Think Secret Closing - Apple, Think Secret settle lawsuit
Just postedHERE...
“December 20, 2007 – PRESS RELEASE: Apple and Think Secret have settled their lawsuit, reaching an agreement that results in a positive solution for both sides. As part of the confidential settlement, no sources were revealed and Think Secret will no longer be published. Nick Ciarelli, Think Secret’s publisher, said “I’m pleased to have reached this amicable settlement, and will now be able to move forward with my college studies and broader journalistic pursuits.”
It is sad in a bitter kind of way. While obviously Apple should protect its trade secrets, the last few years have seen Apple Legal shoot at anything that moves – and, in the process, results like this one are being seen.
Obviously – and demonstrated via other actions as well – Apple, and thus steve jobs, has decided that the same Mac fandom and Evangelism that kept Apple Computers alive during years of bad OS and lousy product lines are no longer of any use to Apple, Inc.
Nor does Apple show more consideration to long time resellers.
I wrote this before, and it is more pertinent now than ever: With the name change came a mentality change as well. Whereas user experience was priority #1 for Apple Computers, Apple Inc has become just another bottomline-focused electronic company, albeit one that usually pays more attention to details and design than the others.
Thus, I strongly believe that any form of Mac zealotry (or anti-Apple obsession, at that) is so “last millennium” as to be entirely irrelevant in this day and age.
Yes, I still believe Apple makes the best and most ergonomic consumer computer platform in the market. But I can hardly show the same interest and passion as I may have had in my Mac Evangelist days. That’s for PRODUCTS. Since I am not a shareholder, my interest for Apple as a commercial venture is at best lukewarm.
In short: I no longer feel any sense of attachment or loyalty to Apple, as I may once have. And I am not alone in this.
The rest of the POSIX universe, the Open Source movement, copyright (and copyleft) – that’s where the brave new frontier lays. Large, closed platform will go the way of the Atari and 8-tracks: Something to remember with melancholia while we’re using the next best thing.