Might as well call today “Apple Legal News Friday”
As Barb mentioned, Apple has a new lawsuit pending against them. But let's not forget Apple is suing a few people themselves... and making some of the very same accusations against others as they have been charged with.
Apple Legal may be realizing that might doesn't always equal right. In a statement from the
EFF today, we learned that Apple has agreed to "hold off on serving subpoenas until after the Superior Court of Santa Clara County, California, has held a hearing on the EFF's request for a protective order for its clients." The protective order, which should be ruled on soon, seeks to prevent Apple from "filing subpoenas against their clients to get information about the identity of their sources, as well as demanding any unpublished documents related to the resulting stories."
That's a sigh of relief for Jason O'Grady and
"Kasper Jade", both of whom are named in the suit.
The case began in December 2004, when Apple obtained a court order allowing the company to issue subpoenas aimed at discovering the identities of 20 "John Does" who allegedly leaked information about upcoming Apple products to AppleInsider and
PowerPage.org. But instead of going after the reporters themselves, Apple sent subpoenas to Nfox.com, the PowerPage publisher's email provider, asking them to hand over the publisher's email. Apple hopes those emails reveal who leaked details about an upcoming product code-named
"Asteroid."
"Rather than confronting the issue of reporter's privilege head-on, Apple is going to this journalist's ISP for his emails," said EFF Staff Attorney Kurt Opsahl. "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, and the public will lose a vital outlet for independent news, analysis, and commentary."
Will be interesting to see how this plays out, especially when Apple keeps getting served a taste of its own medicine.