Thread by @dsmart

Epic Games lawsuit is just a publicity stunt, says Apple 9to5mac.com/2020/09/16/epi… via @benlovejoy

lmao! I doubt that very much. Despite my misgivings about how Epic went about this lawsuit and which was only revealed via Apple's filings (emails), Epic could have more publicity impact by putting money for these legal bills into worthy causes - or even marketing.

Generally, a company that has traditionally supported devs the way Epic has over the years, aren't likely to put those same devs at risk by engaging in a protracted publicity stunt like this and which has severe consequences.

I don't think any sensible person thinks that Epic stands a ghost in hell chance of winning this - on any merit - but as I said before, they were the perfect company to bring this fight and to see where it goes.

If nothing else, precedents will be set by this lawsuit. In fact, we already saw something like that when a judge prevented Apple from taking disastrous retaliatory action against Epic and which would have affected devs.

Though the damage cited in this action is self-inflicted (by Epic), and Apple were well within their rights to boot Epic right off the AppStore for intentionally violating a ToS they **agreed** to, a judge saying :

"Nope, you can't take retaliatory action just because you can" isn't something that should be overlooked. Hence the reason why I think that we may end up seeing some other unprecedented rulings in this case as it runs its course.

Most lawsuits against Apple - of which there are many - generally don't make the news, nor remain in the news cycle for long, but this Epic one has the sort of attention that's going to keep it in the news cycle from start to finish - and that's the important part of this.

Primarily because it shines the light on Apple's abhorrent business practices over the years, and which tend not to catch the attention of the mainstream for long.

Reading these excerpts from Apple's opposition, especially their analogy about pouring gas on an open flame, they are spot-on. Like it or not, Apple is 100% correct because Epic did this - intentionally - and only they can fix it if they so choose.

The caveat is that the minute that Epic remedies this action by complying with the ToS, the lawsuit goes away because Apple will just file a motion to dismiss because there won't be any cause of action for it to continue. Then we're back at square one.

What remains now is to see if the judge agrees with Apple that the harm Epic is claiming is self-inflicted and that it has nothing to do with them.

All we should be interested in here is how Epic gets to litigate the unfair biz and monopolistic practices. So far, I just don't see how they get from where they are today to there because if they make one mistake, this all goes away and we never get to those important parts.