“The Electronic Frontier Foundation said Apple acted too quickly in subpoenaing journalists and bloggers accused of stealing trade secrets,” David Needle reports for InternetNews.com. “Court documents in the case were unsealed last week. EFF said they reveal Apple tried to subpoena two reporters’ anonymous sources without first conducting a thorough internal investigation.”
Needle reports, “EFF said this is a crucial issue in the case, which will be heard by a California appeals court. The First Amendment and the California Constitution require that Apple exhaust all other alternatives before trying to subpoena journalists. ‘The First Amendment requires that compelled disclosure from journalists be a last resort,’ said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl in a statement. ‘Apple must first investigate its own house before seeking to disturb the freedom of the press.’ Apple also claimed that its internal investigation was itself a trade secret that needed to be sealed from opposing counsel, but the EFF and its co-counsel, Thomas Moore III and Richard Wiebe, argued successfully to the court that it be unsealed.”
“The EFF and co-counsel are representing journalists with the online news sites AppleInsider.com and PowerPage.org. After the sites printed articles about ‘Asteroid,’ rumored to be a much-anticipated FireWire audio interface for its GarageBand music program, Apple claimed violation of trade secret law. In December, the company sued several unknown parties, known as ‘Does,’ who allegedly leaked information about “Asteroid” to the journalists,” Needle reports.
Full article here.
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