Owen Fletcher reporting for the Wall Street Journal regarding the removal of leaked iPad 2 case images:

But someone—it’s unclear who—doesn’t seem to appreciate all the attention: Alibaba.com was asked to remove the listings. “We do not know whether these products are what they say they are, but we have received a legitimate takedown request and are removing the listings,” Alibaba Group spokesman John Spelich said Wednesday.

I had already decided not to write about the case images because there have been leaked cases in the past that didn’t fit the final product. But now that someone wants these case images pulled, there is a strong indication that these cases were manufactured with knowledge of the iPad 2’s design.

When one of the manufacturers, Fullchance Industrial Co., was called the man who answered the phone claimed that the company works with Hon Hai Precision Industry and said that they possess firsthand material regarding the features of the new iPad which makes their case design “extremely accurate.”