ThinkSecret.com's Nick Ciarelli Gets Free Lawyer

Nick Ciarelli (aka Nick dePlume) is the 19-year-old Harvard student whose company owns the web site ThinkSecret.com sued by Apple Computer for illegally soliciting and publishing the companiy's trade secrets. Yesterday, Terry Gross of Gross and Belsky, a San Francisco law firm, became the defendant's lawyer at no cost according to this Forbes article. Mr. Ciarelli has claimed that neither his company that owns ThinkSecret.com nor he has sufficient funds to hire a lawyer to defend the company in Santa Clara County, CA, where Apple filed the suit. Technically, it's Mr. Ciarelli's company that has been sued and not Mr. Ciarelli personally. Apple seeks to discover the alleged illegal sources, to prevent Think Secret from continuing to publish it's trade secrets and unspecified compensation for damages. It is possible should Apple prevail that almost any compensation would put Mr. Ciarelli's company out of business, since it doesn't have enough cash even to hire a lawyer, and give title of its assets, including the domain name ThinkSecret.com, to Apple. Mr. Gross plans to file a motion to toss out the case based on the US Constitution's First Amendment protection of freedom of speech. Apple's suit is based on the Uniform Trade Secrets Act adopted by 44 states including California. [Dana Baggett]