Apple versus the bloggers

In a recent hissy-fit , Apple Computer got bent out of shape after revelations about a future product appeared on three different websites that specialize in news and gossip about the company.

Risking customer alienation, the company sued and demanded that the sites turn over information as to the derivation of the information.

Immediately the Internet, particularly the so-called blogosphere, began a flame war regarding Apple's lawsuits. These sites, after all were Apple boosters. It made no sense for Apple to attack them.

The brouhaha regards a product code-named "Asteroid." Asteroid is reportedly nothing more than an inexpensive device called a break-out box. You can plug a guitar or microphone into it and it will move the signal into the computer via a 1394 high speed interface. This can be part of a system used to create a portable audio studio for musicians. This is nothing new. What's new is that they have typically sold for $500 and the Apple device will sell for $150.

So Apple considered this a trade secret and now it wants to find out who in the company spilled the beans so they can be pilloried and used as an example of what can happen if you violate your terms of employment. Of course the websites might have gotten this information from anonymous sources.

From the article... (very interesting!!!)

"From this perspective the Apple suit could actually be part of a planned culture war offensive. Never forget that CEO Steve Jobs is close friends with Bill Clinton and has had Clinton stay over at his house. He even put Bill Clinton's vice president, former journalist Al Gore, on Apple's board.

It's a long shot, but this action against the websites may be a ploy to lessen the rights of online publishers so the right-wing and conservative publishers would have to be more circumspect.

And lest it seem completely paranoid, consider that the concept of a two-tiered media is being advanced by no less a personage then Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass. "There's a subculture and a sub-media that talks and keeps things going for entertainment purposes rather than for the flow of information. And that has a profound impact and undermines what we call the mainstream media of the country," Kerry told a recent forum at the JFK library in Boston.

Whatever the case, this court ruling represents a very slippery slope since it suggests that some members of the press would have to pass a government standard to be afforded the protection of shield laws designed to promote open and free discussion of ideas. Eventually this could lead to licensing. And we don't need that since it would kill the free press and the substantial benefits to society that accrue from it."

Never forget that CEO Steve Jobs is close friends with Bill Clinton and has had Clinton stay over at his house.

That's not quite accurate. Jobs allowed Clinton's Secret Service agents to stay in an abandoned house he owns.

John Sculley was the ex-Apple exec who was good friends with the Clintons. He sat next to Hillary during Bill's first State of the Union address.

He even put Bill Clinton's vice president, former journalist Al Gore, on Apple's board.

That's true, and I hope that Gore remains in the private sector.

I doubt seriously that an Apple suit is part of a culture war. More likely, as the article points out, it's about rooting out the insider who leaked information. You can hardly blame Apple for being pissed at an insider for leaking their future product plans.

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