Apple Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Gawker | Hacker News Reader

Apple Sends Cease and Desist Letter to Gawker

gizmodo.com

34 pointsjsm38627 comments

The quotes say no such thing! Apparently this is evidence:

While Apple values and appreciates vibrant public commentary about its products, we believe you and your company have crossed the line by offering a bounty for the theft of Apple's trade secrets. Such an offer is illegal and Apple insists that you immediately discontinue the Scavenger Hunt.

Confirms absolutely nothing but that Apple has trade secrets.

The information you are willing to pay for, such as photos of a yet-to-be released product, constitutes Apple trade secrets.

Confirms nothing but that Apple has products that are yet-to-be-released.

Apple has maintained the types of information and things you are soliciting—"how it'll work, its size, the name, the software," as well as any possible details about the product's appearance, features, and physical samples—in strict confidence."

Confirms absolutely nothing yet again! Seriously, these trade secrets could be for an iPhone upgrade, a new iMac or a set of new and oh-so-trendy headphones!

    Accordingly, Apple demands that Gawker Media immediately discontinue this program
    and retract the offer to pay for photos, video, or samples of Apple's
    unannounced product.

This line seems to confirm that the tablet is an "unannounced product."

It's not a secret that Apple has been working on a Tablet for years (many of the iPhone's innovations have their origins in those attempts). So prototypes exist. The question is whether Apple is ready to release an actual product.

Ask yourself this: If there is an Apple tablet do you really think Michael C. Spillner IP lawyer is in the "inner circle" that has knowledge of it?

Or is it more likely that it makes no difference to Apple because smacking down these efforts makes it clear that Apple won't put up with leaks on any product.

From the linked article:

> Sure, it could be a note protesting the scavenger hunt in principle, speaking to any and all confidential knowledge of any unreleased Apple product, but this scavenger hunt is purely for Tablet evidence. And, do companies send C&Ds for non existent devices? Not in our experience.

The emphasis is mine.

The C&D is not for a "device", the C&D is for an act: bribing people to violate their agreements with Apple.

If the $100k bounty had been offered for secret information about a released Apple product, it would have been C&D'd just as quickly.

And yet, everyone knows it's a Tablet, so they've really given away nothing.

They will actually be my heroes if they did this and there is no tablet.

Given the stock hit they'll take after participating in running up expectations, it seems that being your hero is expensive... :)

This is one of the few cases where I wouldn't mind seeing a big company file and win a lawsuit against a smaller one. These guys have no respect and they really have gone too far with this.

When I heard about the contest, my initial reaction was that it's a clever move for Gawker, both for publicity and to actually get what they want.

But apparently, they could easily be sued for this. It's called tortious interference. They're off the hook if the prospective bounty winner hasn't broken any contracts, but I don't imagine anyone could ever see the iNigma and leave Apple alive without signing an NDA.

Yes, they could be sued. They might even take the contest down.

But the real win for Gawker here is the publicity. Just look at how many links they've gotten to the story and the buzz, however short lived it is.

It doesn't matter if they go ahead with the contest or pull it down. Either way, they get what they want - some buzz, link juice and some publicity.

In other words, "YHBT, HAND" ...

Remember Gizmodo's CES stunt/prank in 2008? They seem to have only increased in influence and reach.

The one where they used Tv-B-gone to kill power to tens if not hundreds of TVs, leaving exhibitors freaking out.

http://www.businessinsider.com/iphone/index?a=2008/1/gizmodo...

I don't know if I'd go so far as to say this is confirmation of a tablet, but it is certainly suggestive. It seems like they're much more concerned about a bounty for trade secrets than a leak about any particular product, though. In any case, that's probably the most friendly C&D I've ever seen.

Undoubtedly. This was a cordial and informative C&D, and in my opinion quite justified. Regardless of what someone thinks of trade secrets, Gawker is quite obviously inducing breach of contract here. I guess it's good buzz for Gawker though, which I suppose is how they make their money.

The conclusion that Gawker comes to as a result of this CnD is a logical fallacy. Specifically, an Appeal to Probability http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Appeal_to_probability (regarding the following quote):

Sure, it could be a note protesting the scavenger hunt in principle, speaking to any and all confidential knowledge of any unreleased Apple product, but this scavenger hunt is purely for Tablet evidence. And, do companies send C&Ds for non existent devices? Not in our experience.

Is it actual confirmation? No. Is it the closest thing to confirmation yet? Yes, but it's about as useful as having a canister of gasoline to put out a fire.

Bonus points to Orrick for writing a really straightforward notice absent the usual heavy-handed stuff you see in cease and decist letters.

All you need to know about this can be found here:

http://isthetabletout.com

this too http://bighow.com/news/10-things-you-must-know-about-apple-t...

The title submitted to HN is incorrect. There is no confirmation in the letter. (See mootothemax' comment.)

Title fixed now. Thanks!

wouldn't that be an interesting way to test the market for an undeveloped product idea?

"hey, maybe we should make a tablet. lets tell some people to leak the fact that we're working on one and see how people react. if reactions are good, lets build it."

Except a good tablet would take a few years to make...

if it really is just a big iphone, though, would it really take that long? a good bit of the technology is already established, both hardware and software.

Isn't it all but officially confirmed already?

So does Apple get the reward?

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