10 Best Steve Jobs Email

Steve Jobs has been dead for more than three years, but his words live on and continue to be used against him.

Emails sent by Jobs have surfaced once again in a class action lawsuit brought against Apple (AAPL, Tech30) for making iTunes the exclusive store for iPod music. Jobs' emails are characteristically frank, which could hurt Apple. Jobs' famous candor wasn't limited to face-to-face encounters. His brusque manner translated to email as well. That's unusual for modern CEOs, who are trained to exercise restraint in emails. Those words can easily be entered as evidence in a trial. Either Jobs didn't get that message -- or he didn't care. These 10 emails from Apple's co-founder reveal the stern, outspoken and often witty personality that made him one of the most charismatic CEOs of his era.

To Apple executives about preventing a rival service from being compatible with the iPod

"We need to make sure that when Music Match launches their download music store they cannot use iPod. Is this going to be an issue?"

To an eager college journalist who was dumbfounded that Apple's media relations team hadn't replied to her

"Please leave us alone."

To NewsCorp (NWS) executive James Murdoch, who oversees HarperCollins -- an Amazon (AMZN, Tech30) rival that was trying to raise the prices of ebooks

"Throw in with Apple and see if we can all make a go of this to create a real mainstream e-books market at $12.99 and $14.99."

To Apple's HR chief after learning that Google (GOOG) had fired a recruiter who was poaching Apple employees -- something the companies had conspired not to do " :-) "

To Palm CEO Ed Colligan after the company refused to reverse its decision to poach an Apple employee

"I'm sure you realize the asymmetry in the financial resources of our respective companies. My advice is to take a look at our patent portfolio before you make a final decision here."

To an advertiser who told Jobs he was being a "jerk" about mobile ads

"You are a super salesperson, by the way."

A bullet in an email outlining Apple's 2011 strategy

"2011: Holy War with Google"

To a Mac owner whose computer got wet and was having no luck with Apple Care replacing his laptop

"This is what happens when your MacBook Pro sustains water damage. They are pro machines and they don't like water. It sounds like you're just looking for someone to get mad at other than yourself."

To the makers of the app iPodRip, which Apple threatened with a lawsuit

"Change your apps name. Not that big of a deal."

Response to an iPhone 4 owner who was a victim of "Antennagate"

"Just avoid holding it that way."

Shell agrees $84m deal over Niger Delta oil spill

 Oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has agreed to a $84m (£55m) settlement with residents of the Bodo community in the Niger Delta for two oil spills. Lawyers for 15,600 Nigerian fishermen say their clients will receive $3,300 each for losses caused by the spills.

The remaining $30m will be left for the community, which law firm Leigh Day says was "devastated by the two massive oil spills in 2008 and 2009". They say they affected thousands of hectares of mangrove in south Nigeria. The settlement was announced by the Anglo-Dutch oil giant's Nigerian subsidiary SPDC. "From the outset, we've accepted responsibility for the two deeply regrettable operational spills in Bodo," its managing director MutiuSunmonu said. Shell says that both spills were caused by operational failure of the pipelines.

However, the company maintains that the extent of environmental pollution in the area is caused by "the scourge of oil theft and illegal refining". It also suggested that earlier settlement efforts had been hampered "by divisions within the community". The law firm representing the Nigerian fishermen and their community, Leigh Day, described it as one of the largest payouts to an entire community after devastating environmental damage. "It is the first time that compensation has been paid following an oil spill in Nigeria to the thousands of individuals who have suffered loss," the firm said in a press release confirming the development. The deal, which ends a three-year legal battle, is the first of its kind in Nigeria, it added. Leigh Day also said that Shell had pledged to clean up the Bodo Creek over the next few months. 

Lawyer Martyn Day, who represents the claimants, said it was "deeply disappointing that Shell took six years to take this case seriously and to recognise the true extent of the damage these spills caused to the environment and to those who rely on it for their livelihood". An Amnesty International report into the effects of the oil spills in Bodo, a town in the Ogoniland region, said that the spills had caused headaches and eyesight problems. The price of fish, a local staple food, rose as much as tenfold and many fishermen had to find alternative ways to make a living, the report added. A separate UN study said local drinking water sources were also contaminated. The two spills came from the same pipe on the Trans Niger Pipeline, operated by Shell, which takes oil from its fields to the export terminal at Bonny on the coast. It carries about 180,000 barrels of oil per day.