apple news/media reports
01/14/2005, 11:30am, EST
Friday, January 14th
WP: Harvard freshmen triggers lawsuit by Apple
An in-depth article by The Washington Post looks at Apple's lawsuit against Mac rumor site Think Secret saying that "Ciarelli, now a 19-year-old Harvard University freshman, is part of a legion of Internet news gatherers whose influence is expanding as concern grows in some quarters about their accountability and journalistic standards. With the easy anonymity offered by online posting of tips and digital photographs, Web sites run by product buffs have caused headaches, and generated valuable buzz, for companies in many industries -- including automobile and cell phone manufacturers -- by leaking product information."
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Apple -- beating up on their young fans. They should delay this lawsuit, since it's all based on rumor and speculation anyhow. He clearly didn't buy any information, or bully anyone into revealing information -- that will be difficult for Apple to prove. The rest is up to his abilities to determine the signal from the noise. I mean, there has been xMac speculation for years. One hits the mark and suddenly it's a trade secret?
Good hunches and journalistic methods are upheld in court as protected speech. Just look at Matt Drudge, who is the first journalist sued by a sitting President for very similar issues and he won. Well, in his case it was a libel issue, but an online journalism scoop is the same as a newspaper one.
Of course, you have to prove the 'knowingly' part.
By private compay do you mean their stocks is not trade publicly? Or do you mean corporations? And no, corporations do not have that right.
Go read up on some laws first or at least preface your comments with IANAL rather than making up facts.
1) He never induced anyone to reveal any trade secrets. He never compensated his sources with fame nor fortune. His solicitation thus doesn't seem to border anywhere near industrial espionage.
2) Information *about* Apple's products doesn't constitute a trade secret. Trade secrets are unpatented technical specifications that can aid in the reproduction a product. Considering what ThinkSecret released was just press information, press information Apple itself was going to release at MWSF mind you, it doesn't seem as Nick was traffiking in trade secrets.