Red ripped off JPEG2000, and the derelict USPTO awarded them a patent on it... which was upheld at some point by some equally ignorant judge.
It's such a blatant rip-off that you can actually use an off-the-shelf JPEG2000 decoder to read Red's files.
Until software patents are ruled invalid (as they were supposed to be from the beginning), corporations will continue to use the patent system for exactly what it was supposed to prevent: the theft of other people's work.
Nikon managed to "prevail" over Red in a dispute over these patents, but not in a public-benefiting way. Red folded, but unfortunately their patents were not invalidated. So nobody should be crowing too loudly over this deal.
Epic isn't squeaky-clean, but Apple is making dangerous and dumb decisions in this whole debate.
Banning third-party payments was one thing, but then Apple banned publishers from TELLING people about the ability to pay through a Web site.
That is not just unnecessary from a business standpoint (since the vast majority of people opt for the most convenient thing); but it's so offensive that it invites crackdowns, implemented by ignorant politicians and legislative bodies... hurting Apple's bottom line.
Apple is tarnishing its image and earning it a place among the true offenders of "big tech," a place it mostly doesn't belong because it's not a gatekeeper to huge swaths of the Internet and commerce the way Google, Amazon, and Meta are.
Amen. I have also rearranged attempts at building a "maze" that deliberately waste customers' time. If I'm in a shitty enough mood, I'll move entire displays so I can walk directly where I need to go without detouring around them (when it's clear that they are only arranged to be an impediment).