Apple Loses in Asteroid Lawsuit Ruling

[generik]

Hopefully Apple will have the case filed in criminal court, should make everyone happy -- and put to rest whether or not the material was a trade secret.

You insane?

Since when is a breach of contract (at best) a felony?

 

[Sun Baked]

You insane?

Since when is a breach of contract (at best) a felony?

Since they updated the Protection of Trade Secrects act.

In case you forget, the information release here and on MacBidouille, got someone arrested.

Never found out what happened to the dude though.

...Jose Lopez -- who was contracted by Apple through the Volt Services Group -- and an unnamed person referred to as Doe 1 are named in the civil complaint filed by Apple this morning. Lopez worked for Apple as a contractor last summer when schematic drawings and other details about Apple's Power Mac G4 were released on the Internet.

"Apple has filed a civil complaint against Jose Lopez, previously employed by Apple as a contractor, who we believe stole Apple's trade secrets by posting schematic drawings, images and engineering details of an unannounced Apple product on the Internet," an Apple spokesperson said in a statement to MacCentral today. "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."...

[crop]

...The criminal case against Lopez, filed by the District Attorney says that the "defendant did knowingly and willfully, and with the intent to appropriate a trade secret to his own use and the use of another, steal, take and carry away and use without authorization a trade secret, to wit: schematic drawings and engineering details of the Power Mac G4, belonging to Apple Computer Inc."...

 

[gnasher729]

This case just destroyed trade secret protection in the entire country. Anyone who violates a trade secret can now publish it in a blog and claim that they're protected by the First Amendment and the violated party can't do a thing to stop them.

Trade secret protection is over. And that's a very bad thing - many companies (like mine) rely heavily on trade secrets and NDAs to protect their investment in new technologies.

Not at all. This court case was not about a blogger disclosing trade secrets, it was about a blogger refusing to name those who leaked the trade secret. Apple didn't sue for violation of a trade secret, the sued to get the names.

 

[sccaldwell]

This is very good news. Apple have a tendency to go overboard sometimes. A firewire breakout box? Who gives a ####? It's clear that they sued because they wanted sites like this one to go down.

Bull****. It's clear that Apple sued because (a) they get a lot of press from making "surprise" announcements and having leaks let the air out of their balloon, (b) keeping products secret until released gives them (and other innovative companies) a competitive advantage that is VERY valuable, and (c) things marked "internal use only," "trade secret", etc are marked that way for a reason.

They're protecting their products and intellectual property, as they should. As an Apple stockholder, I'm glad to see them do it, and sorry to see them lose this lawsuit.

As for the "First Amendment" protection, let's be honest, folks....while I read MacRumors regularly, and like getting the "inside scoop" from them, this is hardly a "news" site and no one involved in this (or other similar sites) should be considered "journalists". No disrespect intended...it's just not "journalism." Most of the "articles" posted here are simply rumors and speculation posted verbatim from unconfirmed sources. It's rumors....hence "MacRUMORS.com", and therefore shouldn't get First Amendment protection.

Should the National Enquirer or the Star get First Amendment protection for the rumors, etc that they post? I certainly don't think they should (though I don't know if they do or not), but at least they do write articles and stories, rather than posting snippets of rumored information. I think MacRumors has a higher accuracy than The Enquirer or Star, though... ;-)

 

[dwsolberg]

First Amendment

The Star does get First Amendment rights, just like everybody else. Our schools need to teach understanding of WHY we have these rights so that everyone understands that they help a LOT more than they hurt.

Compare the free speech idea to junk food. If research had not proved that it hurts your body, you might never know. Daily comsumption of junk food seems to do little harm, but the cumulative effect takes years off people's lives and contributes to many, many diseases such as diabetes and cancer. It's the same way with the First Amendment. We don't notice the effects of it until the cumulative benefits (or damage) creates great countries such as the United States or oppressed countries such as the former Iraq. The average truly democratic country with a free press is in much better shape than the average country without a democracy and a free press. Yet it's harder to see on the surface why this is the case.

 

[dr_lha]

No, THIS case isn't related to Commodore. But I was replying to someone who said it doesn't hurt for someone to release information about unreleased products. The dissemination of unreleased products can be very, very damaging to a company - as Commodore showed.

In Commodore's case it was former employees going to a rival company (Atari), not leaking the details of a possible product to a website. Saying "Apple are making a firewire breakout box" is a lot different to "I know how to make one because I was on the design team, do you want me to design one for you?", which is basically what happened to Commodore.