I am the recipient of the cease and desist order. (Score 5)

I was hoping to keep this out of the press until we had more time to prepare, but since someone leaked it already

Apple has two complaints against the software, Theme Machine, which allows users to create themes for the Mac OS. First:

Specifically, it appears that the Editor enables third parties to create themes that are identical or confusingly similar to Apple's copyrighted and trademarked themes for Apple's MAC OS programs by improperly copying Apple's copyrighted software code and graphic files. You should be aware that by publishing this Editor that enables third parties to create these infringing themes and allowing the public to access and download the Editor, we believe that you are engaging in contributory infringement of Apple's copyrights, trademarks, and trade dress in violation of the Lanham Act.

So their complaint is not that we are infringing on Apple's trademarks, but that we contribute to other users ability to do so. I can't imagine that argument holding up in any court.

Additionally, Apple is greatly concerned by the likelihood that your Editor may be a derivative work resulting from the unauthorized reverse engineering of Apple's software. The specifications for the MAC OS themes have never been released, consequently, we believe that your Editor is derived through reverse engineering of the software. We would like to remind you that reverse engineering of the MAC OS is in violation of the software license agreement you accepted upon purchasing a copy of Apple's software.

Because I did not help to write the program, I cannot speak authoritatively about the methods used to develop it. However, preliminary research indicated that those methods were appropriate via the fair use doctrine established in Sega v Accolade under the Ninth Circuit Court Of Appeals.

Of course, all of this is moot, because we are just a few random guys who have never met face to face, and have neither the funding nor the desire for a protracted legal battle with Apple. Ironically, we've been doing this for more than two years, and the Editor doesn't even work with Mac OS X. I'll be pulling it shortly, but if you'd like to get involved with the Mac Themes neXt project, please contact me