Apple Takes Legal Action Against Leak
Apple is taking legal action against the person who leaked the PowerMac photos back in July 2002:
A user named "AppleP58" posted PDF design sketches of the soon-to-be-released MDD PowerMacs on MacRumors' forums in this thread on July 21, 2002. Shortly thereafter, MacBidouille posted actual photos of the upcoming PowerMacs.
- Apple, Cupertino, Calif., today filed a civil complaint against Jose Lopez in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County. In the complaint, the personal computer maker alleges that Mr. Lopez, who was employed as a contractor in 2001 through this year, misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract. Apple says Mr. Lopez posted schematic drawings, images and engineering details of the company's new Power Mac G4 computers on the Internet in July, several weeks before the product was formally announced in August.
A user named "AppleP58" posted PDF design sketches of the soon-to-be-released MDD PowerMacs on MacRumors' forums in this thread on July 21, 2002. Shortly thereafter, MacBidouille posted actual photos of the upcoming PowerMacs.
Apple Legal quickly sent cease and desist letters causing removal of the PDF and Images.
It is unknown if AppleP58 is the defendant (Jose Lopez) or simply a contact or another individual who received the images from Mr. Lopez.
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120 months ago
http://biz.yahoo.com/djus/021211/1601000764_1.html
Apple today filed a civil complaint against a former contractor who allegedly posted schematic drawings, images and engineering details of the company's latest Power Mac G4 on the Internet in July, several weeks before the product was officially announced. Dow Jones Newswires report that the complaint was filed against Jose Lopez in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County. Apple alleges that Lopez, who was employed as a contractor in 2001 through this year, "misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract." Last week, Sacramento district attorney Jan Scully filed a criminal complaint against Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. "Innovation is in Apple's DNA, so the protection of trade secrets is crucial to our success. Our policy is to take legal actions where necessary to preserve the confidentiality of our intellectual property," Apple said in a statement. Apple's action follows that of the district attorney in Sacramento, Jan Scully. Last week, the district attorney filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. The district attorney's office didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
This isn't the first time Apple has taken legal action to stop leakages of company information. In 2000, Apple sued a former worker, Juan Gutierrez, for posting pictures on several Web sites of upcoming Apple products such as the new iBook laptop. Apple later reached a settlement with Mr. Gutierrez.
Apple today filed a civil complaint against a former contractor who allegedly posted schematic drawings, images and engineering details of the company's latest Power Mac G4 on the Internet in July, several weeks before the product was officially announced. Dow Jones Newswires report that the complaint was filed against Jose Lopez in California Superior Court in Santa Clara County. Apple alleges that Lopez, who was employed as a contractor in 2001 through this year, "misappropriated trade secrets and breached his contract." Last week, Sacramento district attorney Jan Scully filed a criminal complaint against Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. "Innovation is in Apple's DNA, so the protection of trade secrets is crucial to our success. Our policy is to take legal actions where necessary to preserve the confidentiality of our intellectual property," Apple said in a statement. Apple's action follows that of the district attorney in Sacramento, Jan Scully. Last week, the district attorney filed a criminal complaint against Mr. Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest. The district attorney's office didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.
This isn't the first time Apple has taken legal action to stop leakages of company information. In 2000, Apple sued a former worker, Juan Gutierrez, for posting pictures on several Web sites of upcoming Apple products such as the new iBook laptop. Apple later reached a settlement with Mr. Gutierrez.
120 months ago
I'm not sure if you were around then, but the person mentioned in the article first posted all that stuff on Macrumors first!
Here's the thread.
Guess we all know who APPLEP58 is now.
Here's the thread.
Guess we all know who APPLEP58 is now.
120 months ago
filed a criminal complaint against Lopez for stealing Apple's trade secrets and issued a warrant for his arrest.
Wow, I can see they're a little pissed off :D
Better watch out!
120 months ago
Originally posted by edvniow
I'm not sure if you were around then, but the person mentioned in the article first posted all that stuff on Macrumors first!
Here's the thread.
Guess we all know who APPLEP58 is now.
120 months ago
I don't think it was necessarily Jose - there was mention in the submission section that he had to translate the info from French. Jose might have let it slip out to someone in France (MacBidouille) and then they were the ones to post it here to MacRumors.
But who knows, all that might have been done to be misleading on purpose, but MacBidouille had the images before anyone else.
D
But who knows, all that might have been done to be misleading on purpose, but MacBidouille had the images before anyone else.
D
120 months ago
ouch. that was the man who encouraged me indirectly to buy the mac i use today, and now look where he's at. AppleP58, thanks for the scoop, and good luck dealing with the lawyers :\
120 months ago
Sometimes we can just go too far, in wanting new content and pushing for more, that we forget how this info may come to us, and that may just be AGAINST THE LAW.
Some of us may be in jobs where we may come across sensitive data, let this be a lesson, that this info should not leave that environment, and had probably had signed a confidentiality agreement and that should be honored. No matter how "kewl" it would be to leak this out to the surrounding community first before Apple or what ever company may release it.
The rumors community should respect this, and I am wondering what Arn has to say about this.
Some of us may be in jobs where we may come across sensitive data, let this be a lesson, that this info should not leave that environment, and had probably had signed a confidentiality agreement and that should be honored. No matter how "kewl" it would be to leak this out to the surrounding community first before Apple or what ever company may release it.
The rumors community should respect this, and I am wondering what Arn has to say about this.
120 months ago
I think Groovebuster owes this guy an apology, looking at how he treated him in that thread... Better think twice before taking on such a guy in the future Groovebuster!
-Dr. D.
-Dr. D.
120 months ago
Originally posted by Dr. Distortion
I think Groovebuster owes this guy an apology, looking at how he treated him in that thread... Better think twice before taking on such a guy in the future Groovebuster!
-Dr. D.
Groovebuster needed to do that a long time ago. I'm still not sure that AppleP58 and Jose are the same guy though.
And why would the French get the pic before evenyone else if he was in California, it doesn't make sense.
D
120 months ago
Wow, that was further back then I thought.
We can only hope that people remain this forthcoming in the future.
We can only hope that people remain this forthcoming in the future.
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