Worker Bee Will Buzz No More

by , 12:00 PM EDT, August 29th, 2000

C-Net News reported last night that Apple has identified one of its own employees as the pseudonymous worker bee who posted product trade secrets at AppleInsider and a picture of the multiprocessor G4 on a GeoCities homepage.

Apple was able to find worker bee using subpoenas from a court ordering Yahoo to turn over any data trails it had on worker bee.

According to the C-Net article:

In its suit, Apple alleges the defendant and possibly others posted information about Apple's new mouse and dual-processor PowerMacs before their introduction last month. Apple also said "worker bee" posted information to the AppleInsider site last month about a third product Apple has yet to introduce.

Although Apple named the worker in a court filing, News.com chose not to publish the name because Apple would not confirm whether he is the only employee with that name. An Apple representative also would not say whether the defendant still works at the company.

Apple said only that, "The protection of Apple trade secrets is incredibly important to our success. We intend to vigorously pursue legal actions that ensure the confidentiality of our intellectual property is not compromised."

The Mac Observer Spin:

Interestingly, the public message board posts at C-Net seem to be running in favor of worker bee, or more accurately, against the heavy hand of Apple's corporate security team. While what Apple is doing is certainly not 'cool' in the school yard sense, it is what routinely happens to corporations and individuals who violate the terms of any contract they have put their good name to in civil societies — they get their butts sued for breech of contract. End of story.

Of course, that won't be the end to this story. The bright lights of media attention and the phase-shifting involvement of the Internet means that all the issues here, and there are many, will need to be explored in detail. For an in-depth look at some of the background surrounding this case, please see my editorial, "Apple's Corporate Vigilantism."

Apple