California bites Apple
by brian_turner
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Californian publishers, media, and journalism groups have bandied together to launch an unprecedented legal attack on Apple.
It comes in the form of an appeal, after a judge ruled on March 4th that Apple can force a website to reveal its sources of information.
The groups involved include a string of Californian publishers, which are behind newspapers such as the Los Angeles Times, San Jose Mercury News, the San Francisco Chronicle, San Diego Union-Tribune, Sacramento Bee, and the Orange County Register.
Additionally, media and journalism groups such as the Associated Press, Society for Professional Journalists, Student Press Law Center, the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, the California First Amendment Coalition, and the California Newspaper Publishers Association, are all named in an amicus brief.
The media groups have all converged in support of Apple industry websites - Apple Insider, PowerPage and ThinkSecret - which leaked details on new Apple products earlier this year.
The action argues that the websites are journalistic bodies, and therefore protected under First Amendment rights of Freedom of Press. This includes protecting media from revealing sources in public interest cases, even if the leak is itself illegal.
Although Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg originally disagreed that the websites could be protected under the US Constitution, the sudden appearance of media giants squaring up against Apple dramatically ups the stakes in what could be a very acrimonious - and potentially damaging case for Apple.
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