Defiant Aussies continue to sell contraband Samsung slab

Laugh gutturally at fruity threats

An Australian retailer is defying Apple and the courts by continuing to sell Samsung's Galaxy Tab 10.1 to Aussies, despite the temporary injunction.

dMAVO said it has created a separate entity in Europe and is shipping the fondleslabs from Asia in order to sidestep the Australian ban, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

"We have a new entity established and a separate server - just to deal with the tablet orders - that is undergoing testing as of last Saturday," dMAVO managing director Wojtek Czarnocki told the paper.

"Was Apple just bluffing or do they really want to play the cat and mouse game? We're up for it," the plucky MD said.

The fruity firm has already threatened to sue the company if it doesn't stop selling the tablets, but Samsung's appeal on the injunction is scheduled for 25 November, and Czarnocki is confident Apple won't bother with dMAVO before then.

"Now that the appeal to the full bench is listed for 25 November, Apple would have to convince the court that a hearing against us is needed before that date," he said.

"We'd be amazed, though not unprepared, should that occur."

Apparently, dMAVO isn't the only online retailer flouting the ban on the tablets, although the company has become something of a the standard-bearer for the defiance following coverage from the Sydney Morning Herald and The Australian.

Czarnocki has said that the cost of creating the new entity overseas was negligible when compared to the sales of the forbidden fondleslab. He added that the firm has "stopped counting" how many it has sold.

"Our servers were almost collapsing on a number of occasions," he said.

Apple won its temporary injunction against the tablet in Australian court in mid-October and it's likely that the court order could be extended to cover any retailer selling the contraband, even with overseas entities.

However, to pursue the issue, Apple would have to take the defiant dealers to court, which might not be worth its while until after the appeal has been decided.

In the meantime, the casting of Samsung and the retailers as the "underdogs" against the forbidding might of Apple – and the possibility that Tab-loving Aussies might not get another chance to lay hands on the 10.1 – is probably only helping sales of the tablet along. ®