Forbes on ThinkSecret Suit

It's hard to say if Lisa DiCarlo is a Mac user. From her commentary, I would expect she's not. Without Mac 'cultural context,' it would be easy to come to the conclusions that she has in this opinion piece.

She marvels at the fact that Apple would sue a site that apparently provides free publicity in the form of coverage of upcoming products. But the point she misses is that people crave such information precisely because they can't have it. This is not the sole reason Apple keeps things close to the chest, though.

If Apple "embraced" rumor sites as she suggests, the result would flatly be a substantial decrease in interest for upcoming Apple annoucements. Nor does Apple PR really have any difficulty whatsoever reaching large audiences as is suggested. Scrambling for the attention of users just isn't that effective here.

"But, this sort of stuff happens all the time in the tech industry. Sources leak details of forthcoming products to reporters whose motivation is to get credit for an exclusive story."

The reason these leaks happen without incident is that there is a dearth of original thinking. How many high tech companies have anything worth hiding? Who's going to get excited about another PC with a Pentium running Windows XP? Such a thing doesn't change the landscape at all.

The reason Apple's announcements are worthy of attention and speculation is that they're typically significant to the industry as a whole. To quoth the Think Different campaign, "they change things."

The other issue that isn't touched on in the opinion piece is what Apple is to do if the leaks represent unrealistic products, like a G5 iMac that fits in your pocket and only costs $34. Anything else will seem like a letdown by comparison.

"These people are customers, fans and Apple-lovers.[...]One might question whether Apple's behavior will create discord with its famously loyal and fervent customers"

Apple isn't suing individual users like the RIAA in this case. It's suing a web site that publishes secret company information and sells ads.

"Can you think of another company whose product news garners more coverage--regardless of unauthorized disclosures--from the geek and mainstream media?"

And now we know why.  :)

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