News Apple attacked over sources row

Bad Apple... The Cupertino Crew are being slapped down by the EFF, over the current rash of litegation against Mac enthusiast sites that leaked news of the Mac Mini and the purported music peripheral known as "Asteroid" - before they where officially announced. The Beeb fills in the details:

Civil liberties group the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has stepped into a legal fight between three US online journalists and Apple.

Apple wants the reporters to reveal 20 sources used for stories which leaked information about forthcoming products, including the Mac Mini.

The EFF has asked the California Superior court for an order to stop Apple from pursuing the sources.

It argues that the journalists are protected by the American constitution.

The EFF says the case threatens the basic freedoms of the press.

More here

I can see the need to protect information, but this does seem heavy handed. Suing enthusiast sites is also counter-productive - One of the reasons the Mini was an instant hit was due to the coverage these sites gave it. It just doesn't make sense, IMHO.

 

I cannot understand why Apple are doing this.. it seems bloody stupid from all perspectives.

 

Steve always flips out when people tell his secrets. I mean REALLY flips out. There was a macworld a few years ago where an ATI press release came out like the day before the macworld and listed specs (video specs that is) and product name of a new apple product that steve hadn't announced yet.

He went through every mac that was to be used for macworld and ripped out the ATI cards and threw them in a pile and had someone go buy new nvidia cards to replace them all.

Mr. Tantrum? Mr. Jobs?

He's just like that.

 

Apple sues three journalists for emails

Looks like the bad Apple is getting rotten now...

The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is calling for court protection for three journalists targeted by Apple.

The three reporters work for online titles appleinsider and powerpage.org. In November they published stories about "Asteroid", a future Apple device for linking musical instruments to computers.

Apple is demanding they hand over documents which could identify the source of that information.

The EFF asked a California Superior Court for a protective order to stop Apple forcing the reporters to reveal their sources. The group argues that the three are protected by the same "reporter's privilege" that protects newspaper journalists. This legal protection is the same regardless who holds the actual records.

As well as going after the reporters directly Apple has sent subpoenas to their ISP, Nfox.com. The computer giant wants the ISP to hand over reporters' emails which will reveal the identity of their sources.

EFF attorney Kurt Opsahl explained: "Rather than confronting the issue of reporter's privilege head-on, Apple is going to this journalist's ISP for his emails. This undermines a fundamental, First Amendment right that protects all reporters. If the court lets Apple get away with this, and exposes the confidences gained by these reporters, potential confidential sources will be deterred from providing information to the media."

That's all the text, but here's the link anyway.

 

Erm, isn't that essentially the same story as I posted?

 

It is indeed, I posted without reading everything first

Pretty hardline moves Apple is making though, trying to force the ISPs for the information...what next are they going to join up with the RIAA?

They've blown this way out of proportion especially since it is their enthusiast community in the first place