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ThinkSecret Shuts Down, Settles Apple Lawsuit
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um, how about neither? this site was never really a site that broke news. if it was, I don't remember it. It basically aggregates stories from other sites (like ThinkSecret), which makes it convenient.
I hope the TS founder got a boatload of money out of this. I suspect he may have.
One down, a whole lot more to go.
Good job!
Yeah, nothing like a little legally-enforced censorship to help consumers make their decisions.
Keep in mind the leaks that Apple was pissed about were the ACCURATE ones. So, shutting down a place that provided info to us (the Apple product buyers) is good HOW?
Fanboiz. Sheesh.
Well actually they might of "paid" quite literally. Why else would it be a "positive" solution for both sides? (assuming that is correct).
Very sad and a big mistake from Apple. Rumor sites are more or less the only live community of Apple users and I think were a huge benefit to Apple. Consumers can't be expected to rely entirely on Apple marketing statements and press releases. But we've seen it with the Iphone: Apple is trying to be like Microsoft, just worse. This is bad news for Apple users because it shows us just how sad it is all becoming on our side of computing world.
Call me a fanboy, I don't care. I'm not shy to say that I am completely on Apple's side with this one. I'm not going to repeat it as it has already been said on this thread already. But I think that you are looking at this with too narrow of a perspective, you must see the business side of this situation.
I think he was thinking of shutting down anyway. Nowadays all the stuff on Think Secret was stuff I'd read about up to a week before on MacRumors and AppleInsider. They really weren't doing anything active anymore. Reminds of the stuff I see on MacOSRumors, only they're about 300 ft further down the mountain than ThinkSecret is at this point.
"Comments have been disabled for this story"
Of course they are Nick, of course they are.
I agree. There is a line between legit rumo(u)r and speculation and the illegal leaking of confidential information (as with almost every IT company, Apple employees sign legally binding non-disclosure agreements). All those who are so happy to jump on the big bad Apple bandwaggon would be the first to shout foul if their software/products were leaked at an early stage of development and so allowed their competitors to copy/clone/steal their ideas.
yeah, that would be interesting to find out eventually...
i'll miss ThinkSecret... they had some interesting news items.
Why do people think Apple paid money to TS? I see no evidence of that anywhere. (maybe I'm not looking properly)
Apple sued, with a very high powered and expensive legal team. Most probably TS faced either a long, painful case,being forced to shut down and paying a LOT, or making a deal to shut down early, and only paying a small settlement to Apple.
Apple sued, with a very high powered and expensive legal team. Most probably TS faced either a long, painful case,being forced to shut down and paying a LOT, or making a deal to shut down early, and only paying a small settlement to Apple.
And MacRumors next huh? Followed by any other rumour sites. How very dare they!!!
What?!
Your actually happy to loose a mac rumors site?! What's wrong with you???
A large amount of news/rumors comes from Think Secret.
Well, I think it is the duty of all the Jobs fanboys here to request an immediate shutdown of MR.
Well, Apple has not gone after 9to5mac, or Macrumors, or TUAW, or Appleinsider...
This is not about "censorship" or anything close to that. Apple is more than ok with rumors, hype, rumor sites and all its fans buzzing and freaking out with the possibility of a new product being released. That said, it happens to be that secret product information being leaked is a MAJOR threat to a company like Apple that can't live on huge installed user base.
Apple lives on innovation and on the "OMG" factor of their product releases. Just put the Thinksecret lawsuit into perspective, and take a look at the time frame. Apple was developing the iPhone at that very point in time. Guess what a leak of the multitouch interface of the iPhone would have meant for Apple and the most-anticipated-product-launch-ever? Had Thinksecret's source been around leaking info about that before Jan 2007, LG, Samsung, Nokia and the likes would have had waaay enough time to develop an iPhone equivalent even before Apple's came to light. The iPhone would have been dead before launch.
This is just a small example of what happens to a company that bases its success in being innovative, sleek designs and secretly developed gadgets. TS was walking the line, and Apple can't just afford such a danger. Rumors are okay - allowing your inside secrets to be leaked and thus destroy your product marketing schedules and timelines is stupid, and really dangerous.
Anybody remember the iWalk? Or the much-rumored Asteroid audio interface? These products really seemed to be almost finished... but they never were launched because timing was destroyed by leakages. I'd rather have an iPhone today at the expense of ThinkSecret having to stop leaking insider secrets, than being able to read about it in TS in Nov 2006 and Apple losing its wow-factor and its opportunity window for the launch.
A fair agreement is "Rumor sites: guess as much as you want about my products, make up fakes of any kind... but please do not post stolen pics of imminent products or I will ask you to take them down... and do not by any means post secret info -again, be free to guess- of my current product developments or I will be forced to take you to court.
Guessing that Apple was to release a phone was something that everybody did. I can clearly see TS being able to post "Apple about to release Ipod-like, fullscreen phone with no 3G capabilities, integrated WiFi and camera, and multitouch interface" in mid-november had things stayed as they were. And apply this to any other product: iPod Touch, Leopard's Time Machine, and whatever they're preparing for MWSF08.
Sad to see TS go, but if you play with fire you will eventually get burn. Other sites never crossed that line, and well they are now.
This is not about "censorship" or anything close to that. Apple is more than ok with rumors, hype, rumor sites and all its fans buzzing and freaking out with the possibility of a new product being released. That said, it happens to be that secret product information being leaked is a MAJOR threat to a company like Apple that can't live on huge installed user base.
Apple lives on innovation and on the "OMG" factor of their product releases. Just put the Thinksecret lawsuit into perspective, and take a look at the time frame. Apple was developing the iPhone at that very point in time. Guess what a leak of the multitouch interface of the iPhone would have meant for Apple and the most-anticipated-product-launch-ever? Had Thinksecret's source been around leaking info about that before Jan 2007, LG, Samsung, Nokia and the likes would have had waaay enough time to develop an iPhone equivalent even before Apple's came to light. The iPhone would have been dead before launch.
This is just a small example of what happens to a company that bases its success in being innovative, sleek designs and secretly developed gadgets. TS was walking the line, and Apple can't just afford such a danger. Rumors are okay - allowing your inside secrets to be leaked and thus destroy your product marketing schedules and timelines is stupid, and really dangerous.
Anybody remember the iWalk? Or the much-rumored Asteroid audio interface? These products really seemed to be almost finished... but they never were launched because timing was destroyed by leakages. I'd rather have an iPhone today at the expense of ThinkSecret having to stop leaking insider secrets, than being able to read about it in TS in Nov 2006 and Apple losing its wow-factor and its opportunity window for the launch.
A fair agreement is "Rumor sites: guess as much as you want about my products, make up fakes of any kind... but please do not post stolen pics of imminent products or I will ask you to take them down... and do not by any means post secret info -again, be free to guess- of my current product developments or I will be forced to take you to court.
Guessing that Apple was to release a phone was something that everybody did. I can clearly see TS being able to post "Apple about to release Ipod-like, fullscreen phone with no 3G capabilities, integrated WiFi and camera, and multitouch interface" in mid-november had things stayed as they were. And apply this to any other product: iPod Touch, Leopard's Time Machine, and whatever they're preparing for MWSF08.
Sad to see TS go, but if you play with fire you will eventually get burn. Other sites never crossed that line, and well they are now.
<rant>
I think it's out job as the community to let Apple know that we are not pleased. We are what makes them who they are. How many of you sold your friends on iPods before anyone had one? How many of you have convinced your grandparents who are tired of Windows crashing to get a Mac? How many of you waited in line for the iPhone only to have the price drop a few months later?
We were outraged then, we can make a difference now. I hope you all flood sjobs@apple.com with emails about how upset you are that they are going after the rumor sites that make them who they are instead of the source. They took the lazy route, and instead of launching a full fledged internal investigation, they bullied the site that was getting the information. That site has every right to print what it knows to be true.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty pissed. Without these sites and fans, Apple would be still stuck in the mud of the mid 90s. I was looking to buy whatever new Macbook Pro that comes out next month, but now I'm not so sure. Might just build myself a quad-core desktop and buy an ASUS EEE laptop and put hacked copies of OSX on them so Apple doesn't get any money. Greedy jerks. I love Apple's products, but I'm starting to hate the spirit of their company. I'm slowly becoming less and less of a fanboy.
My advice to Apple is to follow Google's motto: "Don't be evil." I wish I could buy a gMachine.
</rant>
I think it's out job as the community to let Apple know that we are not pleased. We are what makes them who they are. How many of you sold your friends on iPods before anyone had one? How many of you have convinced your grandparents who are tired of Windows crashing to get a Mac? How many of you waited in line for the iPhone only to have the price drop a few months later?
We were outraged then, we can make a difference now. I hope you all flood sjobs@apple.com with emails about how upset you are that they are going after the rumor sites that make them who they are instead of the source. They took the lazy route, and instead of launching a full fledged internal investigation, they bullied the site that was getting the information. That site has every right to print what it knows to be true.
I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm pretty pissed. Without these sites and fans, Apple would be still stuck in the mud of the mid 90s. I was looking to buy whatever new Macbook Pro that comes out next month, but now I'm not so sure. Might just build myself a quad-core desktop and buy an ASUS EEE laptop and put hacked copies of OSX on them so Apple doesn't get any money. Greedy jerks. I love Apple's products, but I'm starting to hate the spirit of their company. I'm slowly becoming less and less of a fanboy.
My advice to Apple is to follow Google's motto: "Don't be evil." I wish I could buy a gMachine.
</rant>
Oh! And I had as much fun as anyone else with these predictions and breaking news that TS released from time to time. It is just that they came too accurate, up to a point in which Macworlds stopped being "let's see if any of the rumors become true!!!" and for a moment were more like:
"Alright, here's Steve-o. Let's take out our rumor list... New iLife: check. Headless-under-$500-Mac: check. Under-$100-iPod: check. Great to be with you, bye".
At some point Keynotes lost part of their interest because even the "one-more-thing" had been leaked, pictures, pricing and specs included, days before the event. I prefer something like MWSF07 in which nobody had a clue about what was to come, or the iMac G5 launch of which nobody had seen anything and was a true surprise!! Or the first nano!
That said, I will miss TS and Nick, as much as I missed Spymac when they dilluted into some kind of myspace-wannabe. Rock on Appleinsider and Macrumors!
"Alright, here's Steve-o. Let's take out our rumor list... New iLife: check. Headless-under-$500-Mac: check. Under-$100-iPod: check. Great to be with you, bye".
At some point Keynotes lost part of their interest because even the "one-more-thing" had been leaked, pictures, pricing and specs included, days before the event. I prefer something like MWSF07 in which nobody had a clue about what was to come, or the iMac G5 launch of which nobody had seen anything and was a true surprise!! Or the first nano!
That said, I will miss TS and Nick, as much as I missed Spymac when they dilluted into some kind of myspace-wannabe. Rock on Appleinsider and Macrumors!
No matter whether Apple was right about that or not, it was not a very clever move when it comes to publicity.
I am not so sure of that, though. Would you think the same way if the tabloids published in block letters some private information of your family life or pictures of your naked wife? That's secret, private information, and as much as you need to find out who is leaking that information to the public, you need to make sure that the press keeps behaving with some responsibility, and let them know that it's okay to guess and post mockups, but it's not okay to print and publish that secrets that both of you know are true upcoming things that it's owner and developer does not want to be known as of now.
Another example: let's say that you have two kids, and the 12 year-old finds out by accident that Santa... well, just is something different. And that kid goes to his 6 year-old brother and tells him about that. Of course you would research how the hell did the older one find out, but first of all you would grab your elder son by the ear and tell him not to do so ever again. Got it? Not that you don't love your kids, it's just that sometimes you have to put a stop to some things.
If you think that Apple gave any money to Think Secret, you are not living on the same planet as Steve Jobs.
Think Secret posted trade secrets. Confidential information that was illegally leaked by an employee. I haven't seen MacRumors do that.