In a drastic authorized step that may have set alarm bells ringing all through the tech rumorsphere, Apple has sued the YouTuber Jon Prosser for leaking details about iOS 26 forward of its launch. Or, extra particularly, for the strategies he allegedly used to acquire that data.
As reported by MacRumors, the corporate on Thursday filed a lawsuit (Scribd hyperlink) towards Prosser and his affiliate Michael Ramacciotti, alleging misappropriation of commerce secrets and techniques. The swimsuit accuses the 2 of a “coordinated scheme” to interrupt right into a “improvement” iPhone, steal Apple secrets and techniques from it, and revenue from them, thereby harming the corporate and its staff.
“Defendants’ misconduct was brazen and egregious,” the swimsuit asserts. “After Mr Prosser discovered that Mr Ramacciotti wanted cash, and that his buddy Ethan Lipnik labored at Apple on unreleased software program designs, Defendants collectively deliberate to entry Apple’s confidential and commerce secret data by Mr Lipnik’s Apple-owned improvement iPhone.
“Whereas staying at Mr Lipnik’s residence, Mr Ramacciotti used location monitoring to find out when Mr Lipnik can be gone for an prolonged interval, acquired his passcode, and broke into his Growth iPhone, which Mr Lipnik had did not correctly safe in accordance with Apple’s insurance policies. As he detailed within the audio message, Mr Ramacciotti made a video name to Mr Prosser and ‘confirmed iOS’ on the Growth iPhone. He demonstrated a number of options and functions, disclosing particulars of the unreleased iOS 19 [later announced as iOS 26] working system.”
Apple is legendary for the zealousness with which the corporate guards its secrets and techniques, however this can be essentially the most aggressive step it has taken towards a leaker since Gizmodo editor Jason Chen’s residence was raided in 2010.
iOS 26, Apple’s latest iPhone software program replace, was unveiled at WWDC in June, however as is usually the case with unreleased Apple merchandise it had been the topic of intense and argumentative hypothesis lengthy earlier than then. In March, Prosser posted a video claiming to supply “your very first have a look at iOS 19,” and later confirmed a screenshot of the brand new Messages app in a podcast. (It’s attainable these movies will probably be taken down because the lawsuit progresses, so if you happen to’re studying this sooner or later, you’ll have to take our phrase for it.) Fellow leaker Mark Gurman then claimed that iOS 19 screenshots doing the rounds–most likely together with Prosser’s screenshot, however not naming him–have been “unrepresentative,” earlier than Prosser lastly hit again with the “largest iOS leak ever.”
It now seems, if we’re to consider Apple’s model of occasions, that Prosser was so bullish about his data as a result of it had been acquired from one in all Apple’s personal units working a pre-release construct of the software program.
However Prosser claims in any other case. In a pair of replies to MacRumors’ tweet about this story, the YouTuber says “This isn’t how issues went down on my finish” and “I definitely didn’t ‘plot’ to entry anybody’s cellphone and was unaware of the state of affairs enjoying out.” That would seem to suggest that, whereas Ramacciotti could certainly have lifted the data from Lipnik’s iPhone, Prosser didn’t ask for this to occur nor know when it did.
(It’s additionally putting that the primary phrase of his reply is solely “Attention-grabbing.” That’s an astonishingly calm response to being sued by one of many largest and most litigious firms on the earth. He’s an uncommon character, as we discovered after we interviewed him again in 2020.)
It is going to be attention-grabbing to see how this transfer impacts the move of knowledge by the tech rumorsphere: whether or not leakers will probably be cowed into silence, even when solely quickly, and whether or not their sources dry up. It does elevate the query, in fact, of how leakers purchase their details about unreleased iOS builds if not by strategies much like the one described on this lawsuit. How did Gurman learn about iOS 19/26? Will he be sued? Is there a reputable method to leak?
All these questions and extra will probably be answered within the coming months. We’ll comply with the case because it progresses and report the massive developments right here on Macworld.
