Think Secret, a student-run web site that has been embroiled in litigation with Apple Inc., is shutting down as a result of that lawsuit's settlement. Although Nick Ciarelli, the Harvard student who ran the site, says that the "settlement is a positive solution for both sides," the blogosphere is up in arms over the possible chilling effect that this might have on free speech. The general sentiment is that Apple has behaved like "some power-crazed South American dictator, the kind who can't stand it when the media reveal government secrets and so arrests the entire press corps."
By way of background, Apple sued Think Secret for divulging trade secrets and Think Secret was part of a separate lawsuit by Apple filed against several sites seeking the names of their sources of information. Think Secret's big crime was to post information on a "Mac mini" that Steve Jobs had planned to announce at Mac World in 2005. The blog stole a little bit of the super-secretive Apple's thunder.
I haven't followed the amazing amount of litigation surrounding Apple's lawsuits against bloggers, but there were wins and losses in the courts for both sides. It's hard to say how the settlement will impact bloggers and free speech because we don't know what the settlement entailed aside from the fact that Think Secret will shut down and no sources have been revealed to Apple. In the end, then, Apple didn't get what it wanted from Think Secret even if Think Secret will no longer exist.
Apple very well could have come out the loser in all this but demanded the shut-down of Think Secret as a face-saving condition. This litigation, after all, was a stupid strategy on Apple's part, one bound to give the company a very public black eye. I would also argue that Apple would not have prevailed in the end.
One scenario I can envision: To prevent a very bad legal precedent that would reverberate against the company for years to come, and to end the embarassing litigation, Apple paid Ciarelli a ton of money...with the condition that Think Secret shut down. It's just impossible to say because the settlement, like most settlements, is confidential.
One thing I can say is that Nick Ciarelli deserves a tremendous number of kudos for even standing up to Apple and surviving the years-long torture that litigation brings. He is just a student and Apple is a $161 billion corporation with nothing but money to throw at attorneys whose sole job was to crush Ciarelli in any way they could.
Even if Ciarelli had support from public interest groups and free speech advocates, litigation is one of the worst things that can happen to an individual, behind only death, disease and death of a loved one. The torture of litigation is magnified by some geometric multiple when a giant corporation guns for a sole person. It's like aiming a nuclear warhead at a mouse. If you haven't been there, you simply can't know the kind of day-to-day horribleness that a mega-million dollar company, with its hordes of $500/hour attorneys, can inflict on an individual.
That Ciarelli was able to withstand the brutality, constant threats, mind-numbing motions, anxiety and possible financial devastation that Apple inflicted upon him, and that he was able to bear up all the way through to a settlement he describes as "a positive solution," says a lot about him. This guy has guts and stamina.
Although I agree that Apple behaved horribly and should be condemned for aiming its warheads at mice, the outcome of this dispute should actually inspire other bloggers to stand up to malicious litigation by deep-pocketed companies. If Ciarelli can do it, they can too.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 9:38 AM | Print | Comments (5)
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