This Blogger agrees with you, Steve...

Steve Jobs and I agreed, peripherally at least, on two things yesterday. It's so rare that people agree with me, I figured it was worth noting.

First, the podcast issue. As O'Reilly reported, Steve "was slightly dismissive of populist podcasting, describing it as 'Wayne's World for radio'" Dismissive? You don't say.

Then last night, I'm skimming Wonkette (For entertainment purposes only. I do not recommend you try this at home.), and I come across this blurb, paraphrasing Steve's response to Walter Mossberg and Kara Swisher during his D3 Q&A appearance, regarding the "Apple v. Bloggers" case:

"The law is very clear... You aren't protected by the First Amendment if you are breaking the law... and these bloggers posted documents that were Apple trade secrets. They had 'Confidential' and
'Apple' stamped on them....There are times when the court has ruled that the public good is served, that you can break the law in the service of the public good but we don't feel publishing our trade secrets rises to that."

Swisher: "Would you have sued if the Wall Street Journal had done this?"
Jobs:
"We might have. But the Wall Street Journal has serious thought behind it... the thing is today is that everyone can be a journalist... we are in a gray area and we are trying to help in some small way."

I sat at my desk, nodding in agreement. If I'd been there, I would have stood and applauded.

We've been down this road before.
It's no surprise, nor is it  a new revelation, that Jobs feels strongly about this. I don't blame him. He's 100% right. Of course, Wonkette wants you to believe this is a political issue. Sorry, it isn't.
Fairness and justice and common sense and doing the right thing aren't partisan issues – or at least they shouldn't be. The First Amendment doesn't exist to protect people who knowingly break the law for no good reason other than wanting to profit from it.

So you're not alone, Steve, and not every blogger thinks you're the scourge of the earth for wanting to protect your secrets.  This blogger is on your side.