Who'd a thunk it? Dan Bricklin has a post where he says, in some ways, Microsoft "gets it" but Apple doesn't. Before you go off and flame the man, read his post first.
What he's talking about is Apple's lawsuit to find out who leaked some product information to web sites. The EFF has a pretty good summary of the particulars:
In December 2004, Apple filed a lawsuit in Santa Clara county against unnamed individuals who allegedly leaked information about new Apple products to several online news sites, including AppleInsider and PowerPage. The articles at issue concerned a FireWire audio interface for GarageBand, codenamed "Asteroid" or "Q7." In addition, Apple filed a separate trade secret suit against Think Secret on January 4, 2004.
Apple is seeking information from these news sites regarding the identities of the sites' sources, and has subpoenaed Nfox.com, the email service provider for PowerPage, for email messages that may identify the confidential source.
EFF opposes Apple's discovery because the confidentiality of the media's sources and unpublished information are critical means for journalists of all stripes to acquire information and communicate it to the public. Because today's online journalists frequently depend on confidential sources to gather material, their ability to promise confidentiality is essential to maintaining the strength of independent media. Furthermore, the protections required by the First Amendment are necessary regardless of whether the journalist uses a third party for communications.
As a journalist/blogger/developer, Bricklin was torn as to what to do. On one hand, he develops software for the Mac. In order to do that, he has to buy Apple products. On the other hand, as a good citizen of the Internet, he is concerned by the negative attitude that this lawsuit personifies.
One tool he tries to use to weigh his response is economic. He balances his need to acquire Apple products (and therefore, in small part, fund the very behavior he objects to) to make a living versus the cost of boycotting Apple to persuade it to change its behavior. He also points out the benefits, tangible and not, Apple accrues due to these fan sites.
For him, the bottom line was he bought the product(s), but from a resaler rather than directly from Apple (so that Apple's profit would be less). You may not agree with his decision but I think everyone needs to decide for themselves what the costs versus benefits are.
