In part, that's because Apple chief executive Steve Jobs has a reputation for secrecy. The company's complaint against ThinkSecret.com is part of a larger legal assault on breaches of confidentiality. It's doubtful Apple knew it was targeting a teenager. The complaint names only dePlume and states that his "true name and identity" cannot be confirmed, though in earlier correspondence it referred to Ciarelli as the site's editor in chief.
The suit alleges that ThinkSecret.com induced tipsters to break non-disclosure agreements .
Sites like his "are good for Apple," says Harvard student Nicholas Ciarelli.
(Jonathan Finer -- The Washington Post)
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"This case raises legal issues and marketing issues for these companies because the providers of this information are their fans, people they don't want to antagonize, even though they may not want these things published right away," said Andrew Beckerman-Rodau, who runs the intellectual property program at Boston's Suffolk University Law School.
But while lawsuits against online publications are rare, he said, the Uniform Trade Secrets Act, versions of which have been adopted by about 45 states, including California, prevents third parties from exposing information knowingly obtained from sources bound by confidentiality agreements.
"Just because you don't have a relationship with the company doesn't necessarily immunize you, if you publish what you reasonably should have known was a trade secret," Beckerman-Rodau said. "The First Amendment has been asserted more and more against intellectual property rights, but it's not faring well. Most courts haven't accepted it."
Ciarelli said he became an Apple enthusiast when his parents, a school administrator and a music teacher, brought home a Macintosh Classic more than a decade ago. He owns a PowerMac G5 desktop computer and a PowerMac G4 laptop.
"Sites like mine are good for Apple because they generate interest in its products," he said in an interview on the Harvard campus. "At this point, I really don't think I am doing anything wrong."
He said that he has yet to retain a lawyer, and that he has 30 days to respond to Apple's complaint, which calls for damages and the forfeiture of "gains, profits, and advantages" and asks for a jury trial.
The company he established when the site was launched, the dePlume Organization LLC, is registered in New York. It lacks the money to defend a case against a major corporation, he said.
So far, the front page story in the Crimson has earned him little fame. "It's reading week," he said, referring to the study period before final exams. "People are too busy sleeping and studying for exams."
