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TMO Reports - Big Business Sides with Apple against Web Sites

by , 11:45 AM EDT, April 28th, 2005

Semiconductor giant Intel and biotech giant Genentech have filed papers with Santa Clara County Superior Court in support of Apple Computer's efforts to force Mac sites to give up their sources for unannounced Apple products. Bloomberg News reported Thursday that the two corporate heavyweights had filed briefs supporting Apple's right to protect its trade secrets, a move that more clearly delineates this as a fight between Big Business and The Press.

At issue is Apple's legal efforts to gain access to e-mail records for the publishers of Think Secret, PowerPage, and AppleInsider to discover the sources of leaked information that resulted in those sites publishing news of various unannounced Apple products.

The company filed separate actions against the three sites, and in March of 2005, Santa Clara County Superior Court Judge James Kleinberg ruled that PowerPage had to divulge its sources.

Defending PowerPage is the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF), which appealed the decision. Since that time, a variety of traditional and new-media publishers have filed a friend-of-the-court brief asking the California Court of Appeal to reverse the decision.

In the brief that was prepared by Grant Penrod of the Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, several news publishers and First Amendment organizations argued that the trial court incorrectly allowed trade secret law to trump First Amendment rights. The brief also said that Apple had failed to exhaust all other alternative sources for the information it sought before going after journalists' sources, as required by reporter's privilege under the First Amendment.

Signers of the brief included the Associated Press, the California First Amendment Coalition, the California Newspaper Publishers Association, Copley Press, Freedom Communications, Inc., Hearst Corp., Los Angeles Times, McClatchy Company, San Jose Mercury News, Society of Professional Journalists, Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press, and the Student Press Law Center.

Earlier in April, another group, the Bear Flag League, a coalition of 80 bloggers, filed its own friend of the court brief in support of the EFF's position on the case that bloggers should have the same protections as traditional journalists.

The filings from Intel and Genentech, on the other hand, argue that there was no public interest being served by these stories, and that companies had to be able to protect their trade secrets.

"What happened here wasn't any kind of protected journalism," Steven Hirsch, a lawyer for Genentech, told Bloomberg News. "It was the posting of raw, unmediated stolen property to a Web site. Companies need to be able to take reasonable and limited steps to find out who is stealing their trade secrets and essentially destroying their value by having them posted to the Web."

We should note, too, that Arthur D. Levinson, Genentech's highly-respected chairman, has served on Apple's board of directors since 2000.

Intel spokesperson Chuck Malloy told Bloomberg, "Intel strongly supports First Amendment rights, and we do not doubt that the news media have an interest in protecting their sources. However, we believe that no public interest is served in having trade secrets involving unannounced products stolen and published broadly."

You can find additional information on the briefs filed in the Bloomberg News story, which was published Thursday by the New York Times. The Times requires free registration.

Brad Cook contributed to this story.

Observer Comments

Show: Subjects Only | Full Comments
Close Name:Guest
Subject: Nice Move

Glad that some other companies came out in support of Apple. This should quiet down those who accuse Apple of "attacking their biggest fans."

Close Name:Guest
Subject: As much as I like hearing rumors

I think Apple and others companies big and small have a right to keep unannouced products out of the news.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: what happens to big, happens to...

What happens to big companies eventually happens to small companies...

Close Name:Guest
Subject: lapse of judgement

Posting the trade secrets, in a raw, unaltered form, is the difference between true journalists and bloggers.
Even if the case is not about what is a true journalist that goes to show how blogging is not up to the standards of journalism and is more prone to commit lapses of judgement.
Sites like this comment on what other news sources say about Macs and Apple quoting selected parts, never posting it in full, posting what other news sources have in fullness would be a violation of intellectual property laws (copyright, specifically).
Apple does have a right to protect their intellectual property, whether it is patents, copyrights, or trade secrets.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Nothing to do with Big Business

"a move that more clearly delineates this as a fight between Big Business and The Press"

Er, no it doesn't. This is a battle between legislated protections for trade secrets (which can apply to any body) and various websites a protected party believes is in violation of this law.

Close Name:Guest
Subject: Chicken S**T American

Quote
Guest wrote:
"a move that more clearly delineates this as a fight between Big Business and The Press"

Er, no it doesn't. This is a battle between legislated protections for trade secrets (which can apply to any body) and various websites a protected party believes is in violation of this law.


Americans are a bunch of pu**ies. I cannot believe a bell hasn't gone off for anyone. The "big guys" are not looking to the best interests of people! When people start praising "yea let big business control and/or put limits on the press" or "yea, I'm glad they are telling me to be suspicious of people and report it" I really feel that we are spitting in the face of all the brave people that fought and died for freedom. You all should know, by your above posts and complicity, you are all a bunch of pu**ies and are responsible for what you get. Less freedom and more workplace pressure to run your lives.

I'm totally embarrassed by you all. And I wish that the mac press and this site in particular would have more balls and put out editorials in support of thinksecret and the 1st amendment. The reality is that these sites depend on apple's "good graces" and are too afraid to STAND THE HELL UP AND SPEAK THE F' UP because apple and steve "hissy fit" jobs my pull a Wiley on them as well.

Shame on you too. Speak the hell up now. If you don't no one else will.

Suggestion: This site and others in the mac community should get together and make a joint editorial on the issue that supports the 1st amendment (and one that doesn't pu**y-out and give some "awe apple we think youre so swell" feel to it that gives them an out. Then have everyone publish the same editorial on all the sites. Show some solidarity. Shoot back. Let them know this is wrong. You guys have so much more power than you know. You can turn this from a thing that Apple corporate is savvily sweeping under the table/radar to something that affects them enough that it will make thing think differently about what they are doing.

Close Name:ld Posts: 9 Joined: 20 Mar 2004
Subject: Re: Chicken American

You say you want freedom... (maybe even freedom from abuse!)

Firstly, there's one wise one who said, 'Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged...' and 'Anyone who sins is a slave to sin...'.

Secondly, there's an older law than the so called 'first' amendment which says 'do not steal'. If the latter negates the former (which I have no idea - not being an American) then the latter is clearly wrong.

We seem to always hear people using these 'amendments' to justify wrongdoing; such people talk about "my" rights without regard for their "neighbour's" (and it's not only journalists who face this dilemna - if they choose to face it, that is).

You ask for freedom but yet keep on talking as if "I" have the right to do anything "I" like no matter who gets hurt in the process - and then have the hide to say that the law protects "me", the wrongdoer. That's backwards... not freedom. Selfishness is incompatible with true freedom.

Close Name:Guest
Subject:

Quote
ld wrote:
You say you want freedom... (maybe even freedom from abuse!)

Firstly, there's one wise one who said, 'Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged...' and 'Anyone who sins is a slave to sin...'.

Secondly, there's an older law than the so called 'first' amendment which says 'do not steal'. If the latter negates the former (which I have no idea - not being an American) then the latter is clearly wrong.

We seem to always hear people using these 'amendments' to justify wrongdoing; such people talk about "my" rights without regard for their "neighbour's" (and it's not only journalists who face this dilemna - if they choose to face it, that is).

You ask for freedom but yet keep on talking as if "I" have the right to do anything "I" like no matter who gets hurt in the process - and then have the hide to say that the law protects "me", the wrongdoer. That's backwards... not freedom. Selfishness is incompatible with true freedom.


You are an f'n retard. Infringement is not theft. It is infringement. That's why they have a whole seperate word for it. Tradesecrets are not tangible things, it's an intellectual property right. You are the kind of retard that actually buys into big-business' lame a$$ analogies about infringment being the same as me going in and stealing a chattle.

And if you don't know about the amendments, keep your pie hole shut you ignorant prick. The first 10 amendments are the bill of rights and they are FUNDAMENTAL freedoms. Freedoms that trump some corporate bs right to make up fake a$$ monopolies.

God, people of this world have all turned into frigg'n moronic imps. You make my skin crawl.

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