The Opposite of Taking the Boeing?
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Steven Taylor | Friday, December 21, 2007 |
Via the LAT: After outing Apple for years, blog shuts down
After a long battle with Apple Inc., a Harvard University senior said Thursday that he would shut down Think Secret, the website known for landing scoops about the company’s latest products. Apple was peeved by the leaks and sued him in 2005.
The site’s demise prompted outrage from some Apple followers, but in this case David — aka Nicholas Ciarelli — got his own happy ending: freedom from having to run the site anymore. Ciarelli, 22, graduates this spring and said he was more than ready to abandon the site he had run since he was a 13-year-old Mac fanatic.
He also received a payment from Apple, according to a person familiar with the case. Both sides declined to discuss details of the agreement.
Hopefully it was a generous payment.
This story has long struck me as odd, given that I can see no basis for Apple blocking the publication of rumors. If they have an employee violating a non-disclosure agreement, then go after that employee. Further, it is ironic, at a minimum, that a technology company that seeks to be on the cutting edge would fail to recognize that a) it was almost impossible to stop this type of behavior and that b) it would ultimately lead to more bad PR than anything else. Of course, as the piece notes, Apple was acting like a big bully.
About the Author: Steven is an Associate Professor of Political Science at Troy University in Alabama. He is the author of the book Voting Amid Violence: Electoral Democracy in Colombia, forthcoming from University of New England Press and the contributing editor on Colombia to the Library of Congress’s Handbook of Latin American Studies. He has his PhD from the University of Texas in Austin and a BA from the University of California at Irvine.
He does most of his blogging at PoliBlog, which he started in February 2003.
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I can see no basis for Apple blocking the publication of rumors
"There is only one Lord of Apple! Only one who can bend it to his will. And he… does… not… share… power!"
