Apple suit foreshadows coming products | CNET News.com: “In the suit, Apple outlines the damage that leaks cause, noting that disclosures give competitors a head start and hurt the buzz created around its products. ‘Unauthorized disclosures diminish the interest of both the mainstream and trade media in the launch of a new product,’ Apple said.
Apple makes an effort in the lawsuit to say it is not trying to step on the First Amendment.
‘By this action, Apple does not seek to discourage communication protected by the free-speech guarantees of the United States and California constitutions,’ Apple said in the suit. ‘These constitutionally protected freedoms, however, do not extend to defendants’ unlawful practice of misappropriating and disseminating trade secrets acquired through the deliberate violation of known duties of confidentiality.’”
There’s been a lot of buzz about this recently. Apple is suing a rumors site for disclosing information about the upcoming $500 monitor-less Mac and iWork, a new office suite with a word processor called Pages. It’s worth noting that dePlume publications never signed any NDA with Apple and should be able to talk about whatever they want.
Now, it’s obvious that Apple doesn’t really want to take Think Secret to court. What they want is to threaten Nick dePlume with costly court costs and make him release the names of his sources, which Apple will then presumably kneecap.
But would they be doing this if David Pogue had broken this story for the New York Times? There’s been a lot of talk about bloggers and other web site operators as “citizen journalists”. Do bloggers have the same obligation to protect sources as professional journalists?
In the end, Apple’s really only hurting themselves here. Not only have they lent authenticity to the rumors (there’d be no reason to protect trade secrets that aren’t true), but they’ve forgotten that juicy rumors can help CREATE buzz for upcoming products. Did Doom 3 suffer from all the talk leading up to release? How about Half-Life 2? The Treo 650? Getting your customers excited is some of the best marketing you can do, and Apple is doing their level best to shoot themselves in the foot.
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