• by March 14, 2005

Apple Computer has won its latest battle. A California judge last week ruled that the company can subpoena e-mails to an Apple fan site so that it can find out the source of leaked details referencing forthcoming products.

While the ruling favors Apple, it's not so great for bloggers and reporters who depend on secret sources to break news. The ruling could also help clarify the increasingly murky situation of who counts as a journalist. Notably, Kurt Opsahl, an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, told Reuters: "Anyone who reports on companies or the trade press should be concerned about this ruling."

For its part, Apple said last Friday's ruling doesn't really cut to the question of whether Apple fan sites were blogs or news sources. "The judge ruled there is no license conferred on anyone to violate valid criminal laws," Steve Dowling, an Apple spokesman told Reuters.

Apple filed a lawsuit in December accusing bloggers of leaking trade secrets about a product code-named "Asteroid" to the Apple fan sites PowerPage, Apple Insider, and Think Secret. Apple says the sites convinced their sources to break confidentiality agreements to leak sensitive product information. Apple has also subpoenaed writers who contribute to the sites and their e-mail provider to surrender information about the sources of the stories regarding Asteroid.

Opsahl, the attorney for the writers, told Reuters he plans to appeal the judge's decision on the grounds that people who write for the Web are journalists and that federal law prevents Internet service providers from surrendering the contents of e-mail unless the owner of the e-mail account agrees.