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Is Gawker's "Apple Tablet Scavenger Hunt" Illegal?
theodp writes "Not too surprisingly, Apple was not amused by Valleywag's announcement of an Apple Tablet Scavenger Hunt, which offered cash prizes ranging from 10K-100K for info about the much-anticipated new Apple device. The promo prompted a threatening cease-and-desist letter from Apple's lawyers, which Valleywag deemed the most concrete evidence yet that there may indeed be a tablet in the works. But is the Scavenger Hunt really illegal, as the attorney claimed? The jury's still out, but Slate concludes Apple's got a pretty good case, although it notes that Valleywag's unconventional Scavenger Hunt 'stunt' may not really be all that different from 'reporting' practiced by mainstream publications like the WSJ."
The whole idea behind this question is to show that offering to pay someone to do something illegal is, in itself, illegal. Now are they asking someone to do something illegal? That is another question. In order to deliver the information they seek, is the party required to do something illegal? Surely it may be something where a civil law suit may result, but is such law limited to criminal acts?
If they had actually _required_ that submissions be obtained within the bounds of the law, there's nothing Apple could have remotely done to them about this, even if they don't happen to like it.
File under 'M' for 'Manic ranting'
Now that their controlled leaks (reference) has created too much hype, Apple is leaking in their pants and fear that the thing will go too far. If would be Apple, I would say Good luck to Gawker and thanks for all the free publicity.
I completely agree. Personally I'm getting sick of all of these apple tablet articles that seem to get posted at least once every 5 hours.
"linux is just DOS with a UNIX like syntax" -- Galactic Dominator (944134)
The Apple tablet will feature a 9.5'' by 7.5'' display using a new version of E-Ink(TM) technology through which the tablet will display color while having the display consume no power unless something changes. There will be an integrated and optimized sleep mode which the tablet can fall into while maintaining a color picture, and this mode takes a mere 135 ms to get out of, so even applications like slideshows will use it. The processor has multiple power modes, allowing it to go between 500 MHz and 3.7 GHz depending on the task. Expected battery life, with all this, is 18-36 hours of average use. The screen will contain piezoelectric materials that can add a tactile layer to the onscreen keyboard. Professional typists have been found to be 80-90% as effective with this keyboard as with a traditional one, and thanks to ridges being put onto window edges and buttons blind people are seeing a GUI productivity increase of 300-400%.
What do you mean, that's all bullshit? Prove it! I'll be collecting my prize for now.
"Now, they may *possibly* be asking people to break and NDA, but that would be a civil matter, not a criminal one, and therefore it wouldn't be illegal."
Ummm.... inducement to break an NDA violates a civil statute. Therefore by definition it is illegal. Thus the civil penalties. It is simply not a criminal act under the Calif. code cited.
.... to car magazines paying a bounty for pix of yet to be released models?
So in your world, telling someone about a company's products is the same as murder?
Um, no. GP said nothing of the sort. GP in fact said nothing about the severity of the crime. If you want to make a real comparison, ask yourself if hiring someone to murder is illegal, as murder is illegal.
Or you could baselessly insult a commenter that didn't even attempt to make factual statements, and in fact is clearly just raising questions.
Now are they asking someone to do something illegal?
Such as?
Last time I checked, telling people about a company's product isn't illegal.
Now, they may *possibly* be asking people to break and NDA, but that would be a civil matter, not a criminal one, and therefore it wouldn't be illegal.
You seem to have missed the question mark, noting that GP was asking a question not making a statement of fact.
On topic, to me this seems a bit grey. Obtaining information about Apple's tablet is not illegal in and of itself - There are certainly ways to obtain the information that are illegal, but it is not clear that there are no ways to do so legally.
If this scavenger hunt is illegal, it would also be illegal for me to offer $10k to anyone who brings me the top-secret Microsoft Phone. For it to be illegal, Apple has to admit that there are specific NDAs stopping their employees from saying anything about their tablet. Without official confirmation of a specific NDA, there's no reason this should be illegal. I don't know that there could be NDAs for the Microsoft Phone, so why should it be illegal to offer a reward for it?
Now, they may *possibly* be asking people to break and NDA, but that would be a civil matter, not a criminal one, and therefore it wouldn't be illegal.
The legal problem is not the NDA, but opening a trade secret to the public. Both doing it and inducing a person to do so is illegal under Californian law.
Last time I checked, telling people about a company's product isn't illegal.
IANAL, but I can read Wikipedia (emphasis added):
Another significant development in U.S. law is the Economic Espionage Act of 1996 (18 U.S.C. 1831–1839), which makes the theft or misappropriation of a trade secret a federal crime. This law contains two provisions criminalizing two sorts of activity. The first, 18 U.S.C. 1831(a), criminalizes the theft of trade secrets to benefit foreign powers. The second, 18 U.S.C. 1832, criminalizes their theft for commercial or economic purposes. (The statutory penalties are different for the two offenses.)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trade_secrets
So, as an example, if Apple could argue that the information in question is a trade secret (and they have done so in the past) then divulging that information may very well be a crime.
PS: You should work on your reading comprehension before you go around calling people idiots.
This may be a bit off topic - but don't people have better things to do? I, for one, will likely come across one of the many news stories that are sure to be published if/when Apple releases this thing. At that point, I will read the story, read reviews, visit Apple's web site, and determine if this device is something I would like to purchase.
Until then, I'm going to go do other things.
Why, no, I haven't meta-moderated lately. Thanks for asking!
"It would not be possible for Noah to do in our day what he was permitted to do in his own...The inspector would come and examine the Ark, and make all sorts of objections." -- Mark Twain
Big apple, new Yorik, undig it, something's unrotting in Edenmark.
Its not illegal to take a picture of Steve Jobs stuck in traffic and deciding to fire up his iTablet to pass the time.
Nothing in the original offer (see 1st link in story) said that someone had to break in, or break a NDA or any such.
Opening a trade secret is also not against the law once the trade secret somehow leaves the private offices of the holder. You can't hire buglers, but you can hire long-lens photographers.
Sig Battery depleted. Reverting to safe mode.
Get used to it. It is exactly the same kind of campaign /. ran the six months before (and two years after, too) the iPhone came out. They are getting paid to feature articles about Apple products. It is the only way to explain why there have been hundreds of iPhone articles and about one (1) about N900 which is a phone that kicks iPhone's butt in every possible way. With free software to boot. I guess it keeps the bills payed.
Football Odds
If the contest were to get images of the tablet in public, it too would be legal. But when would that happen? Realistically, never.
Cars however to be well tested, have to be driven on real roads - and so are out in public often enough that people can get perfectly legal spy shots (though the cars usually have some kind of misleading or obscuring trim).
"There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
Personally, it's my opinion that Gawker sites aren't real news sites and they rely on controversial things, like this to get people looking at their sites. For instance, looking at Kotaku reveals that it's mainly just a bunch of low grade crap that you used to find on someone's Geocities site. The stuff of real substance can be found elsewhere on a site like Edge Online and you don't have to sift through the crap that's padding out the site to get you looking at more ads.
They really are just paparazzi "journalists" and we don't really need their type plaguing the technology sector. It would be nice if they went away.
This isn't about the Apple tablet - this story is about an PR gimmick for Valleywag. They don't expect to get any entries - they expect to get page hits.
Lars T.
To the guy who modded me down from perfect to terrible Karma - Apple haters still suck
Yes, Apple's campus is not Jerhico, buglers would have little effect.
It's all fun and games until a 200' robot dinosaur shows up and trashes Neo-Tokyo... Again
It seems to me that Apple's legal threat is tacit admission that the iTablet (or whatever such a product would be called) exists. I mean, how can you sue for inducing someone to violate the trade secret that a particular product does not exist? Is that even a trade secret?
This is a clause from Gawkers contest rules:
By submitting any photo or information to Gawker Media, you hereby represent and warrant that the submitted photo or information does not and shall not infringe on any copyright, any rights of privacy or publicity of any person, or any other right of any third party, and you have the right to grant any and all rights and licenses granted to Gawker Media herein, including but not limited to all necessary rights under copyright, free and clear of any claims or encumbrances;
That makes it pretty clear that they don't expect people to share information illegally.
I guess everyone involved gets some publicity though.
No, it doesn't. The disclaimer only covers copyright violations. There are plenty of laws you can break besides copyright law.
I for one am sick of hearing about the apple tablet... either come out with it or dont but stop the crap
I think it's safe to assume that there are a lot of people who are not sick of hearing about the Apple tablet. I also do not think your command to for Slashdot to stop posting about it is going to be heeded.
Do you also post to auto sites asking them to stop posting about new car rumors? Or gaming sites to stop posting about SC2 or whatever? Would doing so even make any sense?
I'd hate to work for a company that was always threatening me. I feel bad for the people who work there... what a miserable way to live.
I'm unaware of any company which openly allows their employees to disclose trade secrets, with nary a threat of termination or disciplinary action.
Which is going to garner you the most hype from the Tech news media?
A) Hinting that you may have a tablet in the pipeline
or
B) Having one of your PR folks get a site to start a scavenger hunt for info and then have lawyer threaten said site over the hunt.