Student seeks legal help in Apple case

The 19-year-old student who runs the Mac enthusiast site Think Secret, which is being sued by Apple Computer, has warned he may struggle to afford to defend himself.

Apple filed court documents against Think Secret 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.

Nicholas Ciarelli, who calls himself Nick dePlume online, is the publisher and editor of Think Secret. 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 Think Secret lawsuit.

Think Secret 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 the Macworld Expo.

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.

Ingrid Marson of ZDNet UK reported from London.

[Jonathan]

Thanks for posting the petition site!

I now get to try and google my way to it. Thanks for nothing guys.

[Dibbs]

yeah well...

...that's what they're here for.

actually they do include more outside links than they used to. and hyper-link over load is no fun. it's like reading a Bible with Jesus's words in red, except here it'd look more like their web page had a rash. not very easy to read. but still i agree with you; they should include the link.

Not so secret after all

If a company wants to maintain a so-called
"trade secret", it should be up to that company
to keep that information secret.

If some kid finds out your company's strategic
plans then apparently those plans were never
really "trade secrets" to begin with.

Trade secrets are not on file with any patent or copyright office. Perhaps they are not
protectable under intellectual property law,
or perhaps the company thinks that it can do a
better job of protecting that information by
keeping it secret rather than putting it in a
disclosure statement.

It general, it is well known under what
circumstances two people can keep a secret.
Nonetheless, some companies (such as Coca-Cola)
seem perfectly capable of maintaining trade
secrets.

My point being this: Apple, why don't you identify
the person within your company that leaked the
information to the kid and fire and/or sue that
person. But, leave the young enthusiast alone.
If your future product plans were trade secrets,
he wouldn't have known about them. But he did
know about them - so they were not trade secrets.

IANAL.

uh...

"Not so secret after all"

That's a stupid comment. Of course it's no longer a secret after
someone leaks it all over the web! That's the issue at hand ... a
secret was leaked!

"it should be up to that company to keep that information
secret"

That's exactly why they're suing ... because the kid knowingly
published trade secrets on the web! How did he know they were
trade secrets, because the inside person he got the info from
signed a nondisclosure agreement.

"Apple, why don't you identify the person within your company
that leaked the information to the kid and fire and/or sue that
person"

Uh, that's one reason why they're suing the kid ... to find out
who leaked the information. He refuses to give up his source.

"If your future product plans were trade secrets, he wouldn't
have known about them"

If a company makes any reasonable attempt at keeping
information private, such as making people sign nondisclosure
agreements, then that information can be considered by law to
be a trade secret and protected under the law.

If the kid would give up his source ... and it is determined that
the source did in fact sign a nondisclosure agreement, then the
information in question was in fact obtained illegally. Which
would mean the kid can be held liable as well the person who
broke the agreement. This is why the kid needs legal
representation ... he knows he's in trouble.

This really is not so difficult to understand. It's almost the same
as being liable for receiving stolen goods. You're held
accountable, especially if you actually knew the goods were
stolen.

Nick's dilemma...

I think the real problem here is that Nick has a friend who knows
a lot about what Apple is up to. This friend of his, as most
friends would do, just likes to mention things off handedly about
things that he's working on. Unfortunately, for this friend, he is
completely unaware that Nick happens to run a Mac rumors
website. Why is he unaware of this? Because Nick uses an alias
on the site. Perhaps it's easier to get people to tell you
something when you're a nobody, or acting as one. Well now
that Nick has been exposed, this friend of his is panicking,
worried that Apple will find out who he is. So now Nick needs to
find legal counsel to determine what his options are at this
point, to hopefully keep this friend of his protected and hidden
away. It's the least a friend could do. Right?

The problem is, Apple wants and needs to get rid of people
willing to give away its secrets. Wanted because that person
can't be trusted and should longer be allowed access to that
information and needed because Apple's survival is based off
innovation and invention and having all your research and
development plastered all over the web is not going to give you
the edge you were looking for to stay ahead of the pack.

Nick is not an innocent in this. He is a Mac fan who just craves
any information he can get about Apple's products. At least that
is understandable. I often visit rumor sites just to see what may
lay ahead in Macs future. The problem with these sites is that
too many people are turning to them for "facts." Rumors are
"untruths," speculation, fiction. And it's one thing to write about
what you think or hope is coming up ... It's another to post
known trade secrets.