Last year, Apple won the first round in its battle against bloggers,
when it argued in the Santa Clara County Superior Court that bloggers
are not real journalists and therefore should not be afforded the same
rights. The judge in that case granted Apple its request to subpoena
the records.
The case has created a great deal of interest from a number of aspects.
One is whether online journalists, including bloggers, are real
journalists and therefore should have the same rights as print
journalists in protecting sources. The other is whether revealing trade
secrets invalidates a journalist's right to protect sources.
The technology in question is an interface box that enables a computer to be plugged into a computer, codenamed Asteroid.
Apple has sent a subpoena to Nfox.com, the ISP of Macintosh news site
PowerPage to get email records which could identify the sources of the
bloggers on the site who are being sued.
However, the three-member judiciary panel in the Appeal court was
reportedly far less sympathetic to Apple's cause than the judge in the
lower court, aggressively firing tough questions at its attorney.
Much of the criticial questioning centred around Apple's alleged
reluctance to fully pursue its own internal investigation to discover
the source of the leak within the organisation. Apple has reportedly
not subjected any of the employees involved with the Asteroid project
to lie detector tests or questioned them under oath.
One judge in particular, Judge Franklin Elia, was scathing in his
criticism saying that all Apple wanted was "the name of the snitch."
A judgement as to whether Apple can obtain the electronic records it
has requested will be handed down by the Court within 90 days.
Appeals court stews Apple over blogger rights
The State of California Court of Appeal gave Apple Computer's attorney a particularly hard day in court yesterday over its attempt to force the ISP of an Apple news site to hand over the email records of bloggers it claims revealed trade secrets. Apple has issued a subpoena for the records to find out who leaked the information to the bloggers.
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Stan Beer
Stan Beer co-founded iTWire in 2005. With 25 years of experience working in Australian technology media, Beer has published articles in most of the IT publications that have mattered, including the AFR, The Australian, SMH, The Age, as well as a multitude of trade publications.
