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Businesses Apple

Apple Tells Leaker To Snitch On Sources Or It Will Report Them To the Police (vice.com) 45

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Apple is escalating its war against leakers, sending out cease and desist letters, according to a copy of a letter obtained by Motherboard. An anonymous reader writes: The letter was sent by Fangda Partners, Apple's law firm in China, on June 18, 2021. In the letter, Apple asked the seller to stop acquiring, advertising, and selling leaked Apple devices, and requested a list of anyone who provided them with the leaked devices. In other words, Apple wants the reseller to say who gave them the devices. Finally, the company requested the seller to sign a document promising to comply with the request within 14 days of receiving the letter. "You have disclosed without authorization a large amount of information related to Apple's unreleased and rumored products, which has constituted a deliberate infringement of Apple's trade secrets," the letter read.
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Apple Tells Leaker To Snitch On Sources Or It Will Report Them To the Police More

Apple Tells Leaker To Snitch On Sources Or It Will Report Them To the Police

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  • /. editors: You had ONE job (Score:3, Funny)

    by UnknownSoldier ( 67820 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @10:04AM (#61629769)

    pple is escalating its war against

    If only /. had editors ... /s

  • snitches get stitches but apple can bribe cops better then the leakier.

    • It IS China. What were you expecting?

    • So a company is concerned about its IP being stolen and offers not to prosecute the receiver of stolen goods if it helps them track down the theif? Well that seems like a pretty measured and decent response. Of course lawyers will make it sound ominous but they are not just suing everyone for punishment but trying to solve a problem and end device theft. Headline makes it seem like they are doing something hostile and exaggeratedly unprecedented

  • Apple will do and allow anything to cozy up with the CCP.
  • How is a trade secret different from a regular secret? If I tell my grade school friend that I like Sally, but it's a secret, as soon as my friend spills the beans (which is inevitable) it is no longer a secret. Apple has a range of options here. They could patent an item, and then pursue breaches of that legal arrangement. They chose secrets, which is an equally viable choice. Having made that choice I guess they just have to protect their secrets more diligently. They want to benefit from the force of law

    • Re: (Score:2, Insightful)

      by bws111 ( 1216812 )

      Trade secrets are protected by law, your 'regular secret' isn't. That is a siginificant difference.

      • Actually, Trade secrets are not protected by law. Those that get prosecuted for leaking is only because of the contracts they signed. If you get a trade secret from someone else, and then divulge that info knowing full well it was a trade secret, you cannot be prosecuted. You're thinking of patents. Patents are protected by law because you're disclosing your "secret" for the public good (a few years down the road).

    • How is a trade secret different from a regular secret?

      Probably the "leaked" color scheme, since that's about the most impressive change with this model.

  • How do you "leak" a physical object? (Score:4, Insightful)

    by hey! ( 33014 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @10:32AM (#61629913) Homepage Journal

    Yes, *information* about the object is leaked as a side effect, but isn't the device itself *stolen*?

    • Yes, *information* about the object is leaked as a side effect, but isn't the device itself *stolen*?

      I wonder if this is a deliberate strategy by Apple to protect their IP more broadly.

      The lack of protection for foreign IP in China is pretty infamous. Taking a slam-dunk legal win (property theft) and branding it as a very difficult legal win (IP theft) they might be trying to build a narrative to make Chinese companies more reluctant to infringe on their IP.

  • Don't you, like, need to have a crime of some sort?

    Last I heard spreading rumours you believe might are true is not illegal p? If it were, all flat earthers would be in prison.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by jythie ( 914043 )
      'leaker' is probably the wrong word here. The complaint involves stolen hardware that is being sold. So they are essentially trying to crack down on the black market for devices that have been lifted from development or factories and sold to consumers, which is a pretty clear crime.. but they are more interested in figuring out who is doing the stealing than who is fencing them.

      • Re: (Score:3)

        by Entrope ( 68843 )

        Beyond stolen services, trade secrets have their own set of laws. It's what got the web site Think Secret in trouble: It's okay to publish information that someone sends you unsolicited -- if it's a trade secret, they are on the hook. But asking people with access to trade secrets to breach that secrecy turns it into something like a conspiracy to violate the trade secret, and everyone involved can get in trouble then.

  • Sounds abusive on Apple's part to say the least to threaten police - leaking trade secrets is a violation of civil agreements, but not a crime.

    • Did you miss the part where they were SELLING Apple's PROPERTY?

      You can take pictures of a somewhat camouflaged test mule at the track, maybe even sell the pictures. Having someone give you the keys (or steal the keys) and selling said car is still GRAND THEFT AUTO.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by dgatwood ( 11270 )

        Yeah, but if the person building that special race car orders enough parts to build a hundred cars and the manufacturer builds 101 of every part, gives the builder 100 of them, and slips the 101st under the table to someone else who builds you a car and then gives it to you, the ownership is not as clear-cut.

        That sort of overproduction is really common in a lot of Chinese factories, resulting in lots of knock-offs that are literally identical to the original products other than badging. From the sounds of

  • I think Apple would have a better argument if they went in there and reported the device as stolen, and then said "Oh, someone gave you the device they stole from us. We want it back." Then trace the S/N on the device to whomever was the recipient of the device.

  • In so many big cities now, the response would be "What police?" Elsewhere, the cops would have no idea how to handle such a report.

  • If "Find My iPhone" can remote-brick a lost phone, why can't Apple encode asset identifiers into each phone that they can track to the chain of custody allowed by the early release program? That would tell them enough about the source of the leaks to plug them, and they would be able to brick the prototype phones, removing the financial incentive to do it in the first place.

    I realize this might increase the cost of the prototype phones, but only by a trivial amount relative to the phone itself (prototypes

  • Might wanna RTFA (Score:3)

    by sjames ( 1099 ) on Wednesday July 28, 2021 @01:46PM (#61630663) Homepage Journal

    People might actually wanna RTFA here. They sent the threaatening letters IN CHINA. U.S. IP law is not relevant to the discussion. They sent the letter to a probably pseudonym. Even if police in China care to do something about it, it's unclear that they can.

    If anyone here knows anything about relevant laws IN CHINA, that would be much more helpful. I do not.

    • > If anyone here knows anything about relevant laws IN CHINA, that would be much more helpful. I do not.

      Apple can get what it wants in China if the CCP isn't negatively affected.

  • I. P. Freely
    Hugh Jass
    Amanda Hugginkiss
    Ivana Tynqle

    and finally..

    Maya Buhtreaques

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