Apple loses in dispute over info

Apple Computer can't force online journalists to disclose their sources of confidential information used for news stories, a California appeals court ruled.

Online writers are protected by the state's reporter "shield law," as well as by the First Amendment right to free speech, the state Court of Appeal in San Jose ruled Friday, reversing a lower court decision.

Apple, maker of the iPod music player, subpoenaed the e-mail provider of Jason O'Grady, publisher of O'Grady's PowerPage, an Internet site that posted information in 2004 about an unreleased Apple product. The ruling establishes that Web reporters have the same right to protect sources as print reporters, said lawyers at the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF).

The decision is a "victory for the rights of journalists, whether online or offline, and for the public at large because it protects the free flow of information to the press and from the press to the public," said Kurt Opsahl, a lawyer at the San Francisco-based EFF, a privacy-rights group which sided with the journalists.

Apple argued that O'Grady posted trade-secret information stolen from the company, and that the company's need to learn the identity of the thieves trumped California's shield law. The court disagreed, saying the shield law "is intended to protect the gathering and dissemination of news, and that is what petitioners did here."

"We can think of no workable test or principle that would distinguish 'legitimate' from 'illegitimate' news," the appeals court said. "Any attempt by courts to draw such a distinction would imperil a fundamental purpose of the First Amendment."

The ruling overturned a March 2005 ruling saying Apple could subpoena online news sites to find out the source of the leak, which Kleinberg said was a trade secret. O'Grady appealed.