Apple files complaint against former contractor:leaked Power Mac G4 details

[medea]

http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/021211/1601000764_1.html

Apple today filed a civil complaint against a former contractor who allegedly posted schematic drawings, images and engineering details of the company's latest Power Mac G4 on the Internet in July, several weeks before the product was officially announced. Dow Jones Newswires report that the complaint was filed against Jose Lopez in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County. Apple alleges that Lopez, who was employed as a contractor in 2001 through this year, "misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract." Last week, Sacramento district attorney Jan Scully filed a criminal complaint against Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. "Innovation is in Apple's DNA, so the protection of trade secrets is crucial to our success. Our policy is to take legal actions where necessary to preserve the confidentiality of our intellectual property," Apple said in a statement. Apple's action follows that of the district attorney in Sacramento, Jan Scully. Last week, the district attorney filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. The district attorney's office didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
This isn't the first time Apple has taken legal action to stop leakages of company information. In 2000, Apple sued a former worker, Juan Gutierrez, for posting pictures on several Web sites of upcoming Apple products such as the new iBook laptop. Apple later reached a settlement with Mr. Gutierrez.

 

[vniow]

uh oh....

I'm not sure if you were around then, but the person mentioned in the article first posted all that stuff on Macrumors first!

Here's the thread.

Guess we all know who APPLEP58 is now.

 

[dricci]

filed a criminal complaint against Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest.

Wow, I can see they're a little pissed off

Better watch out!

 

[medea]

Re: uh oh....

Originally posted by edvniow
I'm not sure if you were around then, but the person mentioned in the article first posted all that stuff on Macrumors first!

Here's the thread.

Guess we all know who APPLEP58 is now.

No I registered shortly after that, but I was aware of the photo and info from elsewhere. I had no idea the person in the article was a macrumors member and had posted the info here, crazy.....bet he wishes he has some self control now though.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

I don't think it was necessarily Jose - there was mention in the submission section that he had to translate the info from French. Jose might have let it slip out to someone in France (MacBidouille) and then they were the ones to post it here to MacRumors.

But who knows, all that might have been done to be misleading on purpose, but MacBidouille had the images before anyone else.

D

 

[AssassinOfGates]

ouch. that was the man who encouraged me indirectly to buy the mac i use today, and now look where he's at. AppleP58, thanks for the scoop, and good luck dealing with the lawyers :\

 

[pretentious]

Sometimes we can just go too far, in wanting new content and pushing for more, that we forget how this info may come to us, and that may just be AGAINST THE LAW.
Some of us may be in jobs where we may come across sensitive data, let this be a lesson, that this info should not leave that environment, and had probably had signed a confidentiality agreement and that should be honored. No matter how "kewl" it would be to leak this out to the surrounding community first before Apple or what ever company may release it.
The rumors community should respect this, and I am wondering what Arn has to say about this.

 

[Dr. Distortion]

I think Groovebuster owes this guy an apology, looking at how he treated him in that thread... Better think twice before taking on such a guy in the future Groovebuster!

-Dr. D.

 

[Mr. Anderson]

Originally posted by Dr. Distortion
I think Groovebuster owes this guy an apology, looking at how he treated him in that thread... Better think twice before taking on such a guy in the future Groovebuster!

-Dr. D.

Groovebuster needed to do that a long time ago. I'm still not sure that AppleP58 and Jose are the same guy though.

And why would the French get the pic before evenyone else if he was in California, it doesn't make sense.

D

 

[Durandal7]

Wow, that was further back then I thought.

We can only hope that people remain this forthcoming in the future.

 

[ibjoshua]

Originally posted by Durandal7
Wow, that was further back then I thought.

We can only hope that people remain this forthcoming in the future.

forthcoming or foolhardy ??

It's looking like it wasn't the smartest thing to do.

i_b_joshua

 

[Future Man]

How did they get him?

This poor guy is in for a MAJOR hassle and potential jail time. I'm sure he doesn't have the resources (money) to successfully take on a company the size of Apple in court. And for what? So we could all get excited over a PDF.

And reading back over the original thread I began to realize that people really took this thing with as much apprehension as they do most rumors that pop up here and elsewhere. I mean was it really worth it... don't answer that, cause it wasn't. I remember the original thread (I think I was still lurking). And I certainly was one of the folks who was happy he posted here, and happy to get a look at a potentially new Apple product.

But at this point I would give it back to save Apple58's hide. They are going to impale this guy as an example to all the would be leakers of sensitive inside info. Lets all just hope he gets away without a stint in the big house. It's all fun and games until someone owes Apple or the state of California or whoever $80,000.00 in penalty fines.

This stuff is no joke. Or at least at times it can become gravely serious. What is happening to Mr. Lopez is going to turn out to be a lot more than a slap on the wrist.

However, what I really want to know is how they traced it back to him? Was he the only "contractor" who had these things specs? Did they seize his comp and check his disk? WOW this is creepy...

Mans Future

 

[buffsldr]

"It is unknown if AppleP58 is the defendant (Jose Lopez) or simply a contact or another individual who received the images from Mr. Lopez. "

Why even have the trial? Lopez must be guilty. I mean, innocent people don't get take to court do they?

 

[arn]

Originally posted by buffsldr
"It is unknown if AppleP58 is the defendant (Jose Lopez) or simply a contact or another individual who received the images from Mr. Lopez. "

Why even have the trial? Lopez must be guilty. I mean, innocent people don't get take to court do they?

I didn't mean to imply he was certainly guilty.

I guess the bottom line I meant is that someone posted these pics. Whether AppleP58 is that person Apple is looking for or not...

arn

 

[redAPPLE]

Originally posted by dukestreet


Groovebuster needed to do that a long time ago. I'm still not sure that AppleP58 and Jose are the same guy though.

And why would the French get the pic before evenyone else if he was in California, it doesn't make sense.

D

coz his mom is french?

 

[redAPPLE]

Originally posted by i_b_joshua


forthcoming or foolhardy ??

It's looking like it wasn't the smartest thing to do.

i_b_joshua

the thing is, who would have thought it would turn out this way.

i bet SJ personally seen to it that the "bastard" (maybe SJ said something nastier") gets his day in court (if not jail)

will you be sent to jail for a "crime" like this?

please tell me, i have never been in jail yet...

 

[redAPPLE]

Originally posted by buffsldr


Why even have the trial? Lopez must be guilty. I mean, innocent people don't get take to court do they?

remember OJ?

 

[3rdpath]

apple's gonna push this for all the publicity they can get...what better way to thwart future tipsters.

applep58 may or may not be lopez...but he is definately guilty of forwarding/publishing trade secrets...how he came into possession of this info will be very important should he need to defend himself( assuming he's not lopez).

also, interesting timing on apple's part...anything due in january?

 

[Dandee]

Aren't they a little bit harsh towards the guy. And that just before Christmas. Oh well, here in The Netherlands you've got 6 months when you slash a guys throat and the gov even invests tons of $$$ in that person just to get a psychic report and you'll get behind bars for years when you look wrong to your neighbour. Punish the guy, not to hard though, and then shake hands with Cristmas.

P.S. I don't know if i will be back on the board soon due to a holiday, so in advance best wishes to all you guys (and girls...)!

 

[NicoMan]

Harsh ? Yes and No

On the one hand, Apple probably feels that this leak has cost them loads of cash: I can imagine that sales of 'old' powermacs were enormously impacted by the leak (it is obviously much better for Apple to sell old ones than new ones, for at least price reasons and inventory reasons...); imagine the buzz of all the mac-related sites after the leak, who would want to buy the old PowerMacs...

On the other hand, it is harsh. Because like some said it feels like crime against big corporates (and to an extent 'money' crimes) are getting heavily prosecuted as opposed to violent/physical crimes (it is obviously all relative but I am not sure I like the direction this is going). It feels like it is another case of Money Rules .

Oh well...

NicoMan

 

[usersince86]

Apple has a point with this.

And even though it's not exactly the same:
* So does Apple with Microsoft.
* So do many companies with Microsoft.
* So does Xerox with Apple.
* etc.

 

[maelstromr]

demonizing apple

Of course, it IS ILLEGAL to leak sensitive secrets that have been given to you in confidence. This guy is paying the price for a little excitment (and fame?). Good lesson to the rumors community here, Apple OWNS its information, and sneaking into their confidence to leak things for the hungry drooling masses is clearly a violation of its rights.
While it's easy to attack the nasty big corporations, everyone needs to imagine what would happen if Apple couldn't keep its secrets anymore...competition anyone? As someone mentioned earlier...sales on current merchandise? I would think Apple could make a good case for losing at least oh, 30 high end sales on the leak...that's already $90,000 dollars taken directly from their accounts, aka grand larceny x90. Not to mention, Apple hasn't asked for any MONEY yet, they are just trying to enforce the law and protect their company's intellectual material.
Anyway, that's my little rant...just trying to put some perspective on the "harshness" of Apple's actions.

 

[Dunepilot]

Poor Jose

I remember that fool Groovebuster mouthing off at AppleP58 like he was the new Alphatech - we should all remember that we check this site because we like rumours about Apple.

When someone like Jose/AppleP58 comes along to give us a piece of information purely for our entertainment (that turns out to be true) I think we owe that person a debt of gratitude.

Let's hope he gets off with just a rap across the knuckles. This guy gave us the first true major hardware rumour since Time Canada leaked the new iMac.

God bless Jose. Let's hope his cellmate doesn't turn him into his 'wife' just because he cared enough to give us the info we wanted. Anyone who feels Jose doesn't deserve our support/pity obviously doesn't really love mac rumours.

 

[maelstromr]

rumors

Maybe not, but we DO love Apple.

 

[mcrain]

Originally posted by buffsldr
Why even have the trial? Lopez must be guilty. I mean, innocent people don't get take to court do they?

Ha ha ha ha ha, Oh my lord, I needed a good laugh this morning... Thanks. Whew, that was great.