In July, Apple sued well-known YouTuber Jon Prosser and his acquaintance Michael Ramacciotti over alleged theft of the company's trade secrets, after Prosser leaked some iOS 26 details in videos uploaded to his YouTube channel Front Page Tech. If you are not caught up on the lawsuit, read our initial coverage to learn more.
Earlier this week, Prosser told The Verge he has "been in active communications with Apple since the beginning stages of this case," despite Apple's attorneys indicating he missed his deadline to formally respond to the complaint. The court entered a default judgment against Prosser last week, citing his failure to respond.
"The notion that I'm ignoring the case is incorrect," said Prosser. "That's all I am able to say."
In a court document filed on Thursday, Apple's attorneys said they are aware that Prosser has "publicly acknowledged" the complaint. However, they said he "has not indicated whether he will file a response to it or, if so, by when."
As for Ramacciotti, Apple said he has agreed to respond to the complaint by October 29.
In a statement filed with the court, Ramacciotti's attorneys said he is "not a professional leaker," but rather "a lifelong Apple fanboy who failed to fully appreciate the value and proprietary nature of the information that he learned about iOS 26."
Ramacciotti had "no intent to monetize this information" when he contacted Prosser, they said.
Apple is concerned that Ramacciotti "intentionally deleted relevant evidence," including "several hundreds of thousands of text messages," after the company advised him of the need to preserve evidence on July 23. His attorneys disputed this assertion.
Apple and Ramacciotti have informally discussed a potential settlement, and these talks were "ongoing," according to the court filing on Thursday.
