You call this entrepreneurship?

Chapter 479 Cyber ​​Court Debate
Apple plagiarized?

Two major hot topics occurred in succession on the Chinese Internet just after entering 2007. The first was the "Weibo" product launch conference, and the second was Apple's alleged plagiarism.

The birth of Weibo did not generate much heat on the Chinese Internet. Apart from the hyped reports in the media and Internet portal news, and routine discussions on forums, it did not go viral.

However, the news that "Apple is suspected of plagiarism" was first reported on the American Internet, and then translated and introduced to the domestic Internet.

Once the news was released, it quickly sparked heated discussions in major domestic forums, and celebrities from all walks of life came out to debate with each other.

Some people stick to the truth, some are servile and try their best to clean up the mess, some are trying to set the tone, and some are just there to watch the fun.

The focus of all the topics is "Are Apple's product launches and new products plagiarized?"

The guy on Tianya Forum started by saying “Big picture kills the cat, click carefully!” and then posted pictures of the “Weibo Product Launch Conference” and the “Apple Product Launch Conference” for comparison.

Nearly one hundred photos were posted in the entire building, comparing the venue layout of the entire press conference, the lighting, the podium design style, the clothing styles of the two speakers, the speech scripts, and the entire process of the press conference.

"From the comparison, it can be clearly seen that the similarity between the two product launches is more than 70%. I don't know what the purpose of those who claim that there is no plagiarism is. I can only say that those who understand will understand. Everyone has sharp eyes and can distinguish right from wrong."

Someone immediately posted a comment to refute it, for example, "Senior Reader of Yilin" criticized "LZSB", saying that the whole post was completely a distortion of the truth and out of context. How were the two press conferences similar?

Even if they are exactly the same, it is just that the Weibo conference plagiarized Apple's conference, and this possibility cannot be ruled out.

After the post was published, all the netizens who were watching were shocked. They had never seen such a shameless person.

At this time, most netizens had a simple sense of justice and could not stand this at all, so they immediately criticized it.

The criticized "senior reader of Yilin" was quite stubborn, arguing that it was entirely possible that the people on Weibo stole various details of Apple's press conference in advance, and then copied the venue details in advance.

All users of Tianya Forum have pre-set positions, and their heads are determined by their butts, so they can believe such idiotic rumors.

The old guys on Tianya were so angry that they laughed and started to criticize this idiot.

"We copied the pictures in this post from Facebook. The analysis of the Americans is similar to our conclusion. You said we have a preconceived position, but it is impossible that the Americans also have a preconceived position, right?"

Soon the posts on Tianya debate spread, and more and more people joined in, including many celebrities.

The famous cultural figure Ai Dajin published an article in his blog saying, "The United States is a great country that encourages innovation. The word plagiarism does not exist in their national culture."

"Apple is a great technology company, and Jobs is a great technology inventor and product designer. It is completely absurd and unreasonable to say that he plagiarized."

"As for why Weibo's product launch conference is so similar to Apple's, I can only say that they are different paths to the same end. They are both technological products, so it is entirely possible that they can resonate with each other in some way."

Some people even said sarcastically, "A country that relies entirely on plagiarism is now accusing a beacon of scientific and technological innovation of plagiarism. This is the funniest joke in the world."

The news media soon joined in, but their words were more tactful.

"Sentinel Technology, the parent company of Campus Network, held a product launch conference on New Year's Day and officially launched the concept of Social 2.0, preparing to build Weibo into a new social platform."

"But this press conference was unexpectedly caught up in a 'plagiarism' storm. The US media was surprised to find that the layout and process of Apple's new product press conference were somewhat similar to the Weibo press conference, so some reporters raised questions on the spot, but Apple did not give a direct response."

"The controversy over 'plagiarism' then spread from the US Internet, especially on the US social platform Facebook, where the topic of Apple's plagiarism remained at the top of the list."

"After the news spread back to China, Chinese netizens also started a heated discussion. Various debates could be seen everywhere on forums such as Campus Network, Tianya, and Mop.com. Internet celebrities and experts also expressed their opinions."

"Neither party involved in this Rashomon incident has spoken directly, and we still have no way of knowing the truth of the matter."

"Although the existing evidence suggests that Apple is suspected of plagiarism, it is unlikely that it plagiarized given Apple's consistent practices."

"Because of the huge attention the plagiarism scandal has attracted, Weibo's user base is growing continuously. Many people have registered Weibo accounts to follow the subsequent developments of the incident. Currently, the focus of discussion is shifting to Weibo."

Weibo has indeed experienced a surge in traffic in recent days, causing the server to crash several times.

Zhang Pingyi had to lead the technical team to work overtime all night to fix bugs. The most difficult time was when they expanded the server capacity four times in one day.

Faced with this heated situation, Qin Shaoyan still felt that something was missing.

"Add a task on Happy Farm, and give a high reward. The task is to register a Weibo account." Qin Shaoyan directly gave an order to Zhou Yuan, the general manager of the operations department, "Tell 51.com to let them freely direct traffic to Weibo for me, and don't worry about losing users."

"It's just money. I'll give it to him later."

"Just ask him if he still wants to cooperate. If he doesn't want to cooperate, get out of here immediately. Why start a business if you don't have the courage to go all in?"

Qin Shaoyan picked up his phone and called Xiong Xiaoge, "Boss Xiong, Weibo has more than 30 million registered users, and it's getting popular now. What about what you promised me?"

Xiong Xiaoge was in a very good mood at the moment. His Weibo performance was soaring, driving up the campus network's stock price. In response to Qin Shaoyan's question, he quickly replied, "I'm already in contact, and it will be done soon."

"Boss Qin, you know me well. I have always supported you. You see, I took the lead in registering on Weibo, which means I must be optimistic about this project."

"Just do it boldly. What do you mean by increasing the marketing budget? These are just trivial matters. What are you talking about?"

"Oh, you want to cooperate with the Spring Festival Gala? Sure! Absolutely!"

"You have connections in the Olympic Committee, so you can also organize an event to watch the Olympics on Weibo."

Qin Shaoyan was speechless. Xiong Xiaoge had become a staunch supporter of Weibo after only not seeing him for a few days.

But it doesn't matter, as long as he helps.

However, Weibo is still not popular enough at present. It is a bit unrealistic to expect a group of Internet celebrities to bring fans and popularity to support Weibo. We still have to rely on ourselves.

Qin Shaoyan began to think about how to make Weibo more popular.

……

In the United States, the air at Apple's headquarters is filled with tension.

In the conference room, several executives gathered together and fell into an eerie silence.

Jobs had just lost his temper and scolded the design team of the press conference venue.

The head of the design team felt very aggrieved and embarrassed, and kept explaining that they designed it entirely by themselves and did not plagiarize.

The person in charge also took out their original design draft to demonstrate to the executives and explained the design ideas again.

Tim Cook interrupted the person in charge and said, "Okay, this is not your responsibility. I trust you."

Then Tim Cook looked at Jobs and said, "Steve, the press conference was all about minor issues. The focus is on the appearance design of the Apple phone."

When Jobs heard this, his blood pressure rose immediately. Cook hit the core of the problem, which is that the appearance design of Apple’s mobile phone is exactly the same as that of a Chinese company.

"There's a traitor in the company!" Jobs pounded the table angrily, waving his arms. "I'm going to find this traitor, this villain, and send him to jail. He destroyed Apple and ruined a great design!"

"Steve, calm down," Tim Cook advised. "The matter is under investigation and will be cleared up."

Tim Cook doesn't believe in such things as telepathy. How could a Chinese person who is thousands of miles away from Apple come up with a mobile phone design that is exactly the same as Apple's new product?

Someone must have leaked the information, or there must be industrial espionage.

"The media is constantly talking nonsense, and we have to stand up and clarify it." Tim Cook said seriously, "If we continue to let the public opinion run wild, it will be bad for the company's stock price!" Jobs was very angry, but he also knew the priorities of the matter, "Immediately let the public relations department come forward to handle it and clarify the truth to the public."

"There is one more thing." Tim Cook said, "The media is easy to deal with. All you need to do is spend money. The problem now is that public opinion on the Internet is very unfavorable to us, especially on Facebook, where there is a lot of heated discussion about this matter."

Jobs was impatient, "Can you handle it by spending money?"

"No." Tim Cook shook his head. "I'm afraid even spending money won't work."

"Why?" Jobs was puzzled. "Why doesn't Facebook want to take the money?"

"Because the person who came up with the same design as the iPhone is called Qin Shaoyan, the founder of Facebook," Tim Cook said helplessly, "and he still holds shares in Facebook."

"Walter?!" Jobs was furious. "Send a lawyer's letter to Facebook and ask them to stop attacking Apple, or we will go to court."

"Facebook says there is freedom of speech in the United States, and the same is true on the Internet." Tim Cook was a little embarrassed, "But Facebook invited us to open an account on Facebook and explain the truth directly to users."

“???” Jobs’ face was full of question marks. What was Facebook thinking while allowing users to attack Apple and at the same time inviting them to open accounts?

Tim Cook persuaded, "I think this is a great PR opportunity. We are the victims and we need to clarify directly to the Internet users, not only on Facebook but also on Twitter."

"It would be great if we could open an account on China's social media, Weibo."

Jobs frowned and thought about it. He felt a little unhappy, but there was no problem with Cook's plan. Finally, he could only agree, "Let the public relations department take care of it."

Apple designer Jonathan Ive, who had been sitting nearby, couldn't help but say, "Don't we have a patent for the appearance? Just show the design patent directly."

Cook shook his head. "The patent is still pending. Now we are afraid that they will apply for a patent in China first."

"It seems we need a team of lawyers who are proficient in Chinese law." Jobs sneered, "If they have laws."

Cook said: "The US court ruling is more convincing if litigation is really necessary."

In fact, Cook knew that this matter had to be brought to court and the appearance patent design had to be confirmed. Otherwise, if the other party really got there first, they would definitely sue Apple in return.

The meeting quickly determined a response plan, and Apple took immediate action.

Apple has opened accounts on Facebook, Twitter and Weibo, and then issued an emergency statement on them to clarify that the "plagiarism" incident was completely false.

"The similarity of the designs at the press conference is purely coincidental. We have the original design drawings to prove that there is no plagiarism. We will use legal means to protect our legitimate rights and interests against the rumor mongers."

"The appearance of the iPhone is the brainchild of Apple's design team, and we have submitted an application for the design to the U.S. Patent Office."

"Apple has been developing iPhones since 2004. Some people took advantage of the company's confidentiality loopholes to steal the phone design. We will investigate thoroughly."

Apple opened an account on Weibo and publicly responded to the "plagiarism incident", which immediately set off the entire Chinese Internet.

Netizens had never seen such a scene before, and they flocked to Weibo to watch the parties involved argue with each other as soon as possible.

Overnight, millions of new accounts were created on Weibo, including some of the top bloggers. Even Ai Dajin and Han Han opened Weibo accounts, and many people followed suit.

These celebrities, along with their fans, have added a new group of users to Weibo.

When Qin Shaoyan saw that Apple actually opened a Weibo account, he rubbed his hands with excitement and immediately asked someone to push their Apple account to the top of the hot list.

Qin Shaoyan then responded on his own account, "First of all, we welcome Apple to join Weibo. Second, regarding the patent for the appearance of the mobile phone, we applied for a patent for the appearance design with the U.S. Patent Office last year."

Qin Shaoyan directly posted the application documents on Weibo and also sent out the design draft of his new mobile phone.

According to the creation time of the draft document, work began as early as June 2005. After several changes in the plan, the final draft was finalized in early 6.

That is, the phone that looks exactly like an Apple phone.

Qin Shaoyan then retweeted it and @Apple, "This is the evidence we showed you, now it's your turn."

After a day of silence, Apple also released several design drafts, but did not give a final time.

Because their finalization time was obviously later than Qin Shaoyan's, they wisely avoided this key clue.

Qin Shaoyan kept asking, demanding that Apple publicly announce the finalization date.

Apple finally got anxious and said, "Let the court decide who is the plagiarist!"

Qin Shaoyan also replied very firmly, "Then we'll see you in court!"

At this point, the onlookers realized that something was fishy. Both sides attacked each other and produced evidence, but at the critical moment, Apple avoided talking about it.

Of course, there are also those who try to whitewash Apple, but everyone understands one thing: if you are really right, a lawsuit does not prevent you from presenting evidence.

Now Apple only talks about filing a lawsuit but does not disclose any evidence, which shows that Apple has something to hide.

Public opinion on Weibo suddenly became clear, with most people standing on Qin Shaoyan's side and supporting him in defending his rights.

Qin Shaoyan also posted a Weibo to express his gratitude, and at the same time posted a Weibo that seemed a bit sarcastic.

"Actually, I'm a time traveler. I copied Apple's design from the future timeline, and then came back to make smartphones."

This Weibo post was forwarded by many people, and was even teased by acquaintances, who asked, "Time traveler, can you tell us the winning lottery numbers?"

The mutual attacks between the two sides on the Internet also attracted the attention of the media.

The Wall Street Journal published a commentary titled "Apple's 'Design Dilemma': Has the Innovator Become a Copycat?", questioning whether there are major loopholes in Apple's confidentiality system.

Apple issued an emergency statement early this morning, emphasizing that the iPhone project has been in development since 2004, and that "this incident involves commercial leaks and the company will resolutely defend its intellectual property rights." However, it did not directly respond to why the unregistered design appeared on the Chinese Internet in advance.

Legal experts analyzed that if Sentinel Technologies can prove that the design patent was applied for earlier than Apple, this cross-border lawsuit may subvert industry rules.

Interestingly, Silicon Valley venture capitalist Marc Anderson wrote in his blog: "This Chinese either has a more powerful intelligence network than the CIA, or he is a fan of Back to the Future - but in any case, he taught Jobs a bloody lesson."

Domestic media were very interested in this form of Weibo debate and published a report titled "New Function of Social Media, Internet Online Debate."

The media joined in the fun and netizens also found it interesting.

This kind of cyber-court-style debate made the audience very excited, and they all expressed that the Internet is still a good thing, as they can watch the technology companies of China and the United States quarrel directly online.

Both parties present evidence and debate against each other, and netizens are the listeners. This format is great.

Qin Shaoyan also claimed on Weibo that he would use Weibo to live broadcast the entire litigation process in the future, and welcomed everyone to come and watch, which also attracted a lot of applause.

The first round of the battle between Qin Shaoyan and Apple has come to an end, with the two sides barely tied and preparing to start the second round.

But Sina was completely confused. After watching the entire debate on Weibo, CEO Cao Guowei was completely stunned.

He was on guard against everything and never expected that Weibo would become so popular in this way.

Cao Guowei is completely unable to do anything. Is this Qin Shaoyan’s marketing or a coincidence?

(End of this chapter)