The Wall Street Journal has a good article on the shutting down of the Apple rumor and news website Think Secret. Though not confirmed by Think Secret owner Nick Ciarelli, Kurt Opsahl from the Electronic Frontier Foundation said, “it would be surprising if Apple did not include a payment as part of the settlement, given the bargaining position”.

On December 20th, 2007 Think Secret announced a settlement to the lawsuit Apple brought against Nick Ciarelli in 2005. At issue was the identity of the source used in the Think Secret prediction of a low cost Mac without a monitor (Mac Mini). Mr. Ciarelli refused to give up his source in the wake of the lawsuit. In the confidential settlement announcement, it states that he never gave up his source.

If you have a WSJ account, the WSJ article is here. If you don’t have a WSJ account, you can view the article via Google Finance. Visit the AAPL page in Google Finance here. On the right side of the graph look for the article titled ” Apple Fan Site to Shut Down To Settle Lawsuit by Apple” with a December 20th date (also noted by the “E” on the graph).