More Details About the Legal Action Against YoutubeR WHO LEAKED IOS 26 FEATURES!
In a fresh court filing, Apple says leaker Jon Prosser plotted with others to hack a development iPhone and swipe trade secrets. Prosser, for his part, claims the tech giant is misreading the situation.
Rumors always swirl whenever a big Apple launch approaches, and that is especially true for megahits like the iPhone or Vision Pro. Online tipsters such as Prosser and Bloomberg reporter Mark Gurman regularly share sneak peeks, crediting unnamed insiders who say they have seen nex-gen hardware or software first-hand.
Because they have nailed enough predictions, such sources have become a thorn in Apples side. Now the company is trying a legal fix. On Thursday, it lodged a lawsuit in Californias northern federal court, accusing Prosser of conspiring to break into an Apple test phone, steal its secrets, and turn a quick profit off the haul.
According to the complaint, Prosser, who runs the Front-Page Tech YouTube channel, exploited a friend, Ethan Lipnik, an Apple contractor with access to an unreleased iOS 26 device. The suit goes on to name another defendant, Michael Ramacciotti, who was crashing at Lipniks place and allegedly waited until the coast was clear to grab the phone and reveal its contents via video call to Prosser.
Prosser reportedly took bits of insider info he spotted in those early developer builds and dropped them into YouTube videos long before Apple rolled out the updates on stage. The complaint goes on to say that Ramacciotti insists Prosser was the ring leader and even told him hed make sure he got paid for the leaked scoops.
Prosser has pushed back, flat out denying he did anything wrong and arguing that the lawsuits story simply isn’t accurate. In posts on X, he has stuck to the same line, saying his version of events is much cleaner than what the court documents suggest.
“The details Apple gave me are just wrong,” Prosser told me in a private message on X. “I don’t know where he got the info. He never said he ‘needed money,’ and I never told him to act that way.”
He’s not saying he kept the info to himself. Earlier this year, he showed parts of what Ramacciotti told him in several videos, calling one, “the biggest iOS leak ever.”
Still, the way he got that scoop has left a mess behind. Ethan Lipnik, the Apple engineer who owned the phone Ramacciotti allegedly touched, lost his job.
The lawsuit claims Apple fired Lipnik “for failing to follow policies that protect confidential information, including dev devices and unreleased software.” Apple has not returned our requests for comment, and Lipnik has not replied either.
It’s pretty big case, says Anshel Sag, head analyst at Moor Insights Strategy, speaking via email. But there still looks like a gap between what Prosser claims and what Apple says, especially since the person in question didn’t seem to know much about it.
The heart of the matter, Sag explains, is not only that the details came off a developer device that should have been locked down, but also that whoever pulled them never stopped to ask where they originated before blasting the information online.
At the end of the day every firm, Apple included, tries hard to stamp out leaks, and because this incident unfolded entirely on U.S. soil the company can lean on a stronger set of rules and resources, Sag notes. Many past Apple leaks have slipped out of factories and suppliers across Asia, but since this suit zeroes in on events that are said to have happened in California the firm is now able to wave two big federal shields-the Defend Trade Secrets Act and the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act-in court.
Prosser admits he learned about the lawsuit only after spotting it in a MacRumors article.
I feel awful that Ethan was fired over this, he says. I wish he had told Apple what really happened, and I wish the company had reached out to me for answers-I would have happily spoken with them.
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