December 19, 2007: Apple settles a lawsuit with reporter Nick Ciarelli, ensuing within the shuttering of Suppose Secret, his masssively standard Apple rumors web site. Writing beneath the display screen identify Nick de Plume, the Harvard College pupil broke plenty of Apple tales on the location, elevating Cupertino’s ire.
The phrases of Ciarelli’s settlement with Apple stay secret. In a press release, he says he’ll “be capable of transfer ahead with my school research and broader journalistic pursuits.”
Cupertino drops the hammer on Apple rumors web site Suppose Secret
Anybody who adopted Apple information within the early 2000s in all probability learn Suppose Secret, which Ciarelli launched within the late Nineties. Though he by no means revealed the supply of his scoops, somebody deeply entrenched at Apple (no less than at one time) fed him a gentle stream of correct (or principally correct) reviews about upcoming merchandise.
These included unofficial screenshots of Mac OS X Leopard earlier than Apple launched the working system. The straw that apparently broke the camel’s again, nevertheless, was a collection of reviews on Suppose Secret about an upcoming Macintosh and phrase processing software program.
Suppose Secret reported these rumors in 2004. They had been proven to be true when Apple CEO Steve Jobs debuted the Mac mini and the iWork productiveness suite on the January 2005 Macworld occasion in San Francisco.
Apple: The evil empire?
When Apple sued Suppose Secret for revealing commerce secrets and techniques, opinion among the many firm’s followers diverged wildly. Some noticed the lawsuit as a violation of Apple’s typically pleasant strategy to cultivating followers. Briefly, as Apple climbed again to the highest of the tech world, the corporate used its sources to crack down on a small-time journalist. (Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak grew to become the most important identify to ask Apple to name off the assault canines.)
On a bigger degree, some considered the lawsuit as proof that Apple opposed freedom of the press. These individuals fearful that clamping down on the rumor mill would lead to a sanitized world of Apple information. On this view, the one inside data would come, both instantly or not directly, by way of Apple-sanctioned channels.
Others sided with Apple, arguing that the First Modification doesn’t shield the publication of commerce secrets and techniques. For these of this mindset, it made sense for Apple to go after workers who shared proprietary info with outsiders. Attempting to close down Apple rumors web sites simply made sense.
Stopping such leaks of confidential info seems to have been Apple’s greatest purpose in its conflict in opposition to bloggers on the time. The corporate took comparable authorized motion in opposition to AppleInsider and O’Grady’s PowerPage.
Apple’s conflict on rumors and Suppose Secret
Steve Jobs introduced secrecy again to Cupertino when he returned to Apple in 1997. This triggered a giant tradition shock inside the corporate. Through the early Nineties, Apple had been one of many extra leak-heavy firms in Silicon Valley.
Nonetheless, Apple leaks proceed to today, and you may think about them making individuals fairly loopy in Cupertino. In recent times, Apple intensified its makes an attempt to close down the rumor mill. In 2021, CEO Tim Prepare dinner issued a company-wide memo that stated, “Individuals who leak confidential info don’t belong right here.” (That electronic mail promptly leaked to the media, in fact.)
Suppose Secret writer Ciarelli by no means shared particulars on the fallout from his authorized battle with Apple. Nonetheless, he claimed to be an Apple fan earlier than and after the swimsuit completed. In accordance with LinkedIn, he at the moment works for BookBub, an organization he co-founded in 2012. BookBub alerts readers to limited-time free and discounted e-books matching their pursuits.
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