Litigation from Apple to publishers of a pair of Mac news Weblogs have prompted the Electronic Frontier Foundation to step in and represent the blogs' publishers, after they raised Apple's ire for discussing a new product code-named Asteroid, the EFF said January 10.
Apple sued twenty "John Does" December 10 in a Santa Clara court and got a court order to let it subpoena AppleInsider and PowerPage to give up the "Does" whom the company believes leaked the Asteroid information to the blogs, the EFF said.
The EFF argues back that the anonymity of the blogs' sources is protected just the way anonymous sources of brick-and-mortar reporters are protected.
"Bloggers break the news, just like journalists do," said EFF staff attorney Kurt Opsahl, announcing the EFF defense of AppleInsider and PowerPage. "They must be able to promise confidentiality in order to maintain the free flow of information. Without legal protection, informants will refuse to talk to reporters, diminishing the power of the open press that is the cornerstone of a free society."
PowerPage publisher Jason O'Grady said in his own statement that Apple's behavior and apparent new policy of legal threats against its "best customers" disappointed him. "Is corporate paranoia really more important than the First Amendment?" he asked.
