BusinessWeek column on Apple's lawsuits: "Lay Off Your Fans"

Peter Burrows, BusinessWeek's Computer department editor, has a column describing why Apple's choice to sue fan-driven websites is a bad business call that "could tarnish the Apple brand." ("Memo to Apple: Lay Off Your Fans")

There's a certain irony to this. Remember the Orwell-inspired ad that ran during the 1984 Super Bowl, that one that depicted Apple as the free-thinking company breaking the Big Brother dogma of the computer industry? Through conscious marketing efforts, Apple has long stood for innovation and creativity, and has been embraced creative sorts like artists and writers -- not people who usually care for big corporations pursuing lawsuits against 19-year-olds. That may vastly oversimplify the nuanced legal issues Apple's lawyers are trying to address, but it could well be the overriding impression that results.

A large QuickTime .mov file of the 1984 advertisement is available here. There are smaller copies floating out around the internet.