|
MTP
Ace
Posts: 7,614
Join Date: Mar, 2003
|
 |
« on: January 25, 2005, 06:04:22 PM » |
|
As some of you may recall, Apple filed a lawsuit against ThinkSecret for doing what it has always done. They post "rumors" on upcoming Apple hardware releases. Some are dead on, some are far-fetched. Thinksecret has obtained a lawyer to help defend themselves. However, I am curious to how every else views this. Every hardware / software has rumors that get leaked out at one point or another. Hell, I would wager that sometimes it is done for PR alone by the manufacturer. I would think Apple would welcome this PR from ThinkSecret because it helps heighten the frenzy for the upcoming stuff. I hit Thinksecret at least once a week to see whats going on. |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
MTP
Ace
Posts: 7,614
Join Date: Mar, 2003
|
|
« Reply #1 on: January 25, 2005, 06:04:22 PM » |
|
ThinkSecret vs Apple
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
stebesplace
Ace
Posts: 1,591
Join Date: Feb, 2004
|
|
« Reply #2 on: January 25, 2005, 06:44:10 PM » |
|
I do as well, sometimes more than once a week. I think there is no problem since it is classified "rumor" and therefore MAY OR MAY NOT occur. I belive thats a loose translation but in all honesty, it should be fine to produce rumors based on information it may have recieved annonymously or from a certified person. What does it matter if a product is rumored about? That should make the 1st day sales all the more better.
-- Stebes
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
OurFord
Regular
Posts: 164
Join Date: Aug, 2003
|
|
« Reply #3 on: January 25, 2005, 07:35:22 PM » |
|
I don't know much about NDA's and that sort of stuff but I would think Apple should go after the person (if it was an internal employee) rather than the website which aired that source's information.
my 2cents
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Sam Mayes
Ace
Posts: 1,326
Join Date: Mar, 2002
|
|
« Reply #4 on: January 25, 2005, 10:32:14 PM » |
|
They dont have a case. i dont remember reading or hearing that TS forced someone to break their NDA or contract. I think they may be doing it to try to find the source as that will most likely come out in court proceedings. And considering it is a RUMOR site and sending rumors to them is strictly voluntary. No shot of getting anything out of this except bad PR
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
JhuFrank
Veteran
Posts: 461
Join Date: Jan, 2004
|
|
« Reply #5 on: January 26, 2005, 04:00:05 AM » |
|
Ford and Sam, I agree with you both. Apple ought to be headhunting internally... Actually, I bet they already are  Also, the poor Harvard student who runs the site can't even afford an attorney, so I think that takes any money incentive via TS out of the case. How could he have illegally paid Apple employees for their secrets? Maybe he has a hidden stash somewhere... :::shrug::: I am pretty sure this falls under Freedom of the Press, unless Apple has the influence to take away another of our civil rights. If this was M$, I would be very scared  |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
JhuFrank
Veteran
Posts: 461
Join Date: Jan, 2004
|
|
« Reply #6 on: January 26, 2005, 04:01:25 AM » |
|
If this ends up going up the court chain in appeals, it could set an important precedence one way or the other for internet publishing.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
Fontaine
Ace
Posts: 2,845
Join Date: Mar, 2003
|
|
« Reply #7 on: January 26, 2005, 04:38:25 AM » |
|
Why fight your friend?
Basicly that is what it is, it's stupid.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
xbob1
Regular
Posts: 168
Join Date: Jun, 2004
|
|
« Reply #8 on: January 26, 2005, 07:30:09 AM » |
|
I think Apple is really after TS to give up their sources and find out who their leak is, of course it looks and plays out like David vs. Goliath on paper, but I'm not sure Apple is completely off the mark on this one.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
fall-apart
Ace
Posts: 7,858
Join Date: Sep, 2002
|
|
« Reply #9 on: January 26, 2005, 05:13:56 PM » |
|
Is the case still on? I was sure when they filed it, that it was a publicity stunt to get people guessing which of TS's rumours might be true...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
MTP
Ace
Posts: 7,614
Join Date: Mar, 2003
|
|
« Reply #10 on: January 26, 2005, 05:31:31 PM » |
|
Yes it is still on. The header from Thinksecret I linked is only a few days old (Jan19).
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
TheEagleCD
Ace
Posts: 3,367
Join Date: Dec, 2002
|
|
« Reply #11 on: January 26, 2005, 07:01:58 PM » |
|
Yeah, I agree that Apple is mainly doing this to find out who the leak was (even though the ThinkSecret guy seems set on not telling them) and to make the point that leaking advance information seriously annoys them and you'd better not do it! But I think that the risk they're taking is quite high - the David VS. Goliath comparison is quite good and we all knew who won, don't we...  TheEagleCD |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
UglyShoes
Ace
Posts: 4,934
Join Date: Mar, 2003
|
|
« Reply #12 on: January 26, 2005, 11:37:20 PM » |
|
I think apple has a case. I'm sure they are looking for the leak, but at the same time sites like TS are enabling the leaks, if you had no place to put your leak you would have no reason to leak it.
Leaks do hurt apples business, they don't want people knowing about future products to protect sales of those products. It's the way apple works, don't say anything till you have it ready to go, no vapor ware that way, no dead sales waiting for a launch date. Also leaks/rumors can really screw with stock prices, and just the general consumer base, if ideas get going about what apple is going to do, then apple doesn't deliver (perhaps cause it doesn't exist) their stock price could take a hit cause people think there is some apple failing going on. Also their is the insider trading issue. If someone knows something, they could get charged with insider trading for using that to go buy more apple stock before a release, or stock in a supplier before a release. But if they leak info about the release, that becomes mute. Since now they can go and buy that stock and not catch much eyes cause it was on the basis of what might be, say they have a friend go buy the stock, the friend can say he was believing the rumor and no one can touch him on that. There is a lot to these things.
The other thing is simple ethics and such. I'm sure apple doesn't care much about rumors and people dreaming. As long as rumors are just products of imaginations and looking through released info. But when it's not, that is much different from a rumor, and someone like think secret should know the difference between someone's idea, and someone leaking something.
On a more personal level, how would you like to be steve jobs and have all the excitement of his keynote completely taken away? everyone knew what was coming, thats no fun, plus it mutes any stock bounce they could expect to get that day. I think all the rumored stuff came out that was expected for it. Now just think if one big thing was just a rumor, that could leave the keynote like a failure to many since they thought something was indeed coming and it wasn't.
I really get sick of people thinking you can just through basic ethics out the window on stuff like this.
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
fall-apart
Ace
Posts: 7,858
Join Date: Sep, 2002
|
|
« Reply #13 on: January 27, 2005, 01:51:12 PM » |
|
I don't know about pluggin internal leaks leading to no rumours or vapourware. People are too connected nowadays. For instance, one of the things that most spurred the rumours of a flash-based iPod was the financial disclosure statement that a memory manufacturer filed listing who was buying stuff from them. Because they're publicly accessible documents (SEC, I think), the rumour mills were working overtime wondering what Steve & Co. were doing buying all that flash memory...
|
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
TheEagleCD
Ace
Posts: 3,367
Join Date: Dec, 2002
|
|
« Reply #14 on: January 27, 2005, 05:31:40 PM » |
|
Good points fall-apart! Just take a look at this story called "Toshiba unveils 80GB 'iPod drive'" which indicates that Apple might introduce 80GB iPods in Q3 2005 as Toshiba will be able to supply these drives by then. The Japanese manufacturer didn't mention any customers by name of course, but having supplied Apple with micro hard drives to date, it seems likely the relationship will continue with the new, higher capacity.ATI's and Nvidia's drivers (or rather some ini or cfg files IIRC) have also been found to include the names of upcoming and unannounced games. So there's plenty of ways how rumours are created and it's not always an internal leak... TheEagleCD |
|
|
|
|
Logged
|
|
|
|
|
