This should make for some, well, stimulating conversation.

iBuzz

A British company that makes an iPod-driven, music-activated vibrator claims to have received a cease-and-desist letter from Apple accusing it of copyright infringement. Love Labs, which makes the iBuzz vibrator, claims on its Web site that law firm Field Fisher Waterhouse sent it a letter on Apple's behalf, objecting not to the use of the iPod to power a sex toy but instead to rather risqué iBuzz ads that resemble Apple's iPod silhouette ads.

In Love Labs' words, Apple objected to the company's Web site "animation showing silhouettes of girls diddling themselves silly with white vibrators."

"Our client owns the copyright in all the images used in its 'Silhouette' advertising campaign and actively polices its rights in order to protect itself and its consumers," the company quotes the law firm as saying in the letter. "Your use of such images amounts to copyright infringement."

Love Labs rejected the claim that it used Apple's ads as the basis for its own, adding a sequence of images on its Web site to show how its silhouette ads were created. The company said that it will be removing the ads but had already planned to do so as a result of a Web site overhaul.

"While there is arguably a similarity of style between the iBuzz animation and Apple's, it is settled law that copyright does not subsist in mere style or technique (my counsel tells me). So we think the allegation is unfounded," Love Labs wrote.

The company also said that it sent Apple chief Steve Jobs an iBuzz last February as a birthday present, but "it was returned to us with 'product not ordered!' scrawled in large letters across the receipt."

Apple could not be reached for comment on the matter.