Apple Sics Lawyers on SomethingAwful

bheer writes "Apple has sent a threatening letter to SomethingAwful about a post in its forums that describes how to fix the overheating in some MacBook Pros by applying thermal paste properly, according to a post on Gizmodo. The post includes a brief excerpt from Apple's Service Source Manual which Apple wants removed. Gizmodo continues: 'the real problem [is] that the image shows the extremely sloppy manufacturing process that is causing the MacBook Pro to run at temperatures as high as a 95 degrees Celcius under full load.'"

Comments

Re:Why is this news?

[v1]

This has absolutely nothing to do with fair use. What it has to do with is the bit at the bottom of the page that they seem to have "accidentally" overlooked reproducing. The part that says reproduction is prohibited. Only people that Apple has granted access to that information have access to it, and to do so they have agreed to certain limits, one of which is not to share content that is restricted.

Whoever leaked that document to somethingawful broke the law. That is what apple is in a tizzy over, and rightfully so.

I'll quote it for you. This part I don't think Apple will mind my citing, for your benefit:

Important: Apple considers the information contained on this site confidential ("Confidential Information"). Unless Apple has given prior written authorization, do not forward, copy, or otherwise replicate or disseminate verbally, electronically, or in hardcopy any Confidential Information, except to those individuals within your organization who have a legitimate business need to know, and who have agreed in writing, to keep it confidential.

(emphasis added)

Additionally, it is not unreasonable to assume that SomethingAwful were aware that such a disclaimer applied to the information that they had received. That being the case, they knew their "source" was breaking the law, and chose to aggrivate the offense by redistributing the restricted materials. They should be very grateful that Apple is not suing them, which is in their right and most likely would decide in their favor.