‘Apple has shown an increasingly litigious face in recent months, targeting news site Think Secret a week before the start of Macworld San Francisco last month, and going after two additional sites in December 2004 for their reporting on prerelease builds of the upcoming Mac OS X 10.4 (Tiger). In the case of the Tiger leak, Apple subpoenaed Apple Insider and O’Grady’s PowerPage in an attempt to get them to disclose the identities of those providing inside information.

Those sites are fighting back, as attorneys from the Electronic Frontier Foundation defending them filed a brief in Santa Clara Superior Court arguing that the subpoenas violate First Amendment protections long enjoyed by journalists. Saying that the sites “cannot be compelled to disclose the source of any information procured in connection with their journalistic endeavors, nor any unpublished information obtained,” the lawyers argue that journalistic privilege applies equally to print and online publications.’

Source: Eric Bangeman, Ars Technica