Epic CEO Compares Apple Lawsuit to the Civil Rights Movement

While the Epic vs Apple lawsuit has always been gross, it's been gross in a capitalist, absurdist kind of way: two multi-billion dollar companies with more money than sense squabbling like children over an amount of cash that amounts to pocket change for them. Like, a lawsuit like this would be the ironic punchline if The Communist Manifesto was a comedy. Until now, both parties have managed to steer clear of the truly gross, but unfortunately, Epic CEO Tim Sweeny had to open his dumb mouth at the New York Times online summit Dealbook, and when he did, this came out:

It’s everybody’s duty to fight. It’s not just an option that somebody’s lawyers might decide, but it’s actually our duty to fight that. If we had adhered to all of Apple’s terms and, you know, taken their 30% payment processing fees and passed the cost along to our customers, then that would be Epic colluding with Apple to restrain competition on iOS and to inflate prices for consumers. So going along with Apple’s agreement is what is wrong. And that’s why Epic mounted a challenge to this, and you know you can hear of any, and [comparisons] to civil rights fights, where there were actual laws on the books, and the laws were wrong. And people disobeyed them, and it was not wrong to disobey them because to go along with them would be collusion to make them status quo.

Wow. Comparing your money fight with Apple to friggin' civil rights struggles. That takes a pretty big pair of apples to say with a straight face.

And before you think it was just a slip of the tongue, he went on Twitter later to actually defend the statement.

Hey critics, please read what I said and tell me if it’s actually wrong: When the rules were wrongful, it was right to disobey them. That’s the comparison to the civil rights movement.

Look, this... argument is wrong. On so many levels. It's a false equivalency, federal laws are very different from user agreements, you can't just 'opt out' of racism, sexism, homophobia, etc., and let's not forget that civil rights is about fighting for or protecting people's basic rights and defending their freedom. Selling your stupid app on an iPhone is not a right or a freedom.

I bet dollars to doughnuts that Tim will apologize sooner or later. But in the meantime, he's making it REALLY hard to root for his side of this lawsuit.