Four years after Steve Jobs’s death, a new movie is reopening a debate over the Apple Inc. co-founder’s legacy.
Tim Cook
was awarded the Human Rights Campaign’s prestigious Visibility
Award last night.
It’s hard to watch his acceptance speech on the anniversary of Steve
Jobs’ death—almost to the day—and not think about how
much Apple has changed in four years.
Not in
terms of Apple’s business model. Not in
terms of the kinds of products it brings to market. But in terms of Apple’s public persona.
I’m talking about the things Tim Cook has done that it’s hard to imagine Steve Jobs doing, no matter how long he lived.
1) Come out
as gay, march in a LGBT-rights parade, win a civil rights visibility award.
2) Name two
women and a black man to Apple’s (8-member) board of
directors.
3) Pick a
fight with the President and the FBI over strong cryptography.
4) Take a
public stand on racial justice, immigration reform and privacy rights.
5) Commit
the company to carbon neutrality and supplier responsibility.
6) Lobby
congressmen in their offices, testify before U.S. senators.
7) Return
$200 billion to Apple’s shareholders and borrow
the money to do it.
Film :
Mr. Jobs’s allies, led by his widow, Laurene Powell Jobs, say the film “Steve Jobs,” and other recent
depictions, play down his accomplishments and paint Mr. Jobs as cruel and
inhumane. Ms. Jobs repeatedly tried to kill the film, according to people
familiar with the conversations. She lobbied, among others, Sony Pictures
Entertainment, which developed the script but passed on the movie for financial
reasons, and Comcast Corp.’s Universal Pictures, which
is releasing the $33.5 million production on Friday(9 Oct 2015).
“A whole generation is going
to think of him in a different way if they see a movie that depicts him in a
negative way,” said Bill Campbell, a
longtime Apple board member and friend of Mr. Jobs. Mr. Campbell hasn't seen
the film.
The Hollywood-Silicon
Valley sparring echoes that over “The Social Network,” the 2010 film about Mark Zuckerberg and the rise of Facebook Inc.
Facebook sought and won script changes. Mr. Zuckerberg later said the movie “made up a bunch of stuff that I found kind of hurtful.”
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