Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak has leashed out against Apple's legal crusade.

The company filed lawsuits against several unnamed persons for leaking a pre-release build of the upcoming Mac OS 10.4. The drunken blog in January published an interview with Vivek Sambhara (desicanuk), one of the people named in the lawsuit.

Sambhara registered for an account with Apple Developer Connection (ADC), downloaded a copy of the Mac OS 10.4 beta and made the astronomical mistake of putting it on BitTorrent.

By registering for his ADC account, the med-student agreed to the terms of a non-disclosure agreement, which he violated the moment he put the data on BitTorrent.

Late December Apple ruined Sambhara's Christmas holiday when it served him with the lawsuit.

After reading the interview, Wozniak was appalled. "I wish that Apple could find some way to drop the matter. In my opinion, more than appropriate punishment has already been dealt out," he wrote in an email to the blog. He pledged to donate $1,000 to support the student in his defense.

Has Sambhara been punished? No doubt he has lost many nights of sleep over the matter. The question if he has been punished sufficiently is more tricky.

But it's more important to turn this around. What is Apple trying to accomplish with its lawsuit? Whatever damage has been done can't be reversed.

If anything, the case will make the next Sambhara think twice before he posts secret code on the web. Will pursuing this case any further set more of an example – or will the damage to Apple's image outweigh the gains from the scare tactics?

23 Feb 2005