“Apple Computer has reached a settlement with one of the men it sued for online distribution of its unreleased Mac OS X Tiger operating system,” Ina Fried reports for CNET News. “Apple said on Wednesday that it has reached a settlement with 22-year-old Doug Steigerwald. It did not discuss the details of that settlement, though it does involve money being paid to Apple, according to Steigerwald. The company still has legal action pending against two other men in the case, which was filed in December in federal court in San Jose, Calif.”
“Reading from a prepared statement, Steigerwald said that a criminal investigation had been launched against him. In the statement, Steigerwald said that the allegations made by Apple were true and apologized for his actions,” Fried reports.
Full article with details and comments from Apple here.
Related MacDailyNews articles:
Apple Computer sues three for posting Mac OS X ‘Tiger’ on Web – December 21, 2004
Bloodemen,
After reading your response, I should surely change my stance on this issue. I must have misread Mr. Doug Steigerwald’s statement in which he admitted that his actions were wrong and made a public apology. I must have also misread Apple’s statement where they said that they were only protecting their inovations (actually mine since I had a stockholder) and it wasn’t there desire to send students (which he wasn’t) to jail.
Thank you soooo much for being the voice of reason.
Sincerely,
one of the soldiers
By the way, I would have the same attitude if it were Microsoft, Dell, Intel or ANY other company that you may be pledging allegiance and wearing the uniform for.
Hey sizewell,
You sound like like a goofball standing up for a speach that was so leagally written that you can smell the attorney fees.
Apple had always represented to thinking man. Too bad apple
has to resort to being an ass.
Apple is crazy, letting your users “steal” software is one of the reasons M$ won the old office markets – going after high school kids is just stupid.
He who lives by the law dies by the law – one of these days Apple is going to get a very nasty legal surprise. Hmmm, what happened to that Apple Music business?
Legal responses always sound legal… sorry about that, that’s just the way it is.
I’m only standing up for the principle of what was agreed upon and responding to a post that felt that Apple was being ruthless. Which again as an Apple stockholder I don’t personally feel they were. That is why this is a public forum…. everyone is entitled to their own opionin… even you. But you tend to lose your argument when you resort to name calling… but don’t worry I have thick skin and I’m confident that most people that know me wouldn’t consider me a “goofball” as you put it.
You’re trying to defend a position that all the parties agree was indefensable. He had legal counsel. His lawyers would have been obligated to recommend that he not make the “legallly written” statement had they felt that he had a valid argument in court.
And just to be clear, this was not a “high school kid”. He was a 22 year old college graduate which was pursuing a “professional” career. You should read the whole article.
“Hmmm, what happened to that Apple Music business?”
I don’t think that they’ve installed an air-conditioning unit in hell, and snowballs still melt there… but then again I may be wrong.
Here’s my take. Apple blew this way out of proportion. Remember, this is beta software. If anything, the more users who use it for testing, the better it will be. This kid did not harm Apple in any way. No proprietary technology was stolen. Hell, Apple was mentioning Tiger way back last September at MacWorld Paris. Everybody already knew what was going to be in it.
Revoking the kids developer membership is about as harsh a punishment as was necessary.
But Apple’s legal dept was chomping at the bit. I wonder if they had a change in leadership in their legal dept in the last year. They have gotten way too aggressive for my tastes.
Jeff,
When you become an officer of the company (or one of their subordinates) is when you can decide what harm is done to the company and what is the proper way to handle quality assurance of the product. I’m sure that much more thought has been put into this at Apple headquarters than you or I have availiable.
But, please stop referring to him as a “kid”. Using that term for a 22 year old NC State graduate certainly puts an unfair negative spin on Apples approach to this litigation.
I can see it now on Apple’s application for membership:
AGE: 1 – kid (completely irresponsible and unable to uphold ANY agreement)
2 – other (fully cognizant of what a legally binding agreement constitutes)
Thank you for you time.