This is just a heads up to our loyal readers to offer an explanation of what has happened to that exclusive Leopard gallery we posted a couple of weeks back.

The gallery was first posted on the evening of Thursday 2nd of August, in the five days ensuing that date the gallery saw over 250,000 individual users; and for those of you that love hits that clocks in well over 50 million.

The huge influx of traffic caused serious server issues, at one point on Sunday 5th we were pushing over 200mbps (megabits per second). The traffic caused some lengthy downtime and due to this we will make the move to a new host in the near future; more on that later in the month.

Following the Tuesday’s Special Event things died off quickly but the gallery remained in place, receiving a few thousand visitors everyday.

That is until this very moment.

At 1 minute past 8 on the evening of the 14th (British Summer Time) our general enquiries inbox pinged with glee and naturally someone jumped to the case. To our surprise it was a “kind” email from Apple Legal;

To Whom It May Concern:

We represent Apple Inc. (“Apple”). It has come to our attention that World of Apple is posting numerous screenshots of a confidential pre-release build of Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (aka “Leopard”), Build 9A499. The webpage in question is http://worldofapple.com/photos/Leopard/9A499.

While we appreciate your interest in Leopard, we must inform you that this software has been distributed to developers under strict terms of confidentiality that prohibit any dissemination of screenshots or details of its operation. The software is also copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law specifically prohibits the unauthorized display of copyrighted works.

Apple therefore requests that you immediately remove this webpage from your site and destroy all Leopard screenshots in your possession. Please notify me by reply e-mail once the screenshots have been removed.

Sincerely,

*Censored*

O’Melveny & Myers LLP
Embarcadero Center West
275 Battery Street, Suite 2600
San Francisco, CA 94111

DMCA Certification: I hereby state, under penalty of perjury, that I have a good faith belief that the activities described above are not authorized by Apple, that the information in this notification is accurate, and that I am authorized to act on behalf of Apple in this regard.

There was certainly some big threatening words being thrown our way.

To be perfectly honest we let it slip for a little while, it was obvious that it wasn’t going to blow over but we did consider fighting it for a fleeting second.

That was until today, it appeared that Apple hadn’t forgotten about it and had decided to contact our hosts about the situation. Naturally our hosts operate strict policies regarding copyright material and by this point Apple was using stronger words;

To Whom It May Concern:
We represent Apple Inc. (“Apple”). It has come to our attention that a website for which you are the administrative and technical contact — World of Apple — is posting numerous screenshots of a confidential pre-release build of Apple’s new operating system, Mac OS X 10.5 (aka “Leopard”), Build 9A499. The webpage in question is http://worldofapple.com/photos/Leopard/9A499.

While we appreciate the interest in Leopard, we must inform you that this software has been distributed to developers under strict terms of confidentiality that prohibit any dissemination of screenshots or details of its operation. The software is also copyrighted by Apple, and copyright law specifically prohibits the unauthorized display of copyrighted works.

Apple therefore requests that you contact the website operator and require that he or she take steps to immediately: (1) remove this webpage from World of Apple; and (2) destroy all Leopard screenshots in the site’s possession.

Yesterday, I sent a notice directly to the site, but have not yet received a response. Apple is prepared to take further legal action with respect to this matter, and expressly reserves its rights to do so.

As you may have noticed the gallery has been removed and now points at this post you’re reading now.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone that makes World of Apple what it is, especially our growing reader base.

I also apologise for any inconvenience this post or the removal of the Leopard gallery has caused you.