Man, once you get the lawyers involved, everything slows down. It’s been a month since Apple had my U2 iPod parody taken off of eBay, and I haven’t been able to properly respond to Apple’s action on account of having to spend lots of time to properly weigh my options.

(Of course, it didn’t help that I was out of town most of the month, first to Taiwan for a symposium, then to Washington for the holidays. Note to self: Next time you dive head-first into legal trouble, make sure you’ve got plenty of free time.)

Anyway, for those asking: I emailed Apple on December 6, asking for an explanation as to why my auction was shut down. I received an auto-response that read:

Apple’s Rights & Permissions Dept. has received your request. Please allow
1 – 3 weeks to complete Apple’s rights and clearance process.  Thank you.

Sincerely,
Apple Legal
Rights & Permissions 

As of this writing, more than four weeks have passed and I still have not received a human response from Apple. Now, to keep this whole case in perspective, the auction archive is still up on my site, and eBay is a private company so it’s not as if I’ve got a Constitutional right to sell whatever I want there. On the other hand, it seems a little abusive for Apple to get eBay to shut down my auction without even having the good manners to let me know their reasoning. What do you think? Their email, by the way, is copyright@apple.com.

In the meantime, here are some related links to keep you busy:

• EBay Negative on Negativland IPod: By Katie Dean, in Wired News.
• Helter Stupid: By Carl Wilson, first published in the Globe & Mail.
• And “insektpod” has uploaded some Negativland-inspired “Do Not Disconnect” icons to the iPod Wizard site. Mod away!