News broke on Sunday of Apple suing several websites for “spoiling the surprise” of a upcoming product, and yesterday they subpoenaed three ADC members for distributing developer only copies of Mac OS X 10.4 Tiger through BitTorrent.

Members of AppleInsider.com, PowerPage.org, and ThinkSecret.com are named as possible sources of information in finding the person(s) responsible for the product leak. Apple has 60 days to identify each defendant in the lawsuit, which seeks “unspecified monetary damages in excess of US$25,000 as well as punitive damages”. There is always speculation about upcoming Apple products, but it is believed that the lawsuit is being filed over a possible FireWire audio interface for GarageBand.

[Sources: Mac Rumors and MacSlash]

On or about October 30 and again on December 8 three ADC members leaked two different versions of OS X 10.4. ADC members get access to developer only betas of Tiger under strict confidentiality agreements and breaking those seems to set Apple off.

The three men released the betas to a file sharing site that uses BitTorrent technology. With the MPAA going after Torrent sites, could we see legal action against these types of infringement more? I’m almost certain.

[Source: Reuters]