You may have read about Gawker's paid "scavenger hunt" for info about Apple's tablet computer, and Apple's subsequent legal threats. I've written a piece for Slate arguing that Apple has a point. Go read the whole thing and let me know in the comments what you think.
Friday, January 15, 2010
3 comments:
Comments here are moderated. I appreciate substantive comments, whether or not they agree with what I've written. Stay on topic, and be civil. Comments that contain name-calling, personal attacks, or the like will be rejected. If you want to rant about how evil the RIAA and MPAA are, and how entertainment companies' employees and attorneys are bad people, there are plenty of other places for you to go.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Posts
Interesting take on it. I have many apple products and I never considered privacy issues because the company has such a good reputation. Other companies have that issue to, like Netflix, but they have other goals in mine as well according to the blogosphere anyway: http://lawblog.legalmatch.com/2010/01/14/netflix-bringing-its-customers-out-of-the-closet/
ReplyDelete:)
gawker is on very shaky ground that is a stupid move mann
ReplyDeleteI am in agreement with your position. Here's what I posted on the PDNPulse website (they had a snarky response where they offered up to $5 for similar information on Aperture 3.)
ReplyDelete"I hope they get what they want, and I hope they get sued when they get it, and I hope they lose big-time. I'd love to see a good, strong Internet-era case reaffirming that while journalists can look for leaks, publish information others want kept secret, and can't be priorly restrained from doing so, that if they commit crimes and torts they are just as liable as anybody else after the fact.
This would be a great test case because both sides have plenty of money, are unlikely to back down, and the damage to Apple wouldn't be horrific as the tablet is already widely rumored. While premature disclosure would cause enough damage to be actionable, it's not like it would cause them a huge competitive disadvantage."