Rumor Site Forced To Close By Apple

Apple rumor site Think Secret has been forced to close up shop in a settlement with Apple. Apple won a nearly two-year legal fight with Think Secret that was brought on by TS publishing several rumors on Apple products. Apple won a court order demanding that TS reveal it's source for the rumors (which would miraculously turn out to be not-so-rumors), but in a settlement with the big A, TS decided to shut down rather than reveal its source.

I can't stress enough how ludicrous this is. The fact that a company can force a site to close down simply for publishing rumors is against everything that the free press stands for. If Apple was really that upset about the rumor postings, they should have sniffed around their own territory a bit more, as it seems highly likely to me that if rumors on one specific site continue to turn up true, someone inside is probably leaking information. The culprit is the person who leaked the information, not the person who reported it. It is simply irresponsible and downright reprehensible to attack a site that does nothing but help build your brand name and image. These sites are a critical tool for the dissemination of information throughout the world, and are usually the key to building a loyal fan base.

All I can say is shame on you Apple. We may have our differences concerning OS's and Hardware, and we have loved each through the iPod line and the early days of iTunes, but I cannot stand and support this. I understand the desire to keep internal information, well, internal, but it's not the responsibility of the blogging community to check with you every time we want to publish a story. If one of your employees sent me an email saying "guess what, new tablet comes out tomorrow with XXX specs," you better believe I would post that in a moments breath (of course, I have a feeling they'd be more likely to send it to Den Den than me). Would you dare go after the New York Times for doing something similar? They do it all the time, but it doesn't bother anyone when they do, because it brings welcome publicity.

In any case, this is a very ill omen for many other rumor driven sites like Mac Rumors. And do yourself a favor, don't let this degrade into an Apple v. Windows argument, as it has nothing to do with that. Microsoft has done some ridiculous anti-consumer, anti-community things in the past, and I have stood in rage then as well. This is singularly about a company that has made an extremely poor decision, and it just happens to be Apple this time around.

Settlement Notice [Think Secret]
[via: Tech Dirt]