News Apple settles with Tiger leaker

The boys from 1 Infinite Loop have settled out of court with a self confessed distributer of a pre-release copy of OSX Tiger, according to reports on news.com; No details on what that settlement was, but at least the guy won't be going to jail:

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.

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.

"While Apple will always protect its innovations, it is not our desire to send students to jail," Apple said in a statement to CNET News.com. "We are pleased that Mr. Steigerwald has taken responsibility for his actions and that we can put this lawsuit behind us."

Steigerwald is actually not a student, but a recent graduate of North Carolina State University who is currently looking for a job. Reading from a prepared statement, Steigerwald said that a criminal investigation had been launched against him as well. In the statement, Steigerwald said that the allegations made by Apple were true and apologized for his actions

More here

Of course the Cupertino legal department can't put it's feet up and relax - It still has cases against the 'Asteroid Three' to contest.

 

wow, i applaud apple for going easy on him, seriously good attitude

 

We really have no way of knowing how easy they went on him...

 

hes not in jail

 

Good publicity for Apple as well. After the huge number of no-mercy lawsuits they probably needed a case of leaniency to make the public think they're not in it for the money.

 

Hold on, wouldn't it be up to the distributor as to whether to settle out of court or not?