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Mess With The Bull... (6/12/00)
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Okay, somebody tell Adobe and AppleInsider to quit ad-libbing and stick to the script. Everyone knows that the accepted industry-standard way to deal with a rumors web site leaking sensitive information is to have the lawyers issue a stern cease-and-desist order, after which the offending data is hastily removed and replaced with a "REMOVED BY ORDER OF (insert company name here) LEGAL" notice. But apparently these two missed rehearsal, because instead, Adobe has actually gone and filed a lawsuit against AppleInsider for posting "trade secret" details of upcoming versions of Photoshop and ImageReady. An article in The Recorder has the details-- thanks to faithful viewer Pastor Mac for being first to alert us to this serious breach of etiquette.
As near as we can tell, it went down like this: Adobe's lawyers told MacNN (AppleInsider's parent site) to pull the secret data "within 20 minutes" or else get sued. MacNN's webmaster, Monish Bhatia, apparently didn't take the "20 minutes" stipulation seriously, said he'd "look into it," and subsequently found himself the target of a lawsuit the very next day. Adobe is suing to "enjoin Macintosh News Network from soliciting or disclosing Adobe's trade secrets and for recovery of damages"-- damages which, the company claims, "could conservatively amount to tens of millions of dollars." (Seven zeroes for posting a preview of an unannounced product? Hey, Imatec wanted nine from Apple in that whole ColorSync flap. Go figure.)
Holy yikes! Say what you will about Apple's occasionally-overeager lawyers; at least they haven't actually sued a web site for leaking sensitive data-- and they've had their share of chances. (Remember the posting of Kihei images the week before the new iMacs were unveiled?) We can't help but assume that Adobe's lawsuit will now make the Mac rumorscape even more barren, as the rumormongers get cold feet when contemplating the now-very-real possibility of getting dragged into court. Then again, maybe not; AppleInsider's already gone ahead and posted An Inside Look at Office 2001. Gutsy, or just plain stupid? We suppose that depends on whether Microsoft's lawyers can squeeze enough time away from the "Redmond Justice" appeal to file suit.
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SceneLink (2352)
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And Now For A Word From Our Sponsors |
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 | | The above scene was taken from the 6/12/00 episode: June 12, 2000: It's another wacky Marvel Team-Up, as Apple and RealNetworks join forces on the streaming media front. Meanwhile, a small satellite company wants to put a G4 in space, and a prominent rumors site finds itself on the pointy end of an honest-to-goodness Adobe lawsuit...
Other scenes from that episode: 2350: Getting Real Friendly (6/12/00) Having been present at the infamous "Microsoft is now our ally" Stevenote a few years back, the AtAT staff is quite familiar with the Strange Bedfellows principle. In fact, after hearing the audience's boos, hisses, and strangled cries of "please kill me now" that preceded the appearance of Bill Gates's Big Giant Head on the conference hall's video screen, we figure we're pretty jaded when it comes to corporate collaborations that might leave a bad taste in one's mouth... 2351: The Final Frontier (6/12/00) It's only fitting; since the Power Mac G4 looks like it came from space, why not send it into space? That's just what SkyCorp plans to do next year-- according to SpaceViews, the fledgling satellite company wants to stick a G4 web server into a satellite and pop it into orbit during an upcoming shuttle mission, thus establishing what it believes to be the first web server in space...
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