Journalists and prominent bloggers filed amicus briefs in support of web site publishers in the Apple v. Doe appeal in California, arguing that bloggers should be protected from disclosing confidential sources under California’s state shield law.
Journalists Amicus brief. Findlaw reports: News organizations support bloggers in Apple trade secrets case: “Joining the brief were the Tribune Co.’s Los Angeles Times, Hearst Newspapers’ San Francisco Chronicle, Knight Ridder Inc.’s San Jose Mercury News, The Copley Press Inc.’s San Diego Union-Tribune and Freedom Communications Inc.’s Orange County Register, as well as The McClatchy Co.’s Bee newspapers in Sacramento, Fresno and Modesto. Also supporting the brief were the California Newspaper Publishers Association and the nonprofit free speech organization California First Amendment Coalition.”
The BBC reports: Apple bloggers get press support
Bloggers Amicus brief. From EFF Deep Links: Bloggers Speak Up in Apple Case
The amici urged the court to adopt “a functional test for the newsgatherers’ privilege that does not discriminate between reporters, regardless of the medium in which they publish.” They ask the court to “adopt a test that will not impede journalists’ use of the Internet to report news by limiting their constitutional protections when they publish there.”
The amici are (in alphabetical order): Jack M. Balkin, The Center for Individual Freedom , Julian Dibbell, Feedster, Inc., The First Amendment Project, A. Michael Froomkin, Gawker Media, Inc., Gothamist, LLC,, Groklaw, Happy Mutants, LLC, Ben Hammersley, Joichi Ito, Joel Johnson, Kimberly A. Kralowec, LawMeme, Rebecca MacKinnon, Joshua Micah Marshall, The Media Bloggers Association, Markos Moulitsas, Reporters Without Borders, Glenn Harlan Reynolds , Peter Rojas, Jay Rosen, Scott Rosenberg, Doc Searls, Silicon Valley Watcher, Kevin Sites, Eugene Volokh
