Apple Sues Think Secret

[joeboy_45101]

The Los Angeles Times recently did a series of articles exposing the terrible management and care at a Los Angeles hospital. The reporters studied public records, interviewed dozens of people, including talking to employees about their bosses, and named names, claiming certain doctors were incompetent, filing false reports, and giving bad care. It was direct - not in the least subtle or couched in "may have been" or "according to some sources" language.

There were no trademark issues involved, but doing that story's investigation without (presumably) violating any laws might have been tricky. Apple's case against Think Secret may be in murky water too - when is talking to employees allowed? Are Apple employees under stricter contracts than most employers use? If an employee speaks in violation of contract, is it also the recipient's fault? What constitutes illegal coercion to spill the beans? Does it have to involve a monetary reward?

I would see your point if there was somebody's life on the line with Apple being secretive about it's unanounced products. Apple has to protect it's ass. I believe that the extent of the ThinkSecret lawsuit will go towards finding out who leaked these things to ThinkSecret, not towards shutting down ThinkSecret.

 

[Sun Baked]

I would see your point if there was somebody's life on the line with Apple being secretive about it's unanounced products. Apple has to protect it's ass. I believe that the extent of the ThinkSecret lawsuit will go towards finding out who leaked these things to ThinkSecret, not towards shutting down ThinkSecret.

Apple should be happy that the California Supreme Court has already ruled "that they would not tolerate the posting of legitimate trade secrets online, and reversed a lower court that said disseminating trade secrets is protected by the First Amendment right to freedom of speech."

This was from around 8/2003.

So yes, it's quite likely they are going nuclear to find out who is leaking the info and plug the hole -- while using these people a warning to further leaks.

 

[beatle888]

They should stop paying those high price lawyers and start printing a roadmap of products so the consumer can make a logical decision instead of the mystery game they play.

that wouldn't be good business in such a competitive market. so no, they shouldn't give us a road map of their inventiveness. we all know that people would rather do cheap knock offs than be creative themselves. apple is only protecting their well-being.

 

[beatle888]

This sucks.

I dont like the idea of them suing rumor mills and fan sites. I dont like them suing college kids who shared tiger.

This is totally not the counterculture feel that i want my fav company to have

and you would be ok with it if you were in apples shoes?

suing college kids who shared tiger? I WOULD HOPE SO. its in beta why would they want their new version of OSX exposed?




some people.

 

[xsedrinam]

What ever happened to good ole' fashioned firing?

Then "find out who leaked", they should. Then let heads roll where they may amongst the rotten apple cores. Those who are part of (i.e. dotted line committed and accountable employees to Apple) the organization should be dealt with, first. The perceived knee jerk, legal reaction "I'm gonna tell Judge Judy on you and take you to court" has the perception of "reaching beyond". (We not only want what is ours, we're angling how we can get yours.)
I don't know that there's any fancy, legalese or semantical work around to spell the word "greed" unless "avarice" would better satisfy some. Rather than launching a full scale, global investigation with the threat of arbitrary law suits, I would like Apple to show it's making priority effort to get its own house in order, first and foremost. As far as I'm aware, Apple is not currently a part of the investigative arm of the FBI or FCC or whatever apropos acronym one would care to add.
X

I would see your point if there was somebody's life on the line with Apple being secretive about it's unanounced products. Apple has to protect it's ass. I believe that the extent of the ThinkSecret lawsuit will go towards finding out who leaked these things to ThinkSecret, not towards shutting down ThinkSecret.

 

[Sun Baked]

They should stop paying those high price lawyers and start printing a roadmap of products so the consumer can make a logical decision instead of the mystery game they play.

Once you create a public roadmap, you undermine the protections you have at the state and federal level under the Uniform Trade Secrects Act, which makes the disclosure of these secrets state and federal crimes (punishment for the intentional stealing, copying or receiving of trade secrets) under several different statutes.

Since the trade secrect has to be resonably protected by the company, and unknown to the public.

 

[beatle888]

Once you create a public roadmap, you undermine the protections you have at the state and federal level under the Uniform Trade Secrects Act, which makes the disclosure of these secrets a state and federal crimes under several different statutes.

good.

 

[BWhaler]

The distiinction I see is that TS makes no money off the info from Apple. They do not sell it to other rumor sites or to APple competitors. They make their money from ad revenue like a traditional news org.

It doesn't matter.

What matters is the nature of their content, the means in which they get it, and the fact that someone, anyone, gives them money.

And trust me, this is what I do.

 

[BWhaler]

I agree. However, I suspect there are enough lawyers who are mac addicts that would love to defend TS against the big corp. Apple.

I doubt it. It would have to be a very generous lawyer, and one who knows nothing about the law.

I figure if Apple plans on really getting to TS and the leaks, the case would cost AT LEAST $250K to defend. And despite the opinions of the non-IP and constitutional lawyers here at Macrumors, TS is going to lose. No question about it.

I doubt there are that many lawyers with such generosity. I'm a Mac addict, and there is no way I would take the case unless the person just wanted to settle with Apple and was willing to answer all of Apple's questions. That would take about 30-50 hours worth of work I figure.

================
It all comes down to this:

TS knows the business they were in. They knew the risks. And the iWork and $500 Mac rumor just got out of control and hit Wall Street and the main stream press. Frankly, it was beyond stupid for them to have published that information, especially so far in advance. But like a kid in a candy store, they couldn't help themselves.

And now Apple must respond as a public company is a very, very aggressive way.

Any public company would.

TS simply took it too far, and now they are going to pay dearly.

 

[kirk26]

TS never made any agreements with Apple.

He didn't mention that in the quote.

 

[GroundLoop]

You know what would be funny....

...is if all of the rumors that we have seen coming out were all scams and part of an internal mole hunt within Apple. They could have fed certain stories to individuals and just waited to see which stories came out and which ones didn't.

Or they were testing the rumor sites to see how far they would go in order to acquire information. Yes it is entrapment, but if it works....

The joke would be on us when none of these rumored items ever surface.



Hickman

 

[Yvan256]

It *IS* unbelievable because in the past Apple all but encouraged its employees to tweak the rumor sites....as long as what you said was positive.

Really? What about outsiders then?

Let me predict the PowerMac G6 at MWSF then.

 

[Blackheart]

...is if all of the rumors that we have seen coming out were all scams and part of an internal mole hunt within Apple. They could have fed certain stories to individuals and just waited to see which stories came out and which ones didn't.

Or they were testing the rumor sites to see how far they would go in order to acquire information. Yes it is entrapment, but if it works....

The joke would be on us when none of these rumored items ever surface.



Hickman

very mean joke! shame on apple !

 

[Yvan256]

One more think I heard a rumor Apple is going to sell a new Emac for 19.99 at Walmart !!!! JK

Finally, I'll be able to afford a Mac! But at that price, it better have two 3GHz dual-core G5 CPUs and dual X800 GPUs with 1024MB VRAM and a 2TB HD. Oh, and a floppy drive. We all need floppies to install MS-DOS.

 

[GroundLoop]

Finally, I'll be able to afford a Mac! But at that price, it better have a two 3GHz dual-core G5 CPUs and dual X800 GPUs with 1024MB VRAM and a 2TB HD. Oh, and a floppy drive. We all need floppies to install MS-DOS.

you forgot the 38 button mouse with scroll wheels.

Hickman

 

[Yvan256]

This sucks.

I dont like the idea of them suing rumor mills and fan sites. I dont like them suing college kids who shared tiger.

This is totally not the counterculture feel that i want my fav company to have

Apple aren't suing for rumors, they're suing for posting leaked facts that only people under NDA are supposed to know.

As for those college kids, piracy is piracy. And isn't Tiger NOT out anyway?

 

[nagromme]

didn't one of the rumor sites state openly that they would offer a free "...Rumors/Secret/Insider/Spy..." labeled coffee mug for Mac related tips?

Maybe that could amount to paying someone to break NDA. But what about a certain site that was giving away toy naked mole rats? That's more tempting than gold!

 

[sunilraman]

any chance this is all just another part of the pre-announcement circus, designed to whip all the rumor junkies into a frenzy so that we tell everyone we know about stuff that may be coming out in a week, thus providing apple with a larger audience of interest?

whoa... kind of like disinformation-ed disinformation. you bloody conspiracy nuts

 

[sunilraman]

...is if all of the rumors that we have seen coming out were all scams and part of an internal mole hunt within Apple. They could have fed certain stories to individuals and just waited to see which stories came out and which ones didn't.

Or they were testing the rumor sites to see how far they would go in order to acquire information. Yes it is entrapment, but if it works....

The joke would be on us when none of these rumored items ever surface.



Hickman

whoa... even more conspiracy theory... i am loving it seriously, i am not being sarcastic... i miss the good ol' days of xfiles seasons like 1-4.... especially what chris carter refers to as the 'mythology' episodes.

 

[adamjay]

don't know if it was mentioned before or not, but here goes.

Isn't it kind of counter productive to sue Think Secret over products whose existence haven't been publicly confirmed by Apple yet? In other words, sueing them in a round-about way confirms and validates the rumor to a certain extent. Where a competitor could be wondering "is it true?" , now they are thinking "it IS true!" And if Apple's stance is that trade secrets were revealed, and it gives competitors time to "plan or adjust" or whatever - then this confirmation by way of lawsuit is really just Apple shooting themselves in the foot if it truley is about trade secrets.

They couldn't have waited 1 week to make the court filing?

 

[Yvan256]

you forgot the 38 button mouse with scroll wheels.

Hickman

Oh right, thanks.

And it better come with a 38-buttons mouse with scroll wheels on all sides (yes, even under it).

 

[sunilraman]

don't know if it was mentioned before or not, but here goes.

Isn't it kind of counter productive to sue Think Secret over products whose existence haven't been publicly confirmed by Apple yet? In other words, sueing them in a round-about way confirms and validates the rumor to a certain extent. Where a competitor could be wondering "is it true?" , now they are thinking "it IS true!" And if Apple's stance is that trade secrets were revealed, and it gives competitors time to "plan or adjust" or whatever - then this confirmation by way of lawsuit is really just Apple shooting themselves in the foot if it truley is about trade secrets.

They couldn't have waited 1 week to make the court filing?

i think within all levels of apple, the media, and fans, and competitors, no one really knows the benefit/damage of these leaks, how could you know, unless you did some sort of proper research.

i think the suit is more about taking a stance... comes from the top levels down... like steve going, "alright people, this has to stop and i want to say we mean business"

 

[asphalt-proof]

It doesn't matter.

What matters is the nature of their content, the means in which they get it, and the fact that someone, anyone, gives them money.

And trust me, this is what I do.

Look I am not questioning your knowledge of the law. What I don't understand is the essential difference between TS and any other news organization. They gather information the same way,they cultivate sources with in the corp. (or gov't etc.) they collect revenue the same way, and they report their findings the same way. So far there is no difference noted. If it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck then it must be a duck.
An example: A company that makes widgets has a core that is toxic. Only by reverse engineering the product can the problem be found. They know about it and to ensure no one else knows about it or the press can't report on it is to declare it a trade secret.

This seems to be like the speculation and rumor mongering, obtained photos etc, that went on in the 80's over the B2 bomber. Here we are talking about issues of nat'l security and as far as I know, no law suits were pressed. (though men in black were commonly spotted)

As I said before, this seems more like a case of an NDA breach and Apple wants TS to do all the leg work for them.

 

[ASP272]

Hey if TS gets knocked off by Apple, don't send those blabber mouth Apple employees over here to wreck our fine rumor establishment! We're all speculation here, no insider info please. Oh wait! Did I just say that?
Forget about it . . . Give me more! more! more!

Hope TS does well against Apple, they're one of the best sources for MR.

 

[adamjay]

i think the suit is more about taking a stance... comes from the top levels down... like steve going, "alright people, this has to stop and i want to say we mean business"

then why couldn't it have waited a week?