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Apple Sues Employee Over Cube Leaks
Carnage4Life writes:"Apple has found out the employee who leaked pictures of the PowerMac G4 Cube. So Apple has modified its original lawsuit against "unknown individual" for leaking trade secrets
and changed the name to that of the employee in court filings. So as not to embarass any employees with the same name Apple has not revealed the employee's name as at now."
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/cn/20000829/tc/apple_ identifies_employee_as_a lleged_source_of_leaks_4.html
I think the employee's name is pronounced screwed.
The Onion saw this coming!
Apple Employee Fired for Thinking Different!
I've heard that's a great way to build confidence within the ranks, just sinlge out a few employees and rape them. Worked for Stalin!
--
What happens when you outlaw guns
I can now exclusively disclose some exciting features about apples forthcoming laptop:
:)
It will not be beige in colour
It will be smaller than a convential desktop
It will have a colour screen
It will run off exclusively designed lightweight batteries, and an optional powersupply
It will not come with Windows preinstalled
The device will have a non-typical texture
It will be easy to use
It will quite possibly be shiny
It will quite possibly have rubbery bits
sue me
--
--
MacSlash: Your Daily Dose of Mac News and Discussion.
They don't want to embarass any employees with the same name, so they're not releasing it? Fat lot of good that does John Doe! His name has been dragged through the mud enough already! He's been sued several thousand times, got amnesia more times than he cna remember, but nobody ever keeps John's name out of the press to protect his feelings!
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
Read the article before trying to get your posts in guys, it won't slow you down too much on your quest to be the first one to bash whatever corporation is involved no matter what the story is.
sig:
sig:
See the "..for smart people" banners Wired runs here? Look elsewhere guys.
He's my cube-mate, John Jacob Jingle-Heimer Schmitt. I tell ya, whenever he goes out there's confusion and shouting...
Kevin Fox
Kevin Fox
This must be hundreth time that somebody who posted leeks "anonymously" got caught because Yahoo turned over their personal identification. One would have had to live with one's head under a rock not to know that Yahoo can't be trusted for shit. So why do these idiots keep doing it so that they can get caught??
There are ways of staying more or less anonymous on the web, or at least making things dificult for would be censors. This ranges from submitting to a site that at least has a good track record (such as Slashdot) to going through a rewebber like Anonymizer, to using a true Anonymity service like ZKS Freedom or posting to the Usenet via a Mixmaster remailer.
It's hard to feel sorry for somebody so stupid that they thought not having their name on the post was enough to stay anonymous...
I have it on the best authority that the name of the previous "Unknown Individual" is **%%***}@#***%****}}****)***%*********ause Ellison thought the Apple | Microsoft connetion was too***%*%%***}}}}}****&**}}****}***@*ccording to KGB files, which were foun***}}}***%%#$$}}}@@*****!****.}***exican Mafia was paid off by someone in Arthur C. Cla****%%***ASA/FBI underco*}}}}}}***}}}******001 Space Odessy really! If you don't believe me, look at those picture of Europa ag*******}}}*****$****ven Jobs really is an ali*****%%}}}}******* Cubes will hatch****}}}}***%%%%****%*}}}******laving the entire human race.
There you have it. Now I gotta go get another modem this one's fu*%%}}
Vote Naked 2000
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
It is simply spin control, because the person's name is....
STEVE JOBS!
The employee violated a NDA. The employee was a sneaky bastard while violating the NDA. He did it under an assumed username and made posts to several forums. The employee obviously knew that what he was doing was in violation of the NDA.
I suspect this employee has learned a valuable lesson.
-- You see, there would be these conclusions that you could jump to
For all of you who are siding with the employee concerned - don't bother. If you're ever called upon to sign an NDA, you can make that decision for yourself, just as he did. He decided to sign it; he decided to breach it. His fault.
What we should really be concerned about is the willingness of Yahoo to roll over for a corporation. If you went to them and said, "I want to know all the info you have on this person", they'd tell you to buzz off. Why is a corporation treated differently? In fact, this isn't even a criminal case; it's a civil suit, so it's not obstruction of justice to not release the necessary info.
Boo to /. for once again getting the news wrong and double-boo to all of those who once agin posted without bothering to look up the material for themselves.
I don't read ACs: If a post isn't worth so much as a nom de plume to its author then I wont bother either.
"Until recently I worked for Apple, and was not permitted to tell the world the truth about Apples internal technologies. But, now that I am no longer employed (though not at all disgruntled, honest) I can speak the truth.
Apple runs Linux on all it's internal servers! There! The truth is finally out.
Apple runs Linux everywhere. In fact, they preload it on all machines to test them properly, and then load MacOS for shipment to customers. Apple will not use MacOS in-house because it's not stable enough, the GUI looks too unprofessional, and (especially with the candy colored Aqua UI) the interns keep licking the screen. Steve Jobs often says "GUIs are for panty-waists and tree-huggers! Real people use C shell!"
Further more, Apple does not use any colorful or rounded cases in-house. Yes, Apple employees prefer beige, blocky cases, since it makes them feel like real professionals.
Oh, and Orcale has something to do with it as well.
Resumes provided upon request."
There you have it folks, the truth behind Apple's colorful peal. And you heard it here first.
The REAL jabber has the /. user id: 13196
The REAL jabber has the user id: 13196
What you do today will cost you a day of your life
However, I've begun to notice that it simply is not possible for a programmer to gain full time or contract employment without signing an NDA. In essence, there is an intellectual property cartel, whose near-complete grasp on the job market allows it to slowly ratchet up the restrictiveness of employee NDAs.
The prospective employee could, of course, choose to enter another professions, or start his own company. Or his services might be so valuable that he could have the NDA requirement waived. Nevertheless, it seems like the little guy who is coming right out of college and into an entry level position with a software firm in the United States is getting the shaft. Those other options are not attractive, or even possible.
Does anyone think that one could make a legal argument that the NDA was signed under protest, or duress, due to the complete industry lockout of anyone who won't sign an NDA?
"Your Honor - I kept telling Mr Jobs - the roof - it leaks over my cube ... right onto the computer - but he didn't do anything other than screaming at me to stop complaining and work harder ..... then one day there was this blinding flash ...."
Trade secrets are trade secrets. Use or disclosure of trade secrets is not only actionable, but its also quite wrong -- wrong in the way we all understand the word.
Information is leveraged by companies for commercial advantage in a variety of ways and for a variety of reasons. At times the timing of the release of that information can be critical. Whether a particular act was or was not problematic for Apple at the end of the day, uncontrolled leaks of confidential and trade secret information rob the company of something -- if only the discretion to make their own decisions when the informaiton is to be released. The degree of actual harm to Apple goes only to the measure of the damages, and not to the degree with which the conduct was wrong.
This employee broke the rules, probably broke his or her employment agreement, and did something he or she knew or should have known was wrong.
If Apple "just let it go," as some here have suggested, other employees may well be encouraged to trade information for favors. Whether it needs to press the point or not is, IMHO, Apple's call and Apple's perogative.
We do ourselves and our causes no service by defending the indefensible. This employee, who was trusted with confidential information about new unannounced products, should not have shared it with anyone else.
>willingness of Yahoo to roll over for a
>corporation. If you went to them and said, "I
>want to know all the info you have on this
>person", they'd tell you to buzz off. Why is a
>corporation treated differently?
It's simple really. Steve Jobs didn't just call up Jerry Yang and say "Hey, could you tell us who this guy is?"
Apple filed suit against "John Doe" first, and was therfore able to issue a subpeona to Yahoo for the info in question. Yahoo's privacy policy has an exception in it saying that they WILL turn over your information if required, by law, to do so. Well guess what... discovery procedings before a civil trial give the plaintiff the right to subpoena pretty much anything they feel related to the case. And a subpoena, issued in California, IS legally binding against Yahoo... were they to refuse, I don't think any PERSON would go to jail for contempt, but the company would be facing some hefty fines.
It's not a matter of one corperation kissing another's ass... it's a matter of complying with the law. If YOU *DID* file a lawsuit against a Yahoo user, YOU would ALSO have the right to subpoena yahoo's records on that person.
This was actually covered on
Here's a clue to the Yahoo bashers:
Corperations are *NOT* your friend. They may supply a service you like at a good price, and the staff may be friendly. But the corperation is *NOT* your friend. They will NOT fight YOUR legal battle FOR you!!! (unless you pay them a lot of money to do so, and that's only if we're talking about a law firm)
john
Resistance is NOT futile!!!
Haiku:
I am not a drone.
Remove the collective if
Imagine all the people...
A cartel is a group restricting output, working as a group instead of competing with one another. Among other conditions, you must have a way to keep newcomers out.
The folks that want NDA's, however, are *fiercely* competitive, both in the product market and for employees. A more reasonable conclusion is that NDA's are necessary to the the firm in order for it to compete successfully; otherwise, the firms would drop the NDA's, saving time and money while regaining a recruiting edge.
hawk