diane Sawyer in this case, attempt to carry Obama’s class warfare water.
Video here.
And, TARD, this has WHAT to do with Apple? (o_0)
And BTW: When the upper class parasitize the lower class, ‘class warfare’ always follows. Go read some history, dimwit. You make your party an embarrassment to humankind. Sheesh.
And to my STALKER, who is certain to provide a nonsensical anonymous coward reply: No, you cannot have my butt virginity!
Mentally retarded people are born that way. They cannot help their situation, nor did they ask for it or do anything to be afflicted by it,
I bet, if we think about it for a second, we can all agree to stop using the words “tard” and “retard” to make fun of people and come up with some more creative words instead.
The R-word hurts because it is exclusive. It’s offensive. It’s derogatory. The R-word is hate speech.
Pledge your support to eliminate the demeaning use of the R-word: http://www.r-word.org/
Obama plays the class warfare game, among other games, in an attempt to distract from his dismal record. People who parrot his bullshit are brainless pawns.
“Bahhhh!” Yes, little sheeple. You always say that.
Dear Parents:
YOU are responsible for raising and disciplining YOUR children.
Say that over and over again, all day, every day, until all your kids are 18.
Meanwhile, have fun paying your parasite lawyer to sue Apple over YOUR FAILings.
Please parents take responsibility for your own children as I have done with mine ,stop trying to pass the blame ,look at yourself first .
GE paid no tax in 2010 ,while showing negative $450 million ,yet overseas $10.5 billion in profit ,former ge head should shut his trap !
US has stupidly high corporate income taxes. Far higher than other countries. It’s the duty of company officers such as CEOs and CFOs to responsibly manage shareholder money.
That money belongs to the people who own the company by owning the stock. It would be near criminal for company officers to needlessly pay more taxes than they have to.
Oh, by the way, other countries don’t double tax corporations like the US does for money made overseas. That’s only done in the US.
Corporate taxes are really just taxes on shareholders. You are just taxing people.
If these people filing the lawsuit are in the UK, why is the lawsuit taking place in the U.S.?