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This has not escaped the notice of Nicholas Ciarelli, who as Nick dePlume was the source of many an inside story on Apple as author of the now defunct Think Secret website and the subject of an Apple lawsuit after he leaked details of two new products that proved to be iWork and the Mac mini. At the same time Apple was suing two other websites, all in an attempt to find the source of the leaks and to prevent the sites from publishing “trade secrets”.

But as Ciarelli <

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points out for The Daily Beast, Apple’s litigation was futile. Mac “rumours” have moved from a few small sites to mainstream tech media and beyond.

“These days, Mac rumours are regularly published by technology news powerhouses like Engadget, which is owned by AOL, while the spy photos of the new iPod nano this summer were first published on the personal blog of Kevin Rose, the founder of the popular social news web site Digg.”

Which moves the goalposts, Ciarelli suggests.

“Perhaps Apple is now seeking to avoid legal fisticuffs with more established companies that are less likely to cave in to its demands,” he says.

Or maybe it has woken up to the fact that all its legal shenanigans did was generate bad PR, while the rumours are an invaluable - and free - marketing tool that keeps Apple in the headlines.

“Apple has contended that leaks dampen interest in new products, but if anything they generate a great deal of excitement around its announcements,” Ciarelli says. “Apple’s apparent shift marks the end of a self-defeating war.”