From: David Heinemeier Hansson Date: 2005-04-02T02:50:58+09:00 Subject: Admiring Apple (was Re: Respect and Disappointment) > I find the term "cultural" quite provocative here. Does 37signals have > any sort of cultural opinion--either official or de facto--about > Apple's recent lawsuit which argues that bloggers aren't journalists, > and as such can be required in court to divulge their sources? Does > 37signals agree with this legal interpretation? Would it ever consider > using such an argument itself in litigation? Apple gained ground in court not because the bloggers couldn't be considered journalists, but because the nature of their revelations didn't reach the status of being for "the public good" (like whistle blowers at tobacco companies for example). As such, the court found there was no ground for protecting the identity of people who've broken their NDA's. From a legal stand point, I actually somewhat sympathize with that ruling. I do believe that dePlume is serving in a role of a journalist, but the case wasn't about that. Legal issues aside, it appears to have been a bad marketing move. Although, I also recognize the damage that a rampant rumor mill can have on Apple both from a competitive and stock market perspective. Whether it was worth pursuing the case (from a business perspective), then, I don't know. Personally, I naturally don't like the heavy-handed methods. And even if the legalities appear to be at least somewhat sound, I would much rather they hadn't pursued the case like this. All that said, our cultural ties and admiration of Apple at 37signals goes to their products and marketing skills. The attention to detail, the capability to execute, and the coolness with which they carry all of that is very seductive. I don't mind being seduced by good products at all. -- David Heinemeier Hansson, http://www.basecamphq.com/ -- Web-based Project Management http://www.rubyonrails.org/ -- Web-application framework for Ruby http://www.loudthinking.com/ -- Broadcasting Brain