Apple Shifting Tactics on Suppressing Product Leaks?

Nick Ciarelli describes a recent shift in Apple's strategy to not suppress product leaks in an article at The Daily Beast.

But lately, there are signs that Applelong the most secretive company in the tech worldhas thrown in the towel on fighting leaks. This year, advance details about a number of Apple products spilled onto the web, including photos of the iPhone 3G and the latest lineup of iPod nanos.

Recent product photo leaks including the 4th Generation iPod Nano and iPhone 3G have been left unchallenged by Apple's legal team, whereas, historically, Apple would have issued cease and desist letters to websites hosting such images.

Ciarelli speculates that this change reflects that the fact that Apple rumors are now regularly published by mainstream sites which may not as easily cave to Apple's demands. Apple's previous legal attempts have also legitimized the Apple rumor community and have failed to produce the identities of the leakers.

Ciarelli, himself, is intimately familiar with the topic as he was the owner and editor of ThinkSecret.com, an Apple rumor site that was sued by Apple for the identity of his sources. Apple and ThinkSecret settled in December 2007 in which Ciarelli agreed to shut down the site, but did not reveal any of his sources.