ThinkSecret.com is an Apple rumour website run by Harvard Student, Nicholas Ciarelli. IT’s rise to fame came when it accurately predicted the Apple Shuffle, amongst other things, in the MacWorld Expo 2005. Since then, they’ve been in a long run lawsuit with Apple. They’ve now reached a settlement and Nick will not post anymore articles on ThinkSecret - effectively shutting down the site.

To get the scoop on the things that Think Secret got, they would have certainly had insider knowledge, but is it unlawful, as a journalist, to receive and publish information that gets reveaed to you by someone else. For that insider breaking company privacy policy, yes. But for the publisher… I’m not so sure.

Also, why Apple actually wants to shut down a site that has helped them generate so much buzz is counter-intuitive to me. Instead of shutting it down, they could have worked together as a marketing team to purposely leak out apple goss.

The big winner here is Nick who I’m sure has come out of this with a handsome payout. And I don’t think he’ll be gagged for too long. Expect to see more action on his official Think Secret forum AppleNove.

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