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Steve Jobs bans Wiley titles
I missed this bit of looniness out of Silicon Valley this past week, but Katie Hafner's got it covered in today's New York Times: Steve Jobs's Review of His Biography: Ban It.
The imperial Jobs has decreed that no Wiley & Sons book shall be sold at any of Apple's retail stores.
As it happens, my book Darknet, published by Wiley, goes on sale next month, and its subject matter is aimed squarely at the innovation-loving technology crowd that the Apple stores target.
Nice going, Steve. Punish your customers.
From Katie's article:
In an image-obsessed fit of pique, Apple Computer has banished books published by John Wiley & Sons from the shelves of Apple's 105 retail stores - all because of Wiley's plans to publish an unauthorized biography of Mr. Jobs, Apple's chief executive.It is not clear whether Mr. Jobs or anyone else at Apple has read the book - "iCon: Steve Jobs, The Greatest Second Act in the History of Business," by Jeffrey S. Young and William L. Simon, which will go on sale next month. ...
In recent months, Apple showed its penchant for secrecy by suing a Harvard student who operates a Web site for Apple enthusiasts, accusing him of trying to induce Apple employees to divulge company trade secrets. It also filed lawsuits to stop leaks of company information on several Web sites that traffic in Apple news.
April 30, 2005 at 09:38 AM in Books | Permalink
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Steve Jobs bans Wiley titles [Read More]
Tracked on Apr 30, 2005 4:41:14 PM
Comments
Here is a different take on this by Robert X. Cringely:
I think this episode with Wiley and Apple's earlier legal attacks on people who it accused of leaking product information are part of a campaign to look tough to movie studios and record companies. As I've surmised before, Apple is trying to put together a high definition movie download service that requires content from all the major movie studios. If Steve looks soft on IP theft or unwilling to flex his corporate legal muscles, the studios may think he won't adequately protect their corporate jewels.
And that's all it is. Steve couldn't care less about this book.
Nor is Wiley unhappy. Here's word from a breathless reader inside the Wiley machine: "The news broke everywhere from the NY Times to Forbes. And the book shot up to #144 on Amazon, which is unheard of. Everyone is running around like crazy."
Posted by: Apocalypse Now | Apr 30, 2005 9:55:59 AM
Interesting take. Certainly Apple has been making moves to curry favor with the Hollywood studios.
But acting like Michael Eisner certainly doesn't sound like a wise corporate strategy.
Posted by: JD Lasica | Apr 30, 2005 10:15:43 AM
