Earlier this year, Apple shocked the media and its fans when it began filing lawsuits against individuals who leaked copies of its upcoming operating system update, and against various media outlets. At least one of those lawsuits was settled last week.

Apple developer Doug Steigerwald, who distributed two different releases of Apple’s upcoming Tiger (Mac OS X 10.4) operating system update, released a statement apologizing for what he did.

“I disseminated [Mac OS X Tiger] over the Internet, and thousands of unauthorized copies of Apple’s software were illegally distributed to the public,” said Steigerwald in a statement released to the public. “As a result, Apple sued me for copyright infringement and trade secret misappropriation, and I have been the subject of a criminal investigation by the U.S. Attorney’s office. All of the claims regarding me in Apple’s complaint are true.”

Steigerwald confirmed that he did indeed release the files to the public and that all of Apple’s charges were legitimate.

“Although I did not mean to do any harm, I realize now that my actions were wrong and that what I did caused substantial harm to Apple, and for that I am truly sorry,” said Steigerwald. “I am grateful for the chance to resolve this lawsuit and move on with my life, and hope that any publicity generated by this lawsuit discourages others from making the same mistake as I did.”

Criminal charges are still pending.






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