Apple is taking legal action against the person who leaked the PowerMac photos back in July 2002:
- 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.