Apple just became the bad guys.

[sauergeek]

A California judge has ruled that online publishers covering Apple Computer can be forced to divulge their sources.

Notable from the article:

Apple maintains that California's Shield Law, which protects journalists from being forced to reveal sources, should not apply to Internet sites. In addition, the firm stated in court filings that free speech protections likewise should not apply to the three Internet sites.

Given its stance, Apple seems perfectly willing to eviscerate the First Amendment to keep people from publishing leaks. What Apple should be doing instead is internal counter-espionage to track those leaks, and punishing the employees who are talking too much. (Or I at least assume that Apple has a sufficiently stringent mandatory non-disclosure agreement to do this.) Sacrificing the First Amendment for corporate surprise is just plain wrong. I hope Apple ends up losing their shirt over this.

Comments

[sauergeek.livejournal.com]

I fear that you are correct on this. My hope is, as above, that they end up losing the suit and eating the defendants' legal costs. I doubt that there's a good abuse of process or malicious prosecution countersuit to be had from this.

However, I think that behavior like this needs to be discouraged. Unfortunately, I am failing to come up with an effective, non-draconian means to do so.