Apple and Corellium Settle Lawsuit ⇥ theregister.com

Thomas Claburn, the Register:

Apple has agreed to settle its copyright lawsuit against Corellium, a Florida-based provider of iOS virtual machines and other developer-oriented services.

The iBiz sued Corellium two years ago, after abandoning an attempt to acquire the firm, claiming its virtual iPhones – used for security research and mobile development – infringe its copyrights and violate the anti-circumvention provision (section 1201) of the US Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

I am not kidding when I say that I stopped reading at the second word of the second paragraph as I realized that Claburn had referred to Apple as “iBiz”. It jolted me so much in its early blogging era throwback qualities that I had to go look it up. The Register has only used it once before in a story about MacBook Pro batteries, and the only other prominent Apple-related mentions I could find were in a 2011 CNet April Fools’ Day article — hilarious — and in a ZDNet editorial as a suggested name for a business-focused iPad. The “iBiz Pad” is something Apple is yet to make. I wonder why.

Anyway, it was also one of those words that triggered a foggy memory and, after a bit of digging, I figured out why. In 2005, when Apple’s iWork suite was just a rumour, IGG Software changed the name of its iWork software to iBiz, presumably at Apple’s urging.

I still do not understand why the Register occasionally likes to call Apple “iBiz”. It’s weird.

Distractions aside, this is good news if it does not affect the availability of Corellium’s services. Apple’s abuse of the DMCA to go after this firm was a poor move, and it looked especially bad coming after Apple had attempted to acquire Corellium.

Update: As of August 17, this lawsuit is unsettled.