Apple sues over leaks

Apple is suing anonymous people who by posting information on the Internet, court documents showed on Friday. Apple's complaint, filed with the Santa Clara County California Superior Court, comes only weeks ahead of the Macworld conference in San Francisco, where Apple is expected to unveil its latest products.

"Apple is notoriously secretive about its product plans, while many fan sites routinely discuss what may be in store, including posting pictures of real products and hoaxes," says Reuters. The complaint alleges that "an unidentified individual, acting alone or in concert with others, has recently misappropriated and disseminated through Web sites confidential information about an unreleased Apple product."



In recent weeks, the Mac rumor sites have been buzzing with speculation that Apple will introduce a smaller, cheaper version of its iPod that uses flash memory.



In August 2000, Apple announced it was suing "John Doe," an unnamed invidual, for leaking company trade secrets on the Web. Unlike other suits by companies designed to shore up leaks, including Adobe's 2000 suit against MacNN, Apple was targeting the individuals responsible for the leak rather than the outlets that published the information.



In December 2002, Apple sued a former contractor who allegedly posted drawings, images and engineering details of the company's PowerMac G4 computer in July of that year, several weeks before the product was officially unveiled. The company filed a civil complaint against Jose Lopez in California Superior Court, alleging that he "misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract by posting schematic drawings, images and engineering details of the company's new Power Mac G4 computers on the Internet in July, several weeks before the product was formally announced in August."

by MacNN Staff