Fake Steve Jobs, who writes The Secret Diary of Steve Jobs, appears to have stepped out of character with a post that says: "I'm weighing an offer from Apple". He says:
Bottom line is I've received an overture from the Mothership with a mention of a Think Secret type settlement if I'll stop impersonating Dear Leader on the Web. Nothing nailed down at this point but frankly, honestly, I'm tempted to just take it.
The carrot was, however, followed by a stick. Apple's "Rambo attorney" says he "feels it is his duty to inform me that Apple's lawyers have identified at least three posts in my archive that they 'deem to be actionable'," and that "before I turn this into a public fight by continuing on my current 'course of action' I should perhaps consider the potentially serious consequences to myself and my family of doing so."
And then, I swear to friggin God, there's a list of my assets with an estimated value for each and I suppose the implied threat that I stand to lose them. Which kinda scares the living shit out of me, to be honest, since they've got a pretty thorough list, which means they've been doing some research on this and the offer didn't just come out of thin air. Their lists includes my home address, most recent assessed value of my house and all the information about my mortgage; a rental property that we own; my bank accounts and investment accounts, including the college funds for our kids, whose names are used; and our boat and two cars.
However, in the latest update at the time of writing, FSJ says I'm feeling a little bit better now. His lawyer "was able to find out what the three supposedly 'actionable' items are, and they're ridiculous".
The problem is deciding whether any of this is true. It's entirely believable that Apple would do this. It could also be Fake Steve's most daring spoof yet, prompted by Apple closing down the Think Secret blog. Indeed, FSJ had already riffed on the idea of the EFF "working on a worldwide program aimed at helping other bloggers obtain similar cash-for-silence settlements".
Since the "real" FSJ, Daniel Lyons, works for Forbes, you'd expect one of his colleagues to pick up a true story pretty quickly, even without a tip, and report it. So far, nothing....
If it is a spoof, could it backfire? The Secret Diary is obviously satirical. Most readers seem to have been taking the threat seriously. How many will consider this sort of litigation isn't really a joking matter?
Anyhoo, for the latest updates to the story on FSJ's blog, see FSJ shutdown drama.
Epilogue: On the FSJ blog, terry said...
to those who write that we should have known it was a joke, there's a point THEY are missing: what FSJ wrote was so close to the truth as to BE genuine. That's both what confused people and what made it brilliant satire: it reminded many, many readers that Apple's image allows what FSJ reported to be believable or on the cusp. We had to wonder, might apple really have done that? And by wondering, we get an insight into how apple operates, or how we think it does.
