TAG | ThinkSecret shuttered to settle Apple suit |
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| by Stephen Withers | |
| Friday, 21 December 2007 | |
  
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The saga began in early 2005 when Apple sued Ciarelli, the site's publisher and editor in chief, alleging that certain stories appearing on Think Secret were in violation of Californian trade secret laws. As the statement implies, the case was largely about the protection of journalists' sources. Apple believed that the people supplying Ciarelli with information were its own employees and demanded their identities be disclosed; Think Secret resisted. A court ruled that online journalists have the same protections as their conventional colleagues. While Think Secret's disclosures didn't always turn out to be 100 percent correct, its general level of accuracy apparently upset Apple, which has a general practice of releasing no information about forthcoming products until they are ready to ship. Recent exceptions to that policy have been the iPhone (the need for regulatory approval meant the company couidn't keep it a secret right up to introduction) and Mac OS X 10.5 (third party developers needed time to adapt their software to take advantage of new features). Ciarelli started Think Secret when he was thirteen. He is now a final-year Harvard undergraduate. He told The Wall Street Journal that the settlement would also give him more flexibility to do a startup company, if he chooses that path. That could merely be a recognition of the burden represented by the suit, but it could also imply that money changed hands in his favour. |
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