When did Apple start to become evil?

Earlier than I thought.

Thanks to Cory for cluing me in.

https://archive.org/details/AppleSSAFEProject

From "Vadermeer":\
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Yesterday at the Seattle Goodwill Outlet, where everything is sold by the pound, I noticed the Apple logo on letterhead sticking out from a bin of books, so I started digging. What I found were the 1979-1980 files of Jack MacDonald, manager of system software for the Apple II and /// at the time. They tell the story of project "SSAFE" or "Software Security from Apples Friends and Enemies." This was a proposal to bring disk copy protection in-house to sell as a service to outside developers. Inter-office memos, meeting notes and progress reports all give a good idea of what a project lifecycle was like. Different schemes and levels of protection are considered, as well as implementation primarily on the Apple II+ and the upcoming SARA (The Apple ///) and Lisa computers. Randy Wigginton is featured prominently throughout, along with mentions of Woz and many other familiar names.\
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The documents were all a jumble so I've put them in chronological order and scanned the collection, please enjoy.

Here's a direct link to the PDF. https://archive.org/download/AppleSSAFEProject/Apple%20SSAFE%20Project.pdf

Randy Wigginton was a name I was not familiar with.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Randy_Wigginton

This article doesn't mention Wigginton's role in pushing DRM. That's what the PDF is all about. My Apple //e was the freest, most open computer I have ever owned, but while I was enjoying that, the powerful at Apple were already scheming to take all that away.

The Wigginton article connected to Michael Scott. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Michael_Scott_(Apple)

On February 25, 1981, the day known as "Black Wednesday" at the company, Scott personally fired forty Apple employees, including half of the Apple II team, in a belief that they were redundant. Later in the afternoon he assembled the remaining employees with a keg of beer and explained the firings by stating, "I used to say that when being CEO at Apple wasn't fun anymore, I'd quit. But now I've changed my mind — when it isn't fun any more, I'll fire people until it's fun again."\
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Following this abrupt event, he was moved to vice chairman, a title with little power, and Mike Markkula, the man who had hired Scott, replaced him.\
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Scott left Apple officially on July 10, 1981, stating in his resignation letter:

So I am having a new learning experience, something I've never done before. I quit, not resign to join a new company or retire for personal reasons ... This is not done for those who fear my opinions and style, but for the loyal ones who may be given false hope.\
Yours. Michael, Private Citizen

See also https://appleinsider.com/articles/17/02/23/documents-unearthed-from-early-apple-history-show-shift-in-company-focus-from-hobbyist-to-businesses

A series of documents discovered at a thrift store in Seattle examines Apple's mindset in the late '70s and early '80s as it shifted from a hobbyist company to one interested in gathering, and retaining business clients for its Apple II series of computers.

#drm #defective-by-design #freedom #computer #computers #copy-protection #free-software #software-freedom