by , 1:45 PM EDT, August 23rd, 2006

Apple has fired at least five of its retail store employees, with dozens more potentially on the chopping block too, after they were overheard talking about downloading illegal copies of Mac OS X v10.5 "Leopard." Think Secret said that word of the discussions reached the company's Cupertino headquarters and prompted an investigation that resulted in the employees admitting what they did.

"All of us know that we violated our NDA and ethics policy," the Web site quoted one of them as saying. "Therefore, because we had the character to tell the truth and to face the consequences of our actions, we were terminated. My only question is, if we all lied and denied it would we still be working at Apple today? Even more so, is that the kind of person that Apple wants working for them?"