'Twas the night before Snow Leopard, and all through the 'net, Apple was sending takedowns for previews of software that technically wasn't out yet... Snow Leopard is almost out, but "almost" isn't quite good enough for Apple. Apparently they sent a last-minute takedown notice to The Register for posting their Snow Leopard preview a little early, and The Register is declining to do anything about it.

Similar previews have appeared around the 'net (our friends at Engadget have published their own review), and while Apple claims that images and descriptions in the post are still confidential, The Register disagrees, saying that many features of Snow Leopard were seen and known way before this week.

So. Will Apple be angry? Will The Register be locked out of any future events (actually, we can identify with that one, given our metaliveblogging chops here on TUAW)? Will they care? It does seem a bit strange that Apple has targeted them with a takedown -- we doubt, as The Register suspects, that Walt Mossberg will be getting any takedown notices. Then again, maybe Apple was just trying (or their lawyers were just aiming for some extra legal fees), and they won't bother enforcing what seems like a shaky case anyway.

Most likely Apple will pass. We'll probably hear them exclaim, however, though it may be less staunch: Merry updates to all, and to all a good launch!

Davis Freeberg over at Zatz Not Funny has a detailed post this morning on the takedown of the Inside Redbox Mobile app for the iPhone, which was removed from the App Store at the request of Redbox. If you've never heard of Redbox (I hadn't myself before this morning), it runs DVD rental kiosks in hundreds of supermarkets and other retail locations -- you can walk up, rent a movie from the vending machine, and then return it to any other Redbox kiosk.

It's not 100% clear why Redbox objected to the iPhone app; could be a trademark issue, could be that the tool made it too easy to track and use free movie promo codes that ordinarily would require a bit of research. Since most of the functionality is accessible via the redbox.com site anyway, it's fair to ask why Redbox wants to make things more difficult for its customers. Perhaps the rental company has its own iPhone app planned, or it just wants to sort out a few issues with the Inside Redbox developers before giving the green light.

If you used the Inside Redbox app, let us know about your experience.

Wow. Good thing that DoubleTwist is waiting in the OS X wings for anyone who wants to rip DRM from their iTunes purchases. Apple just issued a C&D off to the ISP hosting the Hymn-inspired Requiem software. DrmBytes, a hymn moderator, posted that hymn-project.org will no longer allow links to DRM-stripping software, writing "We've complied with the C&D and removed all DRM breaking software from the site."

The Hymn Project was established to allow people to use the music they'd purchased on the device of their choice. DrmBytes suggests you avoid purchasing your music from vendors who mandate DRM. You should still be able to use burn-and-rip solutions like MyTunes and DRM Dumpster for now.

Yesterday, Erica posted in her state of the iPod touch jailbreak that a hacker named "Martyn" had obtained a broken iPod touch, and was planning to dive in and download every bit of code on it in the increasingly complicated effort to put 3rd party applications on the iPod touch. He didn't plan to release the code to the public, but he did plan to upload the code to a secured area of his site in order to let the other touch hackers have a crack at it.

But even before his upload finished, we're told, his ISP showed up, with a takedown notice in hand. Apple had somehow found his site, had contacted his ISP, and let them know that it would be against copyright law for him to upload that code to the Internet. Martyn isn't interested in breaking the law (and it would be illegal to share that code), so he pulled the page off. But what's amazing here is how fast Apple moved on this-- either they've got someone listening in on the development wiki, or they're taking cues from us on how things are going over there (hi, Apple!).

Despite what we've heard before, clearly they are very, very interested in making sure the iPod touch doesn't get hacked. Martyn tells me, as has Erica, that Apple has clearly gone out of their way to keep hackers out of their latest iPod. We're also told that progress continues despite all that, but Apple is apparently bending over backwards to do everything they can to keep the iPod touch closed.