Steve Jobs in Carbonite iPhone Case

Computers & Mobile
Steve Jobs in Carbonite iPhone Case

I wonder if Bill Gates’ lawyers would send out a cease and desist letter if someone made a Windows Phone case with his likeness embedded in Carbonite. Unfortunately that’s what happened to designer Greg Koenig for his rendition of Steve Jobs in the classic Star Wars material. [via LaughingSquid]

28 thoughts on “Steve Jobs in Carbonite iPhone Case

  1. deby devid says:

    The post is very informative. It is a pleasure reading it. I have also bookmarked you for checking out new posts.

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  2. migpics says:

    Was the cease and desist letter due to him making a case or selling them online? No letter from Lucas yet or is that in the mail?

  3. Ric Kolseth says:

    I’ve been getting pinged by UK SEO spam, too! But this is a hilarious product: if I had an iPhone I would so buy it.

  4. Mauricio Fleury says:

    Muito bom…

  5. Anonymous says:

    wait, I’m sorry but when I zoom in on the face in that pic it looks totally photoshopped. I don’t think you can reproduce the detail of the rims of the glasses in that material.

  6. B.J. West says:

    It’s totally shopped. Shadows on the face favor the right, shadows on the rest of the figure favor the left.

  7. Bugger! says:

    Shopped for sure! No way Steve Jobs would have that kind of pants bulge!

  8. Alan says:

    After fixing the broken links in Adam’s post, I think I uncovered the actual story, or at least the outline of it. Koenig posted this to society6.com, which I gather is a Cafe Press-type site that produces and sells any artwork its users submit. That means the product would have started as a Photoshop image, and would have ended up as an iPhone case with that image printed on it. Despite appearances, I doubt society6 would have cast actual 3-D replicas (their base price for iPhone hard cases is $3.50).

    Koenig reports that he received a C&D letter from Apple, and as a result only one of these cases was ever printed (which he says he has). The letter allegedly cites a California law that forbids using someone’s likeness to sell a product without their permission. Given that this product is using the likeness of a public figure for an obvious work of satire, I would think the First Amendment would render that claim moot, but I’m not an attorney. Lawyers, please weigh in: are cartoonists forbidden from selling their work in California?

    I notice that Koenig has not posted a copy of the actual letter, so it is possible that this whole thing is a hoax. Considering Apple’s post-iPhone attitude, however, I’d consider it at least equally likely that it’s true.

  9. Anonymous says:

    Thanks Alan and B.J. West… was starting to wonder… Yes, the shadows and texture are wrong, it is clearly photoshopped… Mr. Koenig also states that he is currently unemployed http://www.society6.com/studio/burb so we have established motivation. ;-)

    It is a clever design, I’ll give him that. And would make a cool poster or print. I seriously doubt he has a single 3D print of the case (that would be an expensive investment for someone without a job)… And offering them for $35 each… hmm i doubt he could get them made that cheaply unless he had thousands made

    Maybe he invented the Cease and Desist story because he realized that he couldn’t deliver the product everyone wanted…? I’d still like to see the actual letter.

    as Han Solo would say: “I got a bad feeling about this”

  10. Stephen says:

    1. Of course it shopped, doh, what you think Jobs actually posed for this?
    2. The bigger issue is the questions surrounding the question Flaherty poses above. First, where is the since of humor? I guess in spite of it’s cool public persona, Apple’s lawyers are just geek kill joys like any other big corporation. You wonder if these people even have a life or if they all sit in little white rooms all day long sifting through mountains of papers and internet feeds looking for some guy to hatchet.
    3. More importantly however is the comment below of political satire. If Apple can crush this, what’s next? Jobs is a “pubic” figure, and like it or not freedom of the press is and should be protected I believe in exactly this type of situation. As Americans we tend to have a love/hate relationship with the press. Unfortunately Apple’s ugly “hate” side has reared it’s Pravda/Izvestia-like head once again.

  11. Anonymous says:

    I know this is old, but I wanted to clear things up…

    1. This is a photoshop mashup. I never claimed it was a 3D mold.

    2. I DID receive a C&D. It was actually sent to Society6 and Infectious.com. Neither wanted to fight it. I was told I could, but really, being unemployed at the time, couldn’t afford to fight the BIG Apple. And I’ve seen many instances of Steve Jobs parities go down.

    3. I never said I had the only one. I believe around 600 were produced by Society6 in 24 hours. People were asking me to send them one personally after the C&D, so I commented I only bought 1 for myself before they took it down. I wish I would have bought more since they have become sort of a collector’s item.

  12. MAKE | Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Guitar says:

    […] it’s also great for casting soaps, chocolates, fashioning writing desks, and the occasional iPhone case. It would appear that it even has desirable acoustic properties as demonstrated by this elegantly […]

  13. Han Solo Frozen in Carbonite Guitar says:

    […] it’s also great for casting soaps, chocolates, fashioning writing desks, and the occasional iPhone case. It would appear that it even has desirable acoustic properties as demonstrated by this elegantly […]

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