Apple filed court documents against ThinkSecret.com two weeks ago, alleging that recent postings on the site contain Apple trade secrets. The lawsuit aims to identify who is leaking the information and to get an injunction preventing further release of trade secrets.
Harvard University student Nicholas Ciarelli, who calls himself Nick dePlume online, is the publisher and editor of ThinkSecret.com. Ciarelli is not named as a defendant in the Apple lawsuit, but according to the Associated Press he needs free or low-cost legal help to defend himself against allegations that have been made.
Kurt Opsahl, an attorney for civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has claimed that in addition to the ThinkSecret site being subpoenaed for sources, Ciarelli is being directly sued for trade secret misappropriation.
A spokeswoman for Apple declined to comment on Ciarelli or on the ThinkSecret lawsuit.
ThinkSecret.com wrote at the end of December that Apple was expected to launch a small Mac computer, codenamed Q88 priced at $499. Two weeks later Apple launched the Mac mini at Macworld.
An online petition has been started calling for Apple to withdraw the suit.
In a separate lawsuit, Apple is suing two men who it says distributed pre-release versions of Tiger, the next iteration of Mac OS X. It is also suing unnamed individuals who leaked details about a forthcoming music device code-named Asteroid.
Talkback
This young man has done nothing wrong, rather than cause harm to Apples interests he has gererated curiosity and in so doing promoted Apple products. The real wrondoers are in Apples employ, that is where the breach of trust originated and where any meaningful investigation should begin. I wonder, has Bill Gates taken control of Apple and replaced cool and hip with a nasty boy team?
Apple have always been ready to brandish their lawyers for the worst possible reasons. Remeber the old "look and feel" court cases of the late 80's when Apple tried to pretend that they invented the GUI? Remember the Free Software Foundation boycott of all Apple products and Apple-related development? Same tiger, same stripes as ever.
I can't see this being hip with the young market, this is just like the RIAA - and nobody <30 likes them. Is this the downward slope of Apples cool image?
Apple always does this. They take a step forward and two steps back.
At this crtical point the last thing they can afford to do is ruin their image. Again.
But we knew this suit was taking place before Macworld and so it may be the case that someone on the inside of Apple may be giving away stuff. I may be wrong but Apple may just be defending their interests and as it was before Macworld it's more 2 steps back followed by one step forward.
And they call Bill Gates the devil? F Apple and the horse it rode in on....