Legal threat over Leopard article: how Apple keeps the media on-message
Dan Warne12 July 2007, 9:05 AM
Apple sure does like to use its lawyers to ensure that the only thing you ever hear about Apple products is exactly what the marketing department wants you to know.
Danny Gorog recently published an article about the upcoming version of OS X, "Leopard". It was wholly positive and talked about small user interface refinements in Leopard.
Early this morning, APC received a letter from Apple's US-based lawyers.
Apple's lawyer wrote that, "the software has been distributed to developers under strict terms of confidentiality that prohibit any dissemination of screenshots or confidential details of its operation. The software is also copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law specifically prohibits unauthorized distribution and displays of copyrighted works. The software contains Apple trade secrets, moreover, the unauthorized dissemination of which is also prohibited by law."
And the lawyer demanded we take the article down.
APC is not bound by any sort of confidentiality agreement with Apple, and we were writing about things like Spaces, Stacks and Leopard's new look that Steve Jobs has demonstrated at length in his recent MacWorld keynote.
Nevertheless, in an effort to reach an amicable resolution we removed the screenshots from the article.
Unfortunately that was not the end of it. Apple's lawyers weren't happy simply with the removal of the screenshots and demanded the removal of the entire article, citing "trade secret misappropriation", a legal concept that exists in the United States but not Australia.
"Apple is prepared to take further legal action," the lawyer threatened.
APC complied with Apple's demands because we didn't want to waste money