Astonishing ... completely astonishingI'm sure everyone has now heard about Apple Computer, Inc. suing a number of anonymous people for leaking information about unannounced products. Almost two weeks ago, on March 11th, the California judge presiding over the case ruled in Apple's favour, stating that the rumor sites who published said leaked secrets would have to disclose their sources.
A California judge ruled March 11 that three independent online reporters may have to provide the identities of their confidential sources and that they weren't protected by "shield laws" that usually protect journalists.
I would say that's reasonable, wouldn't you? Here you have a couple of (possible) Apple employees who are under a non-disclosure agreement, and they go off and spout their information off to some rumor sites. The rumor sites then have to disclose the identities of the individuals who are violating their NDAs and most likely company policy as well. Where's the problem? Aha, but the problem is that people are incessant whiners.
The online journalists who published Apple trade secrets, and who were slammed by the ruling, are now filing an appeal. On what grounds, I don't know, but they're filing an appeal. This is ridiculous.
I may not be much of an Apple fan myself, but I'm behind the company 100% on this one. If I have some employees who are leaking trade secrets, I would sure as hell want to know who they were so that I could fire their asses and possibly smack them with a lawsuit.
Maybe I'm missing a huge part of the picture here (and if so, I welcome the comments), but I just don't see what grounds these online journalists have for filing an appeal after having published stolen trade secrets leaked by potential employees. Heck, I'd be glad that I wasn't being smacked with something more severe than just disclosure of informant identities.
If the previous ruling gets turned over, would this set a precedent for future cases of the sort? Could employees then freely leak information to any and all rumor mills without fear of punishment? I would hope not.
Article Link: Journalists Appeal Apple Trade Secrets Ruling
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