Apple Subpoenas, Sues Over Leaks

CNET reports that Apple has been granted the right to subpoena O'Grady's PowerPage, AppleInsider, and Think Secret over leaks of information concerning an unreleased product code named "Asteroid" and "Q97," which has been described as a FireWire audio interface for use with GarageBand. The subpoenas are related to a lawsuit against an unnamed individual who leaked the information.

Comments

No Story Here

[RazzleFrog]

I am the last person to defend Apple but this is such a non-story. They are not suing these sites. They obviously caught somebody who signed an NDA leaking information and are suing them. These sites are receiving subpoenas because they may be able to verify the identity of said person.

Re:No Story Here

[RazzleFrog]

Not only that but you cannot be subpoenaed in a case against you anyway. A subpoena by nature is a court order to testify and thanks to the Fifth Amendment you cannot be compelled to testify against yourself.

Re:No Story Here

[Ohreally_factor]

The first amendment is often overlooked in our hurry to get to the second amendment. I do it all the time.

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

This should effectively prevent congress from enacting a law that would make it illegal to refuse to name a source. You'll note that when a reporter is punished by a court for such a refusal, he is done so based on contempt of court, not for breaking any law.

Admittedly, it's a complicated issue. We want the courts to have the power to compel testimony but we also want the press to be able to do it's job.

An interesting link on the matter, especially in regards to Branzburg v. Hayes, where the Supreme Court ruled that a Grand Jury investigation could compel such testimony. Also note footnote 187, which says that over half of the states have enacted reporter shield laws.

Re:difference from news

[amichalo]

Apple is not suing those three sites, they are getting those sites to give the sources and unpublished details they have on the Asteroid rumor so they can sue the informant.

Re:Asteroid!

[Kaimelar]

What is GrangeBand? Some kind of audio editing software?

GarageBand is the audio editing/music creation application now included as part of the iLife suite of apps (along with iTunes, iDVD, etc.)

More info at http://www.apple.com/ilife/garageband/

Re:Asteroid!

[BoomerSooner]

It's not too hard to track down, if you try.

Also suing over leaked Tiger developer builds

[kekeruusperi]

They've also sued three ADC members who were distributing developer builds of Mac OS X Tiger via BitTorrent.
Details here and here.

Nothing spectacular here, since besides the obvious copyright infringement, the developer builds are released under NDA.

Fix the headline

[Feral Bueller]

I see subpoenas but no lawsuits other than the John Doe suit which is forcing the subpoena.

I know it' s only 3 weeks before MWSF but let's all act like adults here: if I want fanboi I'll go to PowerPage.

I got all excited at the prospect of PowerPage finally getting shuttered. Don't let me down like that.

Re:Asteroid!

[johnpaul191]

garage band is a simple to use audio application that is part if the iLife suite (iTunes, iPhoto, iDVD, garage band). http://www.apple.com/ilife/

one of the rumor sites said the code name Asteroid was a joke on the term "breakout box".
breakout and asteroid being old school video games.
breakout box being a device that has the multiple A/V ports and connects to the computer with one cable.

they seemed to imply Asteroid and Q97 were internal codenames for the device, not knowing what the shipping name would be. it was implied the device could ship as soon as January's MacWorld expo, or in the next few months. i guess the assumption is that it might ship with the rumored iLife2. OS X 10.4 is due to ship in the next few months too.... and nobody seemed to know if iLife2 would ship with 10.4 or before.

And?

[EspressoMachine]

You can buy a digidesign Mbox factory package for $550. It comes with ProTools LE (the only real limit - practically speaking - is record/playback of 32 simultaneous tracks) and a crapload of really good plug-ins. And the Focus Rite mic pres are pretty nice.

I know that sounds like a commercial, but I actually own one. And I love it. My question is can Apple really compete with that? I mean, ProTools is the industry standard for digital audio recording and editing for a reason.

Then again, I suppose any "musician" who buys Garage Band isn't exactly looking to take their tracks to a real engineer or shop their creation around to record companies, and more than "graphic artists" who use MS Paint would take their creations to a printing press.

Re:Cool, a FireWire audio interface!!!

[2nd Post!]

Well, don't forget their harddrive mp3 player.

Apple doesn't have to be first (though they sometimes are), Apple wants to be the best (and sometimes they are at that, too).

Re:A Judge Comments:

[Anonymous Coward]

It's a spoof of this, which is/was a popular troll (there'd be more hits but Google browses Slashdot at +1) here. It's not even the first time I've spoofed it, and that time too, people took it way too seriously.

Either I have no sense of humour, or the rest of the world doesn't. I guess it's probably me...