Among regular folks (and less frequently, among techies) Apple Computer often gets a free pass on it's heavy-handed corporate activities. Some of this stems from the historical "David vs. Goliath" nostalgia of Apple's battles with Microsoft, circa 1985. Apple is smart enough to have strived to maintain this, ahem, "polish", even in the face of evidence to that suggests Apple is no better than any other faceless mega-corp.
For example, many early adopter techies had their iPhones turned into iBricks by Apple, simply for installing unsupported software -- analagous to Honda rendering your Civic inoperable because they want you to use their brand of engine oil. Yet, no outcry from progressives. And, don't even get me started on Apple's manipulation of the Digital Rights Management laws and market.
Today's example might make this all a bit more real for you. In a lawsuit settled yesterday, Apple has succeeded in stomping out a tech news blog called Think Secret for the unconscionable crime of scooping Apple on a forthcoming product release.
(------fold here------)
Prior to Apple's annual MacWorld conference in 2005, student Blogger Nick Ciarelli and his fledgling blog committed the cardinal sin of scooping Steve Jobs prior to his announcing the availability of the Mac Mini, a small footprint iMac.
Apple pressed Think Secrets and other websites to reveal the identity of the person or entity that leaked news of the Mac Mini release. To their credit, the bloggers told Apple to go pound sand. Apple, a $161 Billion dollar company, has a history of getting the courts to see things their way:
This case is separate from another case involving bloggers and company secrets, in which Apple tried to get PowerPage, AppleInsider and Think Secret to reveal the names of the sources they got their information from. In that case, a lower court ruled that the bloggers weren’t protected by California’s "journalist shield" law, and that they would have to turn over the information — but an appeals court disagreed, saying they were entitled to the same protection as journalists.
Think Secret was sued separately for divulging trade secrets — and while the site didn’t have to turn over the names of its sources, it has still been forced to shut down. Meanwhile, Apple comes off looking 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. I know that keeping secrets and then revealing them to an adoring public at Macworld is a time-honoured Jobs tradition, but this is ridiculous.
In the end, Apple put Nick Ciarelli out of business...for REPORTING. I haven't heard anything from the ACLU on this. Nor have I heard a peep from this community. Most of the political commentary I hear about Apple on this site is just starry-eyed pining for iProducts as alternatives to other things - both on the Front Page and in the comments. (most notable exception - here.)
Giving you guys the benefit of the doubt here, maybe you don't see Apple for who they are today. Today's Apple bears no resemblance to who they were when they made the famous Super Bowl commercial. Just in case you're one of the many who views Apple as if they are still some little angelic company that is the "progressive alternative" to big, bad Microsoft, please update your thinking. Apple "version Now.0" is not your friend. Now you know.