The last few years I have turned into an Apple fan. Not that I have bought any Apple gear (I simply think they are way overpriced), but I do use their products (Powerbook G4) and I do like(d) the way they conduct business and how innovative they are when it comes to marketing their products. So when I read about the darker sides of Apple's business ethics I was actualy a bit upset.
ZDnet reports about this case where Apple is sueing the proprietor of an online Blog for exposing 'trade secrets'. Blog owner Jason D. O'Grady posted a series of stories in October 2004 about an upcoming Apple product in development: a FireWire breakout box for GarageBand, code-named "Asteroid." Apparantly this struck a nerve at Apple and they decided to sue the messenger and demand he reveals his sources as well.
Now here is the bottomline: Apple feels that independent online journalists are not protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and that a journalists confidential communications and sources should be exposed to them. Lucky for O'Grady, the
Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) stepped in and has been defending him pro bono, arguing that
the anonymity of his sources are protected by the same laws that protect sources who leak information to journalists.
However, A Santa Clara County judge decided that
journalists and their sources lose constitutional protection when they publish information that a business classifies as a "trade secret." Off course the EFF filed a petition to have that decision overturned. This petition will be heard on April 20, 2006 by the California Court of Appeal. The purpose of the hearing is, that a judge can decide whether the Santa Clara County court made a mistake when it refused to protect O'Grady's rights under the First Amendment.
Now, the reason that I am blogging about this is, that we have various discussions here in Holland as well about the (legal) status of bloggers. The question boils down to this: are bloggers journalists? If so, are they protected in the same way journalists are? And if not, what is their legal status then? An interesting discussion - especially since I happen to have a degree in journalism myself.
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